We will never forget our precious dog Jake, who has been the center of our little family for the past 11 years. Wherever we went, he went too. He was our constant companion day and night. 11 years ago when he was born, I picked him out of a litter of six puppies that the neighbor's dog had out back in an old chicken coop. His mama was a Blue Heeler and his daddy was our other neighbor's dog, a Black Lab. Jake was the runt of the litter and the only one born without a tail. Solid black with a tiny patch of white on his chest and not any bigger than the palm of my hand. He was always the last to eat and unless you guided him to a spot on his poor overworked mama, then he wouldn't eat at all. When his eyes finally opened and he started walking around, we were inseparable! I had to leave him with his mama until he was weaned, but not a day went by that I wasn't out in that chicken coop giving him love and letting him know he was mine! When we were finally able to take him as our own, he went everywhere with us. He loved to ride in the car. He'd sit in my lap and just sleep or cuddle and as he grew older he'd be hanging his head out the window, tongue lolling with the breeze blowing his whiskers. He had one ear that perked up like his mama's and one that laid down floppy like his dad's. So adorable. As a pup he was always so curious and he'd follow you anywhere. One time he fell off the upstairs deck and we thought for sure he was a goner the way he carried on and on crying, but within a half hour or so, he was up and running and chasing us around like nothing had happened. Another time, he found his way up to the hay loft of our neighbor's barn and he couldn't get brave enough to get back down the stairs, so he stayed up there for a whole day crying until we finally figured out where he was and rescued him. He loved to swim in the pond, but not out too deep. He was more of a casual wader and then would dogpaddle around the edges. He loved to roll in the freshest piles of horse and cow poo that he could find and was always so proud to come home all smelly and gunky. He absolutely loved to run and would practically have a fit if we didn't let him out of the truck when we turned onto our road. He'd jump out and run alongside the truck all the way home. He was solid muscle from all that running and he could just fly! He loved to chase rabbits, but he never did catch one that I know of. Once in the beam of our headlights as we pulled into the driveway, he literally crossed paths with a bunny that was trying to run for cover. The bunny hopped in the air just as Jake flew past and they collided. Jake yelped in fright and the bunny took off up the hill and under a bush. It was hilarious. That's the closest he ever came to actually catching one. He loved to bark at the deer in the yard when they came to eat our pears, and he was always very tolerant of the turkey that came pecking through. He didn't seem to be scared of them, and they weren't scared of him either. He had this little brown wren on the porch that he used to share his dog food with. She would fly down and peck at the food in his bowl and he'd just lay there and watch her patiently. He never chased her off. He hated flies and wasps and bees and was constantly getting stung trying to bite them. One time, the meter-reader came a little too close to the side of the house and Jake lunged out from under the shade of the porch where he was tied. He scared the peewiddlywaddles out of that man, and the man pulled out a can of mace and maced poor Jake right in the face! Luckily Sid was home at the time and heard all the commotion outside and yelled at the man. He told him next time he came into our yard, HE would get maced! At one point in time, Jake got himself shot in the butt with a shotgun because he came home with buckshot in his fur and every since then, he was deathly afraid to hear guns going off. Anytime someone shot a gun in the area, he'd practically break through the screen door trying to get in the house. He hated thunder too, probably for the same reason. He was a ferocious protector though, and he always stood guard on the porch. We even kept our spare house key hanging on his collar. We knew no one would ever get close enough to take it off and use it. One time I had Jake with me at my office and he was laying in the doorway of our front porch. It was nice out, so we had the front door open and I was at my desk working away. One of my bosses came walking up onto the porch and Jake lunged at him snarling. My poor boss jumped 10 feet in the air and screamed like a girl! To this day, we crack up any time we think about it. We have one neighbor down the road who is a rough-n-tough cowboy, but he was always scared of our old Jake. We always thought maybe he was the one that shot Jake in the butt. Jake was the smartest dog ever. He sat when you told him to sit, he rolled over, he'd fall on the ground when Sid pretended to shoot him with his "finger" gun and said "Bang!" He stayed perfectly still during baths and never shook the suds off himself until you said "Shake Jake!" One time he helped herd the neighbor's longhorn cattle when they got out of their pasture. We never knew Jake knew how to herd, but together he and Sid got the cattle all rounded up and