“My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog already thinks I am”
-Author Unknown
They say if you are lucky enough to live with dogs that you can’t help but have a favourite & that you will undoubtedly have at least 1 pup who becomes the ultimate ‘million dollar dog’.
Well, that would be my dog Peppy, 12 years old (with a 28 year old liver), having defied all odds of survival in dogdom, he’s actually a scabillion dollar dog. But oh so heart-meltingly adorable.
I’ve also come to truly believe that with each & every health issue a dog might endure, they make up for it in ‘wow-factor personality’. And again, such is the case with our Peppy boy…in spades!
Eyebrows are often raised when I say we have 6 dogs. No shiatsus or teacup poodles or even the larger hairier shelties…try a bigger version – full-sized Lassies perhaps. And here’s the rub: I never had a dog until I was 50 years old.
A brief history – Army Dad, moving every 3 years, his reason (or excuse, depending on your perspective) for no dog, ever. But that would change when I met Laurie. He had a two-word answer for every casual gift inquiry no matter what the occasion – a DOG. And he waited patiently throughout the years until I ran out of excuses and we got Eva, a blue merle collie.
West to the farm, lonely pup, vet advised canine company. Got Dusty, a pregnant sable collie, who promptly had a litter of 8. I was immediately smitten by this very odd-looking pup with the huge white flash on his nose (reminiscent of Peppy le Pew). A playmate?
Laurie chose Pearl (named for the perfect white pearl drop on her forehead).
And then the grey-hair-sprouting adventures began. Epilepsy at 3 months, eye surgery for lashes turning inward, auto-immune disorders that would constantly flare up, and then total paralysis.
The suggestion ‘it was time’, with my response, “no bleeping way”. He still loved to eat and loved his pats.
A month rehab and that guy no longer needed us be his human crutches, and could climb those stairs on his own, and deftly raise that one back leg in true male dog fashion all by himself!
Been through a lot with Peppy but nothing could prepare me for that fateful snow-blizzard night before Christmas a few years back.
For Pep’s scheduled check-up I took him in the colliemobile – our VW van, equipped with a gate separating the front seats from his floor area in the back. I was combining it with a brief visit with an old friend stuck in the hospital.
And always the penny-pincher, still having several christmas cards to mail, I decided to hand-deliver the remaining 10, decorating each envelop with a festive candy cane. And you know those delicious brandy-filled half moon dark chocolates? Well, I had a package of 40 and thought I’d offer seasoned greetings along with the card delivery. All were in the front passenger’s seat for easy access.
You see it coming, don’t you?
I swear I was only in the hospital for 20 minutes.
Thought I was losing my mind at first – no candy canes on the cards. Then I realized that the box of brandy chocolates was gone too.
Slowly I looked around and saw the gate down, Peppy sprawled out, with that box torn open and only 4 deadly chocolate morsels left.
I freaked, I mean REALLY freaked. I could hardly dial home & all that came out of my mouth when Laurie answered was a wail. Calmly he gave me the emergency vet number, with a repeat performance when I phoned them.
Bring him in, he’ll join the other 3 chocolate thieves.
Two blocks into my race, peering through the rear-view mirror, I saw that my precious pup was not moving, not breathing? I swerved into a gas station, jumped out & ran around to the sliding side door.
As I threw it open in sheer panic all these little chocolate treats came tumbling out littering the fresh blanket of snow. I fell to my knees, weeping uncontrollably and began putting them all back in the box.
The gas attendant must have thought I was quite the nutbar.
Turns out Peppy had only managed to eat 5 before the rest fell into the groove of the sliding door, where not even his contortionistic tongue could reach. His condition? He was just drunk on the brandy! The emergency vet said to take him home and watch him overnight. And have a Merry Christmas. You bet!
Ahhh Puppy Love…or is that Peppy Love.
Jackie Moad
Thistledown Farm
Cedar BC
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