Looking back on
that special time for us in 1989, we couldn't have appreciated
the lasting impact our first Boxer would have on our family.
It wasn't long before we realized that two Boxers were better
than one, and we welcomed our second short-nosed, short-tailed
family member. Now, many years later we find ourselves even
more in love with the breed, and incredibly more understanding
of their Boxer ways.
For many years, the experiences of our lives have been delightfully
punctuated with Boxer shenanigans of one sort or another.
I know from belonging to several Boxer-related email groups
that every Boxer owner believes their particular dog is
unique. Well, so was my Ollie, and I'll share with you proof
that he was one in a million. It's not because he was snow
white, soft as a bunny, had perfectly cropped ears and an
incredibly cute nubb of a tail--although I did privately
admire his gorgeous looks every time I looked at him. Ollie
was unique because he had what I called some type of "spacial"
(my own word) mental ability that blew us away. Surely
this dog was an alien of some sort!
Ollie was a "latch-key puppy" his first year with
us. He was four months old when we brought him home. The
whole family worked during the day and Ollie had the run
of the downstairs, the garage and the property. He had a
large doggie door to get into the garage, and another doggie
door to get outside. For some reason, he never got into
things in the house but he had a strange attraction to the
items we had stored in the 3-car garage. We'd get home and
find that Ollie had been doing the gardening one day with
the weed-wacker and a hand trowel (pulled out through the
doggie door), or doing sundry repairs with a screwdriver
and extension cord, or doing the laundry with things removed
from the dryer on another day. He'd choose a different "chore"
every few days (never the same one after a scolding). I
have to add that none of these items were ever destroyed
... just "used" for whatever his little growing
Boxer imagination could create. BUT still these activities
don't qualify as very unique in Boxer circles.
We'd recently moved into a big house, and put the oriental
couch that didn't go with the new decor into the garage.
Ollie liked to snooze on it, or use it as his work table.
My daughters also had many boxes of hope chest treasures
stored in the garage. These boxes were Ollie's PASSION.
At times throughout that first year, he'd open a box (with
very little damage to the box I might add) and make little
organized "arrangements" inside the garage with
the contents of a box. That's when I realized his "spacial"
quality--he would actually take the utensils, etc., and
arrange them in patterns on the floor of the garage. He
really blew us away the day we came home and found one of
the sets of dishes (service for four) displayed in two straight
rows along the length of the couch! Not a single piece of
china was broken. No, they weren't stacked with cups on
top of saucers, but they were grouped by kind and lined
up in straight rows on the couch cushions!
Now, THAT's pretty unique. We only wished we'd taken the
time to set up a video camera in the garage to capture his
activities over the year. Maybe we could have won a prize
on "World's Funniest Animals" or something like
that.
We also had to raise the buttons for the garage door openers
after we found Ollie sitting outside in the driveway on
two separate occasions. (the first time we just thought
he did it accidentally) How on earth did he figure THAT
out? Both times when we arrived home he was sitting stiffly
in the driveway, garage door wide open, with that stricken
look on his face and as if to say, "I could have gotten
stolen or lost or somethin'. I'm glad you guys got here!"
He'll never know how badly that scared us!!
One day we received a call from a veternarian advising that
she had a 17-week old flashy brindle puppy available if
we were interested. The owner couldn't pay his vet bill
and she really didn't want to return him to the owner because
of his neglect. I paid the bill and the owner signed him
over to me along with all his papers from the breeder, and
Ollie had a wonderful little puppy of his own. Our precious
Pete.
Ollie's interests instantly turned to the education and
entertainment of his new friend, and he never touched another
thing in the garage again. Pete and Ollie were great buddies
until Ollie was in his fourth year (Petie was 3 by then).
Ollie
contracted Boxer Cardiomyopathy at the tender age of four,
and passed to the bridge within six weeks of his diagnosis.
Neither EKG's, sonograms, cross-country consultations to
heart experts nor medications could prevent the inevitable.
Ollie, our soft white special friend, you are deeply missed.
Petie took many months to adjust. Pete, my best buddy, is
waiting at the bridge now with Ollie. He lived to be 11.4
years old. We grieved over Pete for seven empty months before
the time came in Sept. 2002 when we adopted a grand, grey
muzzled 8-year-old Boxer lady from a local shelter -- followed
a few months later by a youngster of 2 from the same shelter.
Lilly Rose and Moses are their new names, and our house
isn't lonely any more. They each have quite different personalities
and backgrounds ... but these are stories for another day.
[
Pictures of our Boxers ]
