Watching Mitchell Die
by Joel Hendon(54)I have been an animal lover since birth, I reckon. We had cows, pigs, mules, goats, chickens, ducks, dogs and cats throughout all of my youth. And it seems to me, I cannot remember one that I did not love. I can recall how sad it was when we had to slaughter hogs and yearlings for food each winter. I had been taught early that it was a necessity so I held no ill will towards my dad when he would kill them. He was a good man and I know he deplored having to do that. But the delight of my entire life has been dogs. I'm not sure that I can remember all I've had or even what became of some of them. But for the ones we had a long time, I remember...vividly.
We moved from the country place we had into town, because my wife was afraid I might not make it and she would be left alone out there. We considered not getting another dog, but you know, I missed not having one bad. Near here there is a weekly humongous flea market sale, covering probably 20 acres or more on the side of a mountain. We used to go there and rummage around to see what we might find. There was a man there with a litter of puppies, Rat Terriers. I've never been able to pass dogs or puppies without petting them at least a little. Man, they were beautiful! The man was intelligent enough to see that he had a sucker and he handed me one of the puppies. A little female and what a sweetie, she was licking my face, my ear and chin. I almost died, wanting to keep her, but the man was asking $150. And I did not have $150. He said he raised them and told me where he lived. So, I determined to follow up on that.
In the middle of 1995, I called him and asked if he had any puppies. He said he had some 5 weeks old and liked to keep them to age 8 weeks. When I tried to haggle price with him he said that he had one in the litter which did not look like the others and that he would let me have him for $75.00.
Three weeks later we drove to his place and were quite surprised to see that he was into the business on a large basis. He raised Rat Terriers as well as Jack Russell Terriers, very similar dogs except the Rat Terriers normally have ears that stand upright whereas the Jack Russell's do not. He showed me the male that he had offered me for $75.00, and although his coloring was not exactly like his six siblings, he was a perfect specimen of his breed. I had hoped to get a female, but at half price, I had to take him. I received papers to file for his registration.
I decided to name him Mitchell Hendon and so filed the papers which were accepted and registration was completed. Mitch was a fast learner and very easily trained. We fixed a pan with a plastic backed absorbent pad in it for his training. We brought him home on Friday and Sunday night, he made his first unassisted trips to his pan. We could not believe it. But as he grew we let him outside some and he soon let it be known that he much preferred to be outside. The only problem was, the city has an ordinance against any dogs not in a pen or on a leash. So, at his insistence, I had a chain link fence built around our back and one side yard for his pleasure.
Mitch proved to be a joy to behold. He was extremely lively and wanted to run about all the time. When I tried to pet him, he could hardly spare the time, but would rear up on his hind legs and slap my hands mercilessly. I could never break him from doing that so I started wearing gloves to keep him from tearing the skin in his excitement. He dearly loved running down a stick when you threw it. So I bought him a hard rubber bone just for that purpose. We have spent many enjoyable hours together. He, for a a number of years, if you approached his fence, would run wildly about the yard looking for that bone and here he would come to you with it, with glee shining on his face.
But for the last two or three years, he has been much slower and calmer. He has gotten to the point that he limps at times and on occasion I have only reached down and rubbed him, when he would yelp with pain. He now no longer jumps up and slaps my hands but rather, looks up with saddened eyes. Once in a while he will see me walking into the driveway and come barking wildly as he does at a stranger and has to get quite near before he can recognize me. He can no longer hear a normally spoken word, but is not totally deaf. If he is walking away from you, you have to yell to get his attention again. His appetite remains good and he still knows me and he knows I love him. I hate to see him with his aching joints, but then, I also have them and I just can't bring myself to have him put to sleep. Maybe he can hang in there until I go.
But I do know, if he goes before I do, I won't get another dog. I would hate to think of Mitch or any one of my animals which I have had, having to get accustomed to my being gone.
Do you have aspirations to write? Check the opportunities to be published with Searchwarp, free! Click the link below
Register now as a SearchWarp.com Author
Webgazine Columnist.
Article submitted Tuesday, April 21, 2009 & read 170 times.
Leave Your Comments:
0-0-1-0-0-ADSM