Zoe: The first night

Meet Zoe. Last week while Diane was working at the farm this skinny puppy showed up. At first she was trying to catch a ride with the few cars going down our road, but then she noticed Diane on the tractor and came over to visit.

Shortly I after that I got a phone call saying that I needed to come to the farm to see what showed up. I get there to find a 60 pound, underweight, filthy, starving, lovely black lab. This poor girl was covered in mud and filth, she smelled horrible, and she inhaled the 2 cups of food I brought for her. Not ate fast, inhaled. In less than 10 “bites” she ate it all and was looking for more.

After some talking we decided that there was no way we would leave her at the farm alone. Mostly because we feared that she would try to follow us to the house and end up on a busier road and get hit. So home she went. Once we got her home she got her first bath. It helped some, but the smell of cow dung was terrible.

Zoe starting to feel at home

The next day we discovered that she had apparently been surviving by eating that cow dung. She was thrilled to eat ‘real’ food. So thrilled that we decided to ration it by only giving her a cup of food every few hours. Slowly we convinced her that there would always be food for her and she slowed down to the point we could actually hear chewing. Over the next few days she got more baths, more food, and lots of love.

Diane spent a few days checking with neighbors just in case Zoe may have simply gotten lost. But by Monday we had given up looking and decided it was time to take Zoe to the vet. She got a checkup, full course of shots, a clean bill of health, and then the hard part. We left her there overnight. It was for her own good, we had her spayed before she had a chance to have more puppies. I’m sure she was upset that her new found people had abandoned her, but we knew better.

Zoe coming “home”

This afternoon we picked up our newest addition to the family. A one year old black lab puppy with a new name, Zoe. BTW, Zoe means life in Greek. And one of Diane’s favorite TV shows, Caprica, had a lead character named Zoe who had one life end only to have a second life begin. It seemed fitting.

At first she was a bit timid when we picked her up. It was to be expected, we had just left her alone overnight and she had to go through surgery. But Diane made sure we brought her new squeaky toy with us and once she had that in her mouth she realized that she was with her new forever family.

I wish we had more of the farm ready so we could take in more animals in need. But we are going to do the best we can with what we have. I’m pretty sure that will be enough for Zoe.

Valyn

On Halloween about twelve and a half years ago one of the greatest dogs ever entered our lives. Valyn was a cross between a Newfoundland and a Great Pyrenees and instantly took over a large part of our hearts and home. As a puppy he was the clumsiest dog in the world, but he had such heart and spirit it was hard to do anything other to appreciate the efforts he made.

As he grew up he became the calming force around the house. No matter what other animals came and went over the years, he was the one clam spot in our hectic lives and he did his best to keep all the other critters calm as well.

When he was about 2 or 3 years old he started collecting cats. Not in the pic them up and shake them way, but in the I’m going to hold you down with my big paw until you relax and lay here by me of your own free will. It was amazing to our cats, and even neighborhood strays come to regard his as the ‘safe zone’. It didn’t seem to matter what was chasing them, then cats always made a run right for Valyn and laid next to him for protection and warmth.

His only bad pet experience came one year when the goats Michelle had for 4H were out testing each others skulls by head butting each other. In a fit of curiosity Valyn went out to play and was promptly knocked nearly unconscious. From that day on he enjoyed the company of the goats through the safety of the fence.

As Valyn got older he got like many of us and stopped chasing things so much and spent more time on the porch just letting his voice be heard. He never really seemed to bark at anything in particular, he just liked the sound of his own voice. And it was a loud voice. In his last year with us he made the trip to Tennessee with us every time. Getting in and out of the truck became harder and harder, but he seemed to really love the hours spent together just driving. He enjoyed the rides in the car or truck that in the end the only thing that had made him happy in days was a ride in the car. Even if it was his last ride.

About 2 months ago our vet confirmed what we suspected. Our nearly 13 year old gentle giant had bone cancer. The only treatment would have been to take his leg and hope that he could learn to adapt at his age to life with only three legs. And even that wasn’t going to buy him a lot of time. So we did what we though was best, got him some great pain meds and spent the last two months spending as much time as possible with him and being happy to have him on our lives just a little longer. That time came to an end at 3:47pm on March 12th, 2012. He went peacefully surrounded by the people that loved him and he loved.

Letting a beloved pet go is one of the hardest things we can do. But in the end we know that he is now free of pain and happy all the time and waiting for us to join him at some time in the future. I know he is back to his old puppy form and playing with his best bud Jaba. I just hope he doesn’t mind if we make him wait a little while before we join him.