Goodbye Puppy Boy
To better explain the last entry...
The neighborhood we have moved to is much worse than where we lived before, even though the distance between is only a few blocks. The "fenced in yard" was not really fenced in. The privacy fence had long since fallen down and people who used the yard to access the alley behind the house had been removed by suspicious type people prior to that. Which meant, for over a year, these people have been traipsing through our yard to carry on their activities. It appeared they had been using the garage apartment also. We've learned that the police have caught people they were looking to arrest in the alley and a rott owned by a former tenant had treed a peeping tom in this yard, one of two in the neighborhood. And had also caught someone in the alley that , there again, the police were in pursuit of. My mistake was choosing a place in this pathway, to put the run for Gator Jr.. I didn't realize at the time that this was the case. And since there wasn't a better place for him, we were going to leave him there until we got the fence up. Which would have been a matter of maybe a week at this point, possibly two. Saturday morning when John was walking Gator Sr., he found Gator Jr., dead near his favorite hole. He had to get the other dogs in the house and break the news to me. Of course I went out in my nightgown and made a scene if anyone was watching. I could tell it wasn't something natural or even accidental that had killed him, I had seen this same thing before when I was much younger. I was already crying and made threats to anyone who was listening in my usual fashion. I was sent back inside to... basically be out of John's way while he took care of our Big Boy. He literally dug his own grave, John used the hole he had dug, and started hanging out in and springing out of to surprise us from. It was much easier and seemed fitting. The conclusion we have some to, is that someone came from behind the yard out of the alley and slipped something that killed him (I won't go into more graphics like in the last post). We had blocked the way they were going through the front and the other side is fenced. We had most of the privacy fence back up so chances are they came up that pathway Gator was guarding, unbeknownst to me. I have heard noises at night lately and have suspected someone of being out there. I even heard someone whistle one night, as if to get someone's attention. I feel guilty now that I didn't wake my dad up to look, maybe we would have caught this person a few nights before. I'm scared now about the other dog, about being home alone at night, of so many unknown things in the night. This has really taken a lot of my security away. Though I know that it probably really shouldn't. But, I can't get the image of Saturday morning out of my head. I called him a puppy, he was a 4 year old, 120 lb or more puppy. And all I could think of when I saw him, was when he was a baby puppy, a little tiny bundle of fur.
We had nursed these puppies back to health when they were first born and we ended up keeping the firstborn, biggest, dumbest one (Gator) and the lastborn, runt, underdog (Brindle). Neither were really dumb, Gator was just goofy. He was like his daddy when he was a pup. All paws, rump, and tongue. He and Brindle were littermates, bestfriends, "brudders to the end." They were inseparable, even though they now got snippy a lot of the time, trying to establish dominance. When we turned the lights out in the garage at night, they laid down somewhere together and snuggled up to sleep until it was light and someone might see them. Tonight, Brindle spends his second night ever alone. I almost hope if we ever DO find the person who did this, Brindle is the one that catches them.
I guess this was as much an entry for me as it was for anyone. He may have been just a dog to someone else, but he was much more to me.
Gator Jr.
December 26 2001- January 13, 2006
Guard Dog, Killed In The Line Of Duty
The neighborhood we have moved to is much worse than where we lived before, even though the distance between is only a few blocks. The "fenced in yard" was not really fenced in. The privacy fence had long since fallen down and people who used the yard to access the alley behind the house had been removed by suspicious type people prior to that. Which meant, for over a year, these people have been traipsing through our yard to carry on their activities. It appeared they had been using the garage apartment also. We've learned that the police have caught people they were looking to arrest in the alley and a rott owned by a former tenant had treed a peeping tom in this yard, one of two in the neighborhood. And had also caught someone in the alley that , there again, the police were in pursuit of. My mistake was choosing a place in this pathway, to put the run for Gator Jr.. I didn't realize at the time that this was the case. And since there wasn't a better place for him, we were going to leave him there until we got the fence up. Which would have been a matter of maybe a week at this point, possibly two. Saturday morning when John was walking Gator Sr., he found Gator Jr., dead near his favorite hole. He had to get the other dogs in the house and break the news to me. Of course I went out in my nightgown and made a scene if anyone was watching. I could tell it wasn't something natural or even accidental that had killed him, I had seen this same thing before when I was much younger. I was already crying and made threats to anyone who was listening in my usual fashion. I was sent back inside to... basically be out of John's way while he took care of our Big Boy. He literally dug his own grave, John used the hole he had dug, and started hanging out in and springing out of to surprise us from. It was much easier and seemed fitting. The conclusion we have some to, is that someone came from behind the yard out of the alley and slipped something that killed him (I won't go into more graphics like in the last post). We had blocked the way they were going through the front and the other side is fenced. We had most of the privacy fence back up so chances are they came up that pathway Gator was guarding, unbeknownst to me. I have heard noises at night lately and have suspected someone of being out there. I even heard someone whistle one night, as if to get someone's attention. I feel guilty now that I didn't wake my dad up to look, maybe we would have caught this person a few nights before. I'm scared now about the other dog, about being home alone at night, of so many unknown things in the night. This has really taken a lot of my security away. Though I know that it probably really shouldn't. But, I can't get the image of Saturday morning out of my head. I called him a puppy, he was a 4 year old, 120 lb or more puppy. And all I could think of when I saw him, was when he was a baby puppy, a little tiny bundle of fur.
We had nursed these puppies back to health when they were first born and we ended up keeping the firstborn, biggest, dumbest one (Gator) and the lastborn, runt, underdog (Brindle). Neither were really dumb, Gator was just goofy. He was like his daddy when he was a pup. All paws, rump, and tongue. He and Brindle were littermates, bestfriends, "brudders to the end." They were inseparable, even though they now got snippy a lot of the time, trying to establish dominance. When we turned the lights out in the garage at night, they laid down somewhere together and snuggled up to sleep until it was light and someone might see them. Tonight, Brindle spends his second night ever alone. I almost hope if we ever DO find the person who did this, Brindle is the one that catches them.
I guess this was as much an entry for me as it was for anyone. He may have been just a dog to someone else, but he was much more to me.
Gator Jr.
December 26 2001- January 13, 2006
Guard Dog, Killed In The Line Of Duty