One of the many things I have learned from having dogs as my dedicated companions over the majority of my life is how your perspective changes from your 20’s, to your 30’s, 40’s and now my 50’s. A young dog helps keep you young, even though you are getting old. On the other hand, you also become fully aware of your own mortality. My brother’s dog taught me lessons that no other dog, despite the deep love all of my dogs (friends) unconditionally showed me. No one could place an actual value on the benefits one receives from the spirit and love of people’s best friend. And Scrappy, a Dachshund mix, who arrived at our house on February 22, 2013, taught me lessons that would allow myself to reflect on my entire life and to face the realities that went by and the one’s yet to come. Let’s face it, a paramount impact for a ‘mere’ dog!
Scrappy was a rescue dog that my brother obtained after my father had passed away less than three months prior. My father had lived with me for 3 years following my mother’s death in May of 2009. Due to my father’s declining health, I summoned my recently divorced brother, Mike, to help me take care of him. Ironically, he was scheduled to move in with me on December 2, 2012, the same day my father was admitted to the hospital. A day before, my father told me the day he departed this house would be his “Swan Song.” We both knew of this to be a fact. He had told me dozens of times in the prior weeks, “If I enter a hospital I will leave in a horizontal state.” After about two weeks of every conceivable treatment the doctors could have performed, I was left with the hardest decision I have ever made; to take my father off life support or not? I chose to let him go to a better place. All he wanted to do before he passed away was to come back to our home and celebrate one last Christmas dinner with Mike, Sassy, Oscar and myself.
We drove to the hospital on December 18th and immediately knew this was not meant to be. We drove back home with the intentions of bringing back his dog, Oscar, for one last smile. We received a call prior to our departure back to the hospital with news he had passed away. The sad reality was my brother was never to receive the golden opportunity that I was blessed to have for those memorable three years I had with him. I still, to this day, second guess myself on that permanently life-changing decision. Would the few extra days, weeks or months possibly provide Mike with the time he needed for closure? We will never know.
With hope, good things happen. Mike had moved in with me that awful December 2, 2012 day with Oscar and my buddy Sassy; a lab Brittany mix with stunning green eyes and a dedication to me that was simply mesmerizing. However, justifiably so, he carried a heavy, empty heart.
The following is my personal accounting of a man, my brother, Mike, who took the commonly used phrase he/she is a “dog lover” to a whole new level that I have never seen or heard before in my entire existence. It’s titled...
A Dog’s Best Friend
With Mike’s birthday approaching on February 23, 2013, I noticed something different than the usually moping Mike. As it turned out, Mike had been scanning Craigslist looking at dogs a few days beforehand. While working at a group home, he came across a picture of this dog sitting on a woman’s lap. The dog had a sad look in her eyes. This lady had recently taken this heavily abused dog for seven years into her home but couldn’t keep her due to commitments for her other two dogs; the reasoning behind the advertisement. He texted this fine lady back and forth a number of times and within a few days, he drove up to Hibbing, Minnesota, to pick her up. He recalls nervously arriving to an equally nervous new found companion. There was no hesitation; “she’s coming home!” He placed her in the van and they headed home. Most of the 90 mile trip, she stayed in the back of the van. A few miles from their arrival home she started making her way to the front of the van, eventually hopping up on the passenger seat. By the way, I was made aware of this dog coming home with Mike about 30 minutes earlier when he
called me. Furthermore, he told me about her past and that he was going to find her a good home. Really! Give me a break. Who in the Heck was he trying to fool. However, I went along with the “story” for the sake of argument. What a set up! Knowing his birthday was the next day. The attempted wordsmithing from him made no difference to me. Just look at the picture above! Despite now having two companions that loved me dearly, just looking into this little girl’s eyes made me melt. She was now a permanent member in her new forever home.
We had to make several adjustments for Scrappy. Being so badly abused for so many years she was jittery so we started talking in a lower tone and disciplining her even on a verbal level was a guessing game.
