I have been told all my life that seldom does one have more than one perfect dog in his life. I can’t honestly say that is true because in my lifetime I have owned several. All of which were a different breed and served a different purpose at a different stage of my life.
When the boys were growing up, I had a couple of decent bird dogs but none that I would say were outstanding by any sense of the word.
We started rabbit hunting with beagles and over the years we ran them I culled many to get some really good ones. I had a 15” Tri-color that I would have dropped the tail gate on with any that I ever saw run. His name was Barney and he would tote the mail for you.
He was a big-mouthed dog that I could literally pick out of a hundred running in a big pack competition. I have seen him run briar patches until he would be bloody like he had been in a fight. I have seen him run till he would be so sore that he could hardly climb out of the doghouse the next morning. He did not know the meaning of the word quit. I ran him with a female we called Lucy, and she could hold her own as well with about anything that you dropped out with her.
Over the years I had a couple of working herd dogs that were fair as well.
We had gone years without a dog while we were involved in ministry. I did not have any livestock and did not hunt.
I decided in 2013 that I wanted a dog as a companion animal. I got a puppy that was brindle colored and called him Peete. He was very intelligent, but he just did not fit with our lifestyle. I learned quickly that I needed a dog had a lot of criteria that had to be met or I could not make it work for us or the dog.
I found a home for Peete, and we decided that we would try to adopt one from the animal shelter. We went to the shelter the last week in May of 2013. We found a small female dog that for some reason we were attracted to. Honest to goodness it was almost like trying to adopt a child from a foreign country. I came within an inch of walking away and telling the lady at the shelter to forget it. We had to fill out an application and the lady grilled us on numerous questions. The lady told us to come back the following Monday and if we were accepted that we could pick up our dog. Again, I almost did not go back. It was ridiculous.
We went back though the first Monday in June of 2013. We picked our little dog up and carried her to a groomer and had her bathed and trimmed and she looked like a different little dog. The girls in the shelter had named her Taffy and we chose not to change her name.
The lady who groomed her asked us was she about to have puppies. We had been told at the shelter that she was not with puppies. We took her to the vet to have her health checked. The vet said that she was not with puppies that he could tell. A few days later we left her with our granddaughter for a day while we were out of town and while we were gone, she delivered two puppies.
We took care of her and the puppies till the puppies were old enough to wean and we gave them away to a friend. We had Taffy spayed and life was good.
Taffy was exactly what I had been hunting. If you heard her bark or alert, you had better get up and check. Somebody or something was there. She was NOT a yapper. House broke to the utmost. Playful enough to be fun but not overboard. Never met a stranger.
She was attached to all of our family members that visited. Most Friday evenings family would come to our house, and we all ate together. One of our brother in laws named Bob always played with Taffy. When Friday came Taffy would gather her toys and be playing with them by 3 in the afternoon. We could ask her “Taffy, is Uncle Bob out there?” Immediately she would run to the door and look. If she was in the sun-room she would rear up to look out the window.
There were numerous other things we could ask her and get a response. She would immediately hunt me or Beverly if the other one asked her where we were.
We were never sure exactly what Taffy was. She was a beautiful blonde color. She did not shed at all. NO hair in the house period. We thought from her appearance that she was a cross between a Dachshund and a Yorkie. My wife took her photo one time with the Google Lens on her phone and it said she was a cross with a Dachshund and a Poodle. We never went to the time nor expense to have her DNA tested to see what she was.
Taffy weighted 15 pounds and pretty much always held within a pound or so of that.
I have seen many little dogs in my life, but I honestly can say I have never dealt with a dog that had more intelligence than Taffy. You could literally talk to Taffy like she was a kid and she would mind.
If I was sitting in my recliner, she was going to be laying between me and the left arm of the recliner. If my wife was sitting on the couch, she would sit with her a while and then come sit with me. She had rather ride in the jeep than eat when she was hungry. She could jump up in my Jeep which was sitting in 35” mud-grips with NO trouble if she knew she was going to get to ride.
In 2022 we noticed Taffy was losing weight. We had her checked and the vet did not find anything wrong with her. We spent 8 days with family out of state over Christmas of 2022 and boarded Taffy. That was the longest she had been away from us in all of those years. When we got back we noticed changes in her. Normally over all the years we could just leave food out for her. She would just graze through and pick up a few morsels of dry food and bring it in the living room and eat it a few times a day. After that time, she would eat everything we put out immediately. Soon she started having anxiety attacks. If we left, her alone for any length of time she would have anxiety issues. Sometimes she would have them even sitting at home with us at night.
Honestly looking back, she had been going downhill long before that. Us being away from her for that long we saw it magnified. Kind of like when I worked shutdowns and did not see my kids for long periods of time and then saw them and realized they had grown.
In December of 2023 we noticed she was fading fast. Her belly was getting enlarged and she had no energy. She would not play with her toys and just was not herself. Our vet examined her and did an x-ray. That is when we realized that her liver and some other organs were severly enlarged. She also had a bladder infection that would not go away. We had to keep her on antibiotics constantly and as soon as we stopped them it was back with a vengeance. We knew then that it was a matter of time.
Over the next weeks we saw her fade fast. She got to the point that it was a labor for her to just get up the two steps into the house. She would have to go out numerous times a day which she had never had to do. One afternoon when she went outside she fell over and it was hard for her to just get up.
Our forty first anniversary was Feb 4. That day we realized we were going to be faced with what we had been dreading for a long time. She had gotten to the point that she was drinking unreal amounts of water. It was obvious she was suffering, and she could not control her bladder which was not normal.
The next day Feb. 5, we were eating lunch and both of us knew it was time. We called the vet and made an appointment. We then took her and wrapped her up and took her out and rode on the golf cart. That was one of the joys of her little life. She just laid in Beverly’s lap and looked. We knew we were making the right decision as hard as it was to do it. We took her in. They took us into the back and the vets assistant told me that she needed to hold her to assist the vet.
We stood there with her rubbing her till she was gone. In my opinion we were the most important thing in her life and we stayed with her till she was gone. Then we brought her home and buried her.
Our constant companion was gone.
Forever it seemed everywhere we went was a reminder of Taffy. There was a water bowl in the car, and in the Jeep, and in the pickup. There were toys here there and yonder. Her food, and water bowls in the house and in the camper. There were the little smudges on the car and Jeep windows where she had put her nose looking out the windows. The same little smudges on the windows at the house where she had always ran to check things out if she heard something outside to investigate.
Even now months later we still come across stuff that as associated with Taffy.
We have no intentions of getting another dog. We discussed it but first off, there will never be another one as perfect for us as she was. Plus, because we are always on the go it would be hard to take on the responsibility.
I honestly don’t believe that once you have had that perfect one there is nothing better. Little Taffy was one of a kind. If there was ever a perfect little companion doggie. Taffy was it.