Remembering Keeper

We got Keeper five years ago as a companion for our neurotic mixed breed dog, Chase.  Chase went to doggie daycare once in a while and got along particularly well with a beagle there, so we were looking for a beagle.  I had a puppy in mind, so I asked at the vet if there were any beagle breeders they could recommend.  The lady at the desk laughed and said  that I didn't need to go to a breeder, 'just go out to Goochland (a rural county nearby) and find one.'   I didn't realize at the time how many hunters abandon old, sick or ineffective hunting dogs.  The lady at the vet told me that someone had just brought in a stray beagle the day before and was trying to find a home for it. 

We called about the stray and then took Chase out to see the stray.  Chase is a pretty opinionated dog.  If Chase didn't like the stray, we decided, we couldn't take the dog home. 

The stray looked like a caricature of a beagle.  He had long legs, big feet, and his head was enormous.  Or maybe it just looked that way because the dog was emaciated.  He weighed less than 25 lb.  You could see every bone in his spine and pelvis.  His hair was falling out. The edges of his ears were shredded. He had been on his own for a while in the summer heat.  The lady who had him said he came home one day with her three dogs. He was covered in ticks and fleas.  She had taken him to the vet, just to make sure he didn't have any diseases he could give her dogs.  She fed had fed, bathed, treated him for ticks and fleas but didn't get him medical treatment because she didn't plan to keep him.  She didn't want another dog, especially since this one was greedy about food.  One of her dogs had bitten the stray when he tried to eat from her dog's bowl.  She showed me the mark's on the stray's nose.

I felt sorry for this dog, and Chase seemed to like him.  At least he didn't growl at him, so we took him home on a trial basis.  I took him to the vet the next day. I decided that if he had heartworms, we wouldn't keep him.  No heart worms.  But he did have lyme disease, ehrlichiosis (another tick-borne disease), double ear infections, and he was extremely malnourished.  We got him up to date on all his shots and had him microchipped.  The vet bill for our 'free' dog was almost $500!  We named him Keeper.

Keeper probably spent his early life in a kennel.  He had some strange quirks:  he didn't like to walk on grass but preferred the blacktop of our driveway.  He usually 'dug' an imaginary  hole in the rug before laying down, spinning and spinning, almost lying down, then spinning and spinning some more.  It could take him 3-4 minutes, just to lie down.  He used to snuggle up to Chase, resting his head on Chase's back.  Keeper loved food.  No matter how much food he was given, he wanted more.  It was a struggle to keep him away from Chase's food.  He learned not to go after Chase's food if we were watching, but if someone turned away, Keeper would eat Chase's food.  The weird thing about that was that Chase would let him without complaint.  After Chase ate, Keeper would lick Chase's bowl. 

We have some treat balls that the dogs like.  Chase has one technique:  roll the ball around until the treats fall out.  Keeper was much more creative.  He used to roll, bounce, and shake that treat ball until he got all of his treats.  Then he would find Chase's ball and get the rest of the treats out of that one.  Keeper could never get enough to eat.  He would occasionally chew on things that were not food:  he chewed up the charger to my husband's work computer.  One night he ate the  bed that was in his crate:  the cover, foam and half of the zipper!  He once swallowed a sock, that reappeared about 5 days later, intact.  Because of his tendency to chew on and swallow non-food items, we kept him crated when we couldn't watch him.

Keeper tolerated any kind of medical procedures without a whimper.  The vet taught me how to use peroxide to  make him vomit in case he ate any other foreign objects. When I had to wash out his ears, he was a champ.  At the vet, he got shots, blood draws and x-rays without a whimper.  Keeper was submissive to all people, but for the first couple of years, he didn't like to be scratched or petted.  Slowly he learned to trust us, and in the last couple of years of his life, he would come to me to get his ears scratched.  He learned to like being brushed.    I never saw him display any kind  of aggression except to the neighbor's German shepherd.  He loved the guy who came yearly to do our termite inspection and wanted to get in his truck.  He liked rides in the car.  He seemed to enjoy our obedience classes and was praised for paying close attention to me.  I knew he was really paying attention to the treats in my bag.

Keeper learned basic obedience, but he never showed the joy in pleasing me that Chase does.  Keeper never learned to retrieve a ball or roll over.  My son did teach him how to give high fives, which he gladly did for treats.  Keeper used to bay like a hound when he got excited.  He would stick his nose in the air and howl when he anticipated getting a treat or going outside.  Keeper didn't act excited to go on walks, but he was always a good sport about going.  He walked two miles with me Sunday, the day before he died. 

I like to think that Keeper enjoyed his last  five years with us.  We are all going to miss him.  I am glad I was able to give him the peaceful death he deserved.