Farewell to a (furry) Friend

Almost 15 years ago I sadly said good-bye to our beloved dog Broozer who had been a part of our family longer than me. The house felt empty without a dog but I don't think any of us were ready to think about another pet.

Ready or not, a few months later, during the fall of my junior year of high school, we found Pokey. My younger brother, Mike, and I were at our respective soccer practices when a strong thunder storm opened up and everyone scattered. Mike and I had both noticed the dog that had been running around the field over the past few days and were worried about him. After we got home we talked it over with our mom and headed back over to the field. If he was still there and willing to get in the car with us, we'd bring him home until we could find his owners. Of course we fell in love with him and were sad when a few days later we figured out (thanks to some helpful cross country runners who had also been visited by Pokey) where his owners lived and realized we needed to take him home. I don't know how accurately I remember the scene, but in my head I picture the house as being out in woods, run down and dirty and a little scary. We showed up with the dog and immediately they said "oh yup, that's Pokey - he ran away a week ago." At least now we knew his name. They didn't seem especially thankful that we brought him home and he didn't seem especially excited to be back. I noticed they had rabbits in pens on the porch and asked how Pokey did with the rabbits. To which they responded "dunno - we just got 'em a few days ago." Hmmmm.....maybe they weren't expecting him to come back.

My mom was either oblivious or just ignoring their luke-warm welcome and was gushing all over Pokey and how much we loved him and wondering where they had got him......to which they responded "do you want him?" I don't think any of us expected that so I'm sure there was a short pause but I think as a group we said "yes, yes" and got out of there as quick as possible before they could change their mind.

That was almost 15 years ago and Pokey has been a part of our family ever since. He was a bit of a scaredy cat - I mean dog - scared of the vacuum cleaner and the heating vents. Before he was fixed he had a little problem when he got excited or happy that we liked to refer to as "red alert, red alert". Sorry that I had to type that, but it's a part of my early memories of Pokey's life with us. My mom and Mike discovered that he could howl so they would howl at the top of their lungs and he would eventually join in with them. It was often embarrassing for me because they enjoyed demonstrating Pokey's talent in front of anyone - usually my friends or boyfriend.

But most of all Pokey loved my mom. We all went away to college and eventually got married and he remained my mom's constant companion (besides my dad of course - but he worked all day whereas Pokey stayed home). Where ever she went, Pokey followed. He definitely got a little jealous when the grandbabies came along and took away some of his attention.

Yesterday was a sad day as my mom said goodbye to Pokey for all of us. He was a good and faithful dog and he will be missed.