back into their gate. He knew what everything meant when you said it, and we knew what he was always trying to say to us too. If you said "Bye Bye" or rattled your keys, he'd jump up and race around the house barking like crazy because he loved to go, go, go all the time! He loved to chase Sid up and down the road when he rode his motorcycle and he loved to go to the park with us to ride bikes or walk the paths. He'd walk the yard back and forth alongside the lawnmower when Sid was mowing and he'd always be right there standing guard when I weeded the flowerbeds, even if it took me hours to do it. His absolute favorite treat in the world was ice cream sandwiches and it never failed, if you opened the freezer door, you were prepared to see him standing patiently behind you when you turned around. Even from a dead sleep and from all the way across the house, he could hear that freezer door open and come running. Whenever Sid put his shoes on, Jake knew it was time to go somewhere and he'd follow Sid around like a shadow because he didn't want to be left behind. Whenever I ironed in the laundry room, he laid right at my feet because he knew that was where we kept his jar of dog treats. He always got a treat whenever anyone was in the laundry room because he knew to come in there and do his cute little dance or look up at you with those big brown eyes. We fell for it every time. If I was sitting in the living room reading, he was constantly nudging up under the book to get my attention. He hated to be ignored. The minute Sid would lay his lazy boy chair all the way back, Jake would crawl up into his lap and stretch out to lay his head on Daddy's chest. And if I even dared to come over to that chair and give Sid some sugar, Jake would growl at me until I went away. He didn't want me barging in on his alone-time with Daddy! Whenever you walked into a room, Jake would roll over on his back to get his tummy rubbed and you could never resist when he did this. As I said before, Jake was a great protector. If I was scolding the donkeys, he'd lunge at the fence and bark to scold them too. One night when I was picking Sid up in Nashville, Jake and I were sitting in a parking lot waiting and this old homeless man was wandering from car to car asking for a handout. Apparently Jake saw the man long before I did because once the man got to my window and put his hand up to knock, Jake literally lunged across the seats and into my lap all teeth and slobber and snarls and barks like a crazy mad dog! It scared the life out of me, but it scared the homeless man too. He raised his hands in surrender and ventured on his way. Jake shook for 15 minutes after that encounter and I was so proud of him for being so heroic. I never felt scared when Jake was around. We spent lots of nights alone in our house waiting for Daddy to come home from whatever job he was working, and Jake always made me feel safe. When it was time for bed, he'd diligently mosey into the bedroom and take his spot next to the bed. In the night, he'd make his way back and forth from my side to Daddy's side, protecting us both. He loved to be with us, no matter where we were and he never let us out of his sight. One morning when Sid went hunting, Jake bawled and whined because he wanted to go with his Daddy. When I thought enough time had passed, I went ahead and let Jake out onto the porch, but he ran off. Sid came home later and told me Jake had made his way up into the woods and was sniffing around the base of Sid's tree stand. Sid yelled "Jake! Go home right now!" and liked to scare poor Jake out of his fur! He looked all around but never figured out that Daddy was up in that tree. The thoughts that must have been going through his head when his Daddy's booming voice rang out from above! Hilarious. One time at one of Sid's baseball games, Jake heard his Daddy's voice in the outfield and when he saw the ball being thrown, he ran out and caught it and took it to Sid. That was the one and only time he fetched a ball. He never was big on playing fetch or frisbee or chewing on toys. He survived being run over by a truck once and survived the surgery afterward to put pins in his legs. He survived being run over by a tractor and even survived a tangle with a pack of coyotes once, although they did get one of his ears in that fight. It was the ear that stuck up in the air (the one he got from his mama) so from then on he had one floppy ear and a fuzzy stub. Even in the end, when we knew Jake must have been suffering and in pain, he still wanted to comfort us and follow us around. He had the spirit to keep living, but his old body just gave out on him. (Severe hip displasia, both hips, and arthritis in his spine) We have been so blessed by him in so many ways. He has given us so much love and devotion over the years and there will never be another dog like him. Now he lays out under the trees on our hill and I hope he's in peace and watching over us still. I like to think he's in Heaven with all the other animals who have left this earth, and they are running and playing, swimming in golden ponds, rolling in poo to their hearts' content and jumping from cloud to cloud with the angels. We love you Jake and we always will.
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