So I hate to alarm and disturb you by the title, but I must put two dogs together...and yes, it is because they were only with us a short time. In fact, it's sad, but I have very few memories of #3. Pitiful.
Dog #3 came to us via Jay doing tons of research and finding the right bloodline, pedigree, etc. He and Madolyn drove to Henderson, KY to pick up a yellow Labrador puppy we named Duke but called Dookie. He was adorable, beautiful, and honestly I have very few memories of him. I am ashamed.
Dog #4 was a sweet little miniature Beagle named Archie. He was a doll. I was not at all in favor of getting this sweet little guy because I was a lab person...that is all I had ever had and that's all I wanted. Jay won this one and brought home two little Beagles...thankfully, one was for a coworker. I will never forget Archie and his brother's first night at our abode because Jay was working nights and he told me to just kennel them up together and they would be okay.
Have you ever heard a Beagle? Do you realize the sounds they can make? Now, multiply that by two...that equals two very lonely, scared and VOCAL Beagles. After I could not take it anymore, I moved them to the basement...which is really rotten because our basement stairs are open and I set them right underneath my son's bedroom. Finally, after a few hours of NO SLEEP because of these adorable little pups, I called Jay's workplace and asked to speak to him. This alarmed the fella that answered the phone because whose wife calls them at 3:00 in the morning...unless it's an emergency, of course. So when Jay got on the phone, I simply said, "hey, just wanted to let you know that I'm up, the pups are up, we're ALL up." I think everyone at his workplace got a chuckle out of that one.
Okay, so Dookie and Archie were best buds. I'm thinking we got Archie when Dookie was about a year old, maybe. At one point they disappeared, literally, and we weren't sure what happened, but eventually figured that maybe a neighbor had called the dog catcher...so I made the call to the dog pound, left a detailed message describing our mismatched duo and never got a call back. So I made another call to the dog pound, once again describing them...and no response. I think finally after about three weeks, the dog catcher called and said there had been a terrible mistake, the transposition of our phone number or something, and they actually did have a large yellow lab and a very small beagle that came in together. Well, there you go. (btw, our name and phone number was on Dookie's collar) Thankfully, their "time" was not up at the pound and we retrieved them without even a fine!!
Fourth of July, 2006. Lane was two years old. We went for a bike ride early that morning before it was time to head to the parade. It was warm, but not hot and it was misting slightly. Lane & I head out on the bike, Duke follows. I am a casual biker, I don't do any of that hot roding or fast stuff. I am just a mom out on a bike with a carrier holding my two-year-old little man behind me. I am pedaling along and Duke acts like he's dying, literally, huffing and puffing and loping along. Jay & Mad come past on the 4wheeler. I make the offhand comment "Take him home, he acts like he's dying." They speed off, we pedal on down the road. I'm just about home when Jay & Mad come up on us again and we're all there together, including Duke, who makes a dash for this very small ditch with a bunch of overgrown brush and a minute amount of standing water. Jay says, "Let's just go to the parade and when we come back, if he's not home, I'll come get him with the truck."
We left Duke, went home and headed to the parade, returned and there was no Duke. Jay goes back and wouldn't you know it, he is dead...Can you believe that? We lost Macey on a bike ride in July and now we are losing Duke on a bike ride in July two years later. It wasn't even scorching hot out...it had been misting for cryin' out loud. We had just had him to the vet...of course. Something else to mention, we are the type of people that take our animals to the vet. We get caught up in all the stuff they "need" and get them fixed and do the right things for them. And yet, we've lost another one.
Not long after we buried poor Duke, #3, Jay ran over Archie #4 as he was pulling out of my parent's driveway in his truck. He knew there was nothing that he could do for Archie, so he ran and got the kids and told them to say goodbye to the little fella...the first words out of my daughter's mouth were "So when can we get a new dog?"
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