[Dailydrool] Beethoven

[Tim Mayer]

I apologize for the long message. But as I reminisce I can't help myself.
 
Over 17 years ago, my wife brought home a mutt. A mixed breed dog. A
backyard accident. And a filthy, flea-riddled one at that.  She'd had a
basset before, and wanted a dog of her own. 

Don't get me wrong: I love dogs. I had two at the time - both were shelties.
Smart, obedient, cute as can be. 

But one more dog can't hurt, right? So we agreed to keep him. First things
first though, he had to have a bath. Then I sat there for nearly an hour
with a pair of tweezers picking the fleas off of him. I guess that was
enough for him - he decided he was my dog, and not my wife's. (She never
forgave me for that.)

Anyway, the first question when a new dog arrives is "what do we name him?"
Strangely enough, being a hound dog, the kids wanted to call him Elvis. Me,
not so much - in fact, I was totally against it. Knowing puppies, and how
they get loose sometimes, there was no way I was going to run around the
neighborhood asking everyone if they've seen Elvis!!! Second choice was
Beethoven, obviously named after the movie super-star Saint Bernard. The
kids couldn't come up with anything other than that, and it was definitely
better than their first choice. So, Beethoven it was.

Being half basset, half Shar-pei, you'd have thought he would end up
double-wrinkled, but it didn't happen. He ended up looking like a stocky
beagle with short legs. He started out with dozens of large freckles,
although over the years the freckles faded.  One of my favorite photos has
him dashing through the snow, ears flapping, and a huge smile on his
freckled face. The basset in him proved to be stubborn and independent, but
very intelligent. You could see it in his eyes - when I'd tell him to come
into the house, you could see him figuring out how long he could still stay
out and not get in trouble.

Well, that "one more dog can't hurt" thing wasn't quite what I'd expected.
This was a high-energy, rambunctious critter that could spell trouble in so
many ways; there was no end to the excitement.  There are a few bad
memories, like losing some family heirlooms to his chewing habit, but when
it's all said and done, the good far outweigh the bad. One of my favorite
memories is the "wiener wrap". The little guy typically slept at the foot of
the bed. And when he'd get chilly, he'd grab a mouthful of the comforter and
roll. And roll. And roll. Pretty soon he was all wrapped up like a pig in a
blanket, and I'd be chilled instead. Cute. Now knock it off <grin>!
Eventually I had to let him sleep under the comforter snuggled up right next
to me so we could both stay warm at night. Other really fine memories are
trips to the lake for camping and fishing. I remember having a bucket of
fresh caught trout in the back seat, and driving for home. I wasn't paying
attention to Beethoven - until I heard the bucket tip over. He'd decided to
get in the back seat and play with the fish. Good thing I caught him before
he ruined my dinner! He loved the woods. He loved the water. He loved the
water so much that one time he jumped out of the boat while we were zipping
around at full speed. I whipped the boat around as fast as I could, and only
just got back in time. He was barely able to keep his head above water.
After that he was on a leash pretty much everywhere. This guy loved to play.
Chewing on toys, retrieving tossed tennis balls, running the "Basset 500": I
couldn't believe how active he always was. And we had a lot of happy years
together. I'll never forget the special times, like long walks in the woods,
sitting snuggled up together watching TV for hours, weekend trips to the
beach, chasing each other around the house. 

So, now that Beethoven's time on this earth has come to a close, I sit and
reflect on how special he was to me. And I know that my life would not have
been the same without him. So what if we didn't name him Elvis? He was a
super-star to me. Now the lights have faded to black, the curtain has come
down, and the stage room door has closed. My heart aches as I hear the emcee
inform the adoring fans that "Beethoven has left the building".

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.dailydrool.org/pipermail/dailydrool-dailydrool.org/attachments/20111229/c738260f/attachment-0001.htm>