Both dogs now had a sense of wonder with the new girl in town. Oscar, now my buddy, along with my Sassy, at first, felt a little left out due to the extra attention that Mike and I were giving Scrappy. But make no mistake, they made sure to welcome Scrappy with a sense of “watch your step” attitude. As spring approached, Scrappy slowly started to feel connected to all of us. Eight pound Oscar, however, kept his distance. 45 pound Sassy quickly developed an unusual affection to her. Sassy liked to play rough with me but she knew better with Scrappy. Every time upon any close contact with her she would kiss her all over her face. Pretty cool. Sassy had become Scrappy’s mentor. Then there’s Mike. Scrappy counted on him. For protection, love, exercise and of course, food. Little did that cute little thing know, Mike counted on her for much more. Mike was impatient. You know what I am talking about. Sweaty palms, throbbing temples, white knuckles, accompanied by knee-jerk reactions. Scrappy, on the other hand, was patient. She would chase a squirrel up a tree and stare up for hours in wait of the endless possibilities if she could get a hold of it.
Towards the end of 2013 and into 2014 Mike had changed. Slowly developing more patience and appreciating and accepting the hand that was dealt to him. I cannot go into specifics how Scrappy had already impacted his life. To this day he credits Scrappy to actually playing the lead role to finding inevitable contentment.
Yes, life was good for all five of us. Until, on April 18, 2015 my special little girl, Sassy passed away from cancer. She lasted two weeks after her diagnosis. We rolled out the red carpet and fed her better than we eat. During that two week period it was apparent that Oscar and Scrappy knew of Sassy’s illness. After her passing, things changed for all of us. I still think about her every single day. The impact she had and still has on my life is inexplicable. No matter what happens in our lives, there is one constant, time doesn’t stop. One must move on and not dwell on the past but to take the positives and go forward. And that’s what we did.
As the months passed, Mike and Scrappy developed more of a bond. Scrappy needed Mike more than ever because of Sassy’s death. Oscar attempted to take the lead role but Scrappy wouldn’t follow. It just wasn’t going to happen. They never fought, they just didn’t like each others’ company.
As more time passed, I continued to watch Scrappy slow down. In the Fall of 2017, Scrappy fell down the stairs leading to our home. She didn’t get hurt. However, Mike brought her into our local veterinarian for a early physical. All tests came back in her favor. The fall was attributed to age. The fact that the “fall” was of no significance didn’t matter to Mike. He didn’t want to take any chances, so Scrappy was to be carried up and down the stairs from this point forward. The special treatment didn’t stop there. First, on a monthly basis, then a weekly basis to a daily basis he made dozens of adjustments. One of the earliest issues that she had was after we installed a wood floor in our living room. She slipped on the floor. Mike started out by placing rugs down where she would frequent. Then he placed more rugs down and then adding more rugs down until you couldn’t tell if there was a new floor or not. She was a finicky eater from the start. He would change her food on a weekly basis; only giving here the food she liked the best (for that week). A couple of months down the line it would start all over again and she would be eating the canned food she started with. After all, what human being would want to eat the same meal every single day?
By the end of 2018, more and more adjustments were made. Before he left our home, he spent about a half hour making sure all possible points of contention were taken care of. Like making sure the rugs were in place, no glass, power cords, or any other obstacles were in her path to her food and water dishes. We also, at this point, separated Oscar and Scrappy while we were both away. He even installed a camera so he could monitor her when he wasn’t present.
As winter set in, other issues with Scrappy emerged. One in particular was she now needed much more time to do her thing. And she also now needed to get up in the middle of the night; eventually, every single night. It didn’t help that this winter was brutal. We live in northern Minnesota, and the cold and snow this particular season was unforgiving. Scrappy would do her thing on ice or snow above a couple of inches. So what does Mike do to alleviate her aggravation? I woke up one morning and Mike was snow blowing paths all around the yard so she could pick out the best spot for relief. On the second week of December of 2018, Mike was awoken by Scrappy, for at this point was a normal occurrence in the middle of the night. He picked her up, opened the door, fell down with her in his arms and cracked his elbow to the point that he couldn’t even move it for a few weeks. He also pulled a hamstring muscle, that, to this day is still bothering him. Do you think this stopped him? No way! Despite my attempted insistence that I take over, he insisted that he needed to do this. After each and every snowfall he would continue to make her outside activities as easy as possible.
