[oldE]

I was moved to post this after reading the "Why I Hate People" thread. My wife is the real animal lover in this lash-up. About 15 years ago, she found out a number of Husky pups had been seized by the SPCA in another part of the province. She had been on their website and found one of the pups was blind. Her words,"Who else is going to adopt that poor dog?"

So we drove to Halifax, but the dog wasn't there, the Manager said she would go to the other holding facility to bring the dog to us, but we realized it would be faster to meet her there. Another hour up the road and we were able to meet the Manager in a parking lot and sign the paperwork.

Colby was a 30 lb 'bag of bones'. He had spent his life in a crate and I suppose he wasn't considered "marketable" so wasn't worth feeding.
He was held in my wife's lap all the way home and, once we arrived he was introduced to Casey. Casey was (we think) a Huskey/Golden Lab cross and was the laid back "alpha male" of our critter collection. Casey gave the new guy some sort of signal and led him around the house, which gave Colby the layout. Then he took the pup outside and repeated the process to give him the lay of the land and the boundaries.

It didn't take long for Colby to fit in, but it took us longer to appreciate him. We didn't learn he liked to play ball until we realized he was hearing the tennis ball hitting the ground. After that he was included in ball games.

Colby and one of the older females, Breezy illustrated some of the finer points of dog ettiquette for us one day. If you notice, when a dog is running toward one of its fellows, it is considered proper to stand and let them pick their way around you. Colby had learned he could run along the gravel driveway between the barn and the garage and was doing so one day when Breezy saw him approaching and stopped. Colby of course couldn't see her nor could he hear her because she had stopped, so hit her broad-side and sent her rolling. Breezy gave him a piece of her mind, but there was never any physical threats toward him.

Two years ago, Colby's kidneys started to fail. We were medicating him and for the last three months of his life were administering sub-cutaneous saline. When the time came, our Vet, a woman we have known for thirty years came to the house and helped our friend slip into his final, well deserved rest. We buried him under a young oak tree in the front yard where his spirit can look out over the marsh and river.

I guess I wrote this because I know there are people on this board who have stories just like it and who love their animals.
Best
Les