Wednesday Memory

It all began with me saying to my DH after visiting my sick Uncle Joe,
“Let go over to the Rhode Island SPCA shelter around the corner at 186 Amaral Street and see what medium-size dogs they have.
"Perhaps they have a Brittany spaniel or a beagle!"
These were my 2 favorites breeds, I even had pictures on my frig from a dog calendar, with one of each. When we went in, the receptionist asked what we were looking for.
"I don't think you have what we want!.
“We are looking for a Brittany Spaniel or a beagle."
“We normally don't get those special breeds, however just an hour ago
a 13-month-old beagle was brought into us”.
"Wow," I couldn’t believe what she had said.
”You can see him, but the vet needs to give him his shots an run a complete
evaluation of tests., so you will need to return”
We went down the hall and saw many dogs that needed to be adopted and in the last stall on the end sat this aggressive little beagle. My DH and I looked at each other in agreement and said we would return tomorrow and would like to adopt him.
He came with the name Buddy and was born March 27, 2003 (the birthday of my deceased Dad) This had to be meant to be, what a coincidence.

The following day we returned and put the collar on our new pet. He was very hyper and we put him in our car to take him home. We had signed the papers and given our donation.
We were told that he had been badly abused and was in need of a lot of love to build a trust.
We felt we could do this after all; we had 2 shepherds for many years while our sons were growing up.

During the first 24 hours we felt we had made a big mistake and decided to return him to the shelter. We felt his behavior was beyond our ability to train and control and he nipped my husband that he needed a tetanus shot.
When we return him, the vet said he would have to quarantine him for 2 weeks.
During the two-week period neither my husband nor I mentioned Buddy.
On the 10th day we were in a store and we sort of went our separate ways, I ended up
in the pet dept and found a shampoo with a beagle on it. I went to John and said'
"Does this remind you of someone?"
"Are you thinking of Buddy?
"Yes, Maybe we made a too hasty decision to return him
My husband said in his excited expression.,
“I have been back to the shelter to see Buddy 3 times and they said
we can still have him again.”
"Let’s do it”
We went back to the shelter it was now, April 15, 2004
We gave our second donation and told the vet we were going to get him trained and
give him our love and build trust and loyalty. The vet said," take this cage it might help you in his training."
“Dr. if we did not come back for Buddy. what would have happened?”
"Due to his personality not being suitable for a family with young children, we would have had to put him to sleep."
"OMG"
We knew this was going to work, it had to, in order to save his life.
The first six months was the most difficult, we did get him training at Petsmart.
This did help to teach him the basic command, Sit - Lay – Come - Down
We allowed him to keep what he had grabbed, mostly socks and never tried to take it from him.
We were always very cautious getting close to him, since he would growl, show his
teeth and want to snap at us. I have to admit these were very trying times, but my husband, son and I endured with a few minor nips
As the weeks went by and now years this aggressive beagle with all his emotional baggage did a complete 360-degree turnabout. He has become so genteel, patient, loveable, and obedient friend to all of us. You would never have realized that he had had such an a bad behavior. Now when he has found a sock or grabs something he should not have, all we have to say is “Come, leave it “ and Buddy obeys.
He is so smart.
When his 2 ceramic bowls of water are empty, he crouches down and whimpers
for more water, if he feels if we do not hear him he clangs the bowls together.
He gives us no trouble putting on his rain gear to go out, but he does his job and comes right back in, He does not like the rain. He does love the car. We say we are going out or he sees us put on our coats he runs to the door. He loves to play fetch and put his head on our laps or rest his head on our table. Usually a sign of boredom and asking to go out or play.

Buddy now allows us to touch him and he becomes so affection, and gives us kisses. He performs his dancing jig when he hears one of us coming in and rushes to greet.
His favorite place is the armrest of our couch, If he is sleeping he opens his eyes and his tail wags and wags when one of us enters.
He sleeps mostly in the hallway between our bedrooms or in my son’s room. He used to love to sleep in our bed and snuggle up to my husband, or me, but due to my asthma being trigger by his hairs, we moved him out.
I love him so much that my doctor says, if he doesn’t leave, you will need to control your Asthma with medication. I take Singulair and Serevent.
Buddy travels with us and we enjoy him so much that he has become our world
We are so happy that he is a part of our family