I know how this looks. I know what many of you are thinking. What a selfish, shallow...How could he put this dog through this? How could any person put a dog through this? Believe me, I would be asking these same questions. However, one, you are not here and I am. Also, I know exactly what it is like to be selfish; holding onto something that you should let go of. I was exactly that person. When my Lab, Alley, couldn’t walk because of her severe hip disease. I would carry her around because she couldn’t even stand up without falling over. I simply didn’t want to let her go. I finally matured up and had her put to sleep. I told Mike hundreds of times I would never allow a dog to suffer for any selfish reasons.
This was not the case with Scrappy. You see, Scrappy didn’t have any noticeable pain. No injuries. Had a great attitude. Loved her meals. And her tail was a non-stop waggle when Mike was around. And the money Mike spent on her substantiated this.
This devoted effort by my brother Mike, made me wonder who would go to such extremes to make a “mere” dog’s life this special? Who? I, personally, have never met one! Including myself! Let’s remember what I said earlier. This “dog” changed his life forever and set him on a positive pathway.
Again, all good things come to an end. On March 31, Scrappy became ill and on April 2, 2019, her life ended with her devoted companion, my brother Mike, holding her in his arms.
What does one do with a loss of this magnitude? You take all of the good, move on, don’t forget, take it all in and reach out to others’ with real life stories. We, at Go-Green want to hear from you. We want your stories. It doesn’t matter if it’s a beloved cat, snake, turtle, bird or a fly. We will publish articles that tug on the heart-strings and maybe even change the way some people view animals. We have summoned Scrappy, posthumously, to take the lead as head writer for all of the heart-warming stories that we receive. Appropriately her column will be titled, I Can Speak For You.
Each month we will choose one article that will be the “feature” article on our website and we will donate $100 in your name to any animal rights organization of your choosing. We will be publishing our first article in May, 2020. Your article will also remain in our archives for as long as you wish it to be. We will also publish other articles that didn’t win the $100. It’s simply impossible for us, or even pretend to have more than a mere semi-understanding of the impact your voiceless loved-one had on your life. However, we will make an assiduous effort to try. *Trust me though. Just putting your heart out there will inspire others to do the same. It may even provide you with an invigorating, refreshing epiphany.
In the future we are envisioning this to becoming a more frequent occurrence and raising the dollar amounts significantly.
NOTEWORTHY: There are absolutely NO charges to you or the organization that you choose for the donation. 100% of all donations will be directly submitted in the winner’s name. Each winner will also receive a written verification and any other documentation that the chosen organization normally issues for said donations. I have personally been blessed with loving parents, friends with big hearts and animals that have loved me unconditionally. If Scrappy and I could write these stories 24/seven, we would do it in a literal heartbeat.
Jeff Hoffman, Go-Green Products, Inc.
By making any submissions, you are consenting to its publication and display on this Go-Green Products, Inc. website. All submissions are subjected to be edited to fit our format. We will not permit any usage on any other site without written permission/consent by submitter. Due to time constrains, submitter will not have the opportunity to edit the article prior to its publication. However, once published, submitter can have article removed from our site immediately.
For formatting purposes, please submit your article between 400 and 1,500 words. You may submit your article via e-mail, regular mail or a USB storage device.
PHOTOS: Photos are not required for your article to be published. However, photos are welcomed. If you will be sending photos, it is preferred to send more than one, giving us more options for placement. We accept the following files: PSD, PDF, JPEG, TIFF & GIF.
Shout Out: A re-assuring song from: The Escape Club Titled, I’ll Be There.