Joseph and the dogs

Joseph loved the dogs. We got Elko in 1993 when Joseph was 8 and we would run to school every day up the hill from Lynwood Road to Seely Place. It was a big hill for an 8 year old, and 6 year old Daniel, and me with Kyle in the stroller. Most days we also walked with the Paskilides family, we were quite the troupe going up that hill! And that crazy Elko! A springer spaniel puppy who really needed alot more exercise than we ever gave her. But what a good dog she was. She let the kids run after her, and chase her and pull her - when things got really bad she would go hide in her cage in the laundry room. Then, as they got older they would fight over who got to sleep with Elko.

In 2002 we got Shadow from the St. Francis of Assisi society in the Bronx. A true Heinz 57 of a mutt; not very bright but very loving. We got Shadow Joseph's junior year in high school, the year that he decided that he would get to the 5 am practices and the 4 pm practices. At 4:30 am Joe would wake me up (I told him that if he wanted to go it was his responsibility to get me up)and in the dead of winter we would trundle on downstairs with Shadow and go for the 20 minute drive to the YWCA (and 20 minutes back again for me -what a good mom I was). That stupid Shadow to this day does not understand that he cannot sit in my lap while I am driving - and he is not a small dog (black lab, pit bull, great dane, greyhound and god knows what else mix). Joseph was always happy to walk the dogs around the block ("Mom, the ten minute walk around the block is the least I can do for these poor dogs").

This July, when we got home from Africa Kyle and I drove up to the Danbury Animal Society and picked Cyan out (actually Kyle had done a lot of research on the web, looking for a relatively small - 30 lbs- female young rescue dog). It was the first time I had ever heard of a cattle dog, and she does have some beagle in her. The dog (then cheyenne) climbed into Kyle's lap and it was love at first sight. I figured Kyle would be home until September, Daniel would be home from September until November, and it would be only a month before Joseph would be home to help me with the dog - and Thanksgiving was in that month. Joseph was running in Africa and having a needy dog to love and run with would help him re enter the culture.

Well, two days after Joseph died I realized the dog still needed exercise. She was going wild with all the company we were getting, and nothing was like it had been for the previous two months. So I got up and ran with her. I am not a very good runner, and she still was getting used to her new life but she did love the run, and had obviously run on the end of a leash before. I am still running, and my sister-in-laws are thinking of running the Chicago marathon on 10-10-10 (it would have been Joe's 25th birthday), to raise money for the scholarship fund. I ran for an hour and 10 minutes yesterday, and Cyan loved it (btw "Cyan" is ancient greek for blue and she is a blue coated hound.)

The cattle dog has some peculiar personality traits, and she had been abandoned by a family and traveled across the country from West Virginia which could explain alot of Cyan's naughty behaviour. When she first came she snarled alot, and she is very protective of food - both not good things. But with alot of affection and bossing around she has stopped snarling and now we try to overfeed her so her food obsession has decreased in the last month. Cyan is basically a very loving, active mutt who needs a lot of exercise (and food). She never strays from my side (except to fetch a soccer ball), is very loyal and is well house trained (she hates having accidents - except for the first time she was left outside of her cage with no human in the house, she dumped in the middle of the living room and deposited three tangerines around it - I think there is a message there but I don't know what it is). She pesters Shadow to no end (pay back for what Shadow did to Elko) and loves to run with Aileen and her pack of dogs. All in all she is a pretty terrific family dog (if you don't have any kids). You do have to keep reminding her that you are in fact, the boss, and the banana in your hand belong to you. Thank god for dogs,they have kept me very busy the last few months. And they are so happy to see us when we walk in the door.

Oh yes, I recently looked at Cyan's rabies tags for the first time, and they have Mineral Wells Veterinarian practice as the vet. I googled Mineral Wells yesterday, it is a small town in West Virginia, and there are two vets in the practice. The founder of the practice is from West Virginia - and she was a Peace Corp Volunteer. Small world.