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You guessed it, we invited him to come live at the sanctuary. I was confident our enclosures could contain him. NOT. He scaled our 6-ft. chain link fence with ease and grace, well, maybe not so graceful but certainly with ease. We put him in every compound we had. He simply was going to come and go as he pleased. He never went far though if we were here. We have lots of room and he covered most all of it at one time or another including the cat sanctuary down the hill. His favorite activity was to get the dogs, still inside the compound, to bark and run up and down the fence, until someone got so excited that it would start a scuffle. Satisfied with himself, Eddie would calmly stroll away. Several times, however, he got his ear too close to the fence and his main nemesis, Happy, grabbed it. He would bleed till you thought he was going to need a transfusion and he would shake his head, slinging blood everywhere. Consequently, one ear was about one third shorter than the other one. He was one rough looking guy. The only real concern I had was that he would follow us when we left the sanctuary. If he had stopped at the gate, it wouldn’t have been a problem but not Eddie. He would get to the highway and keep on going. He was found several times romping with his buddy Tony along the side of the road. Since we couldn’t keep him behind the 6-ft. fence, he had to go to his 10 X 10 enclosure WITH A TOP when we left the place. This did not appeal to his adventurous nature at all and we heard about it. How I hated to have to put him in that pen but the alternative was to risk him getting hit on the road or shot when he went to visit the cattle across the road. Eddie, like all the dogs here, had been evaluated and it was decided that while he wasn’t adoptable to a family that lived in town, we hoped that somewhere, there was a place for him so he was on our website. As it happened, one day a few weeks ago, I got a call from a fellow that had found two little dogs running along the highway between Loving & Graham. He finally caught one of them after he followed them to a farmhouse a couple of miles from the highway. The next day, I met him and we went back to the farm where he lost the other little dog. The people let us look around their property and said we could put a humane trap for the little guy and I left my card with the lady that lived there. The next day, the lady called me to ask if we had left the trap? She also shared with me that her youngest son’s dog had gone off the night before and not returned. The animal hadn’t been in the best of health so we expect that she went off to die. Anyway, her son was heartbroken. W e started talking and she said that he had gone on our website and seen Eddie and had fallen in love with him. The next day, they came up to meet Eddie. I told them how he was and that he was something of a scamp but I agreed to let them adopt him. I hated to have to see him in that 10 X 10 pen and I believe that quality of life is as important as quantity. It had only been a few days after they adopted Eddie, when I got a call from the lady. It seems that Eddie had left that morning and taken their other dog, a female Border Collie, with him. They were concerned that the little female would be able to keep up with the rambunctious Eddie and would get lost and not be able to find her way home. She was a homebody and had never left the place. They drove all over their property and up and down all the roads around it but there wasn’t a sign of them. Finally, about 8:00 PM, I got a call. Eddie and his running buddy had returned. The little female collapsed on the porch, completely exhausted. Eddie acted like he hadn’t done a thing and got that crazy grin on his face, flopped over on his back, wanting his belly rubbed. What a con artist he was. Not long after that, they couldn’t find him again and were afraid he had decided to strike out. Eddie had decided to sleep with the oldest boy, who had a room in the barn, rather than bed down in the house. I received an email from Eddies’ people this afternoon. Eddie passed away last night at the vet. The youngest son had chosen Eddie but it seems that Eddie had decided that the oldest son was his and he was never far away from him. Last night, we had some huge storms blow though our area and Eddie and his boy had driven down into the pasture to watch the storm approach. When the boy got up to leave, he called Eddie and looked around for him but figured he had gone back to the house. He got in his truck. Eddie had been lying under the truck and couldn’t be seen. They rushed him to the vet. He was started on IV pain meds and the vet thought his legs and possibly his back was broken. Unfortunately, his injuries were worse than the vet suspected and Eddie passed away during the night. It’s times like this one might question our choices but I’ll never regret sharing Eddie with this family. They needed him like he needed us at one time. Also, Eddie wasn’t a youngster so he was blessed with quantity of life and I believe that he had the best quality of life possible. He had lived life “on the edge” because of his free spirited nature. I’m sure, he had cheated death many times before that we’ll never even know about. He chased rabbits through the field and ran many a small critter into their holes and loved doing it. I can guarantee, he never passed up a chance to jump into the tank then get out and either roll in the dirt or on something dead or in a pile of horse manure before returning home and jumping up on you. He loved all of us and was loved by us in return. He will be missed and remembered for all his antics and misadventures. All I can figure is that things at the “Bridge” must have gotten boring so God decided that He needed Eddie and his happy, carefree spirit to keep everyone in line and to lead astray, those that had never ventured far from the group. Somehow, I don’t think Eddie will be patiently waiting for us. We’ll probably have to go looking for him because I imagine he’ll find something to get into and then even con God into rubbing his belly. Carole |
