Forever In My Heart
Posted on June 18, 2008 10:23 PM
Sometime in the beginning of 1995, I suspect that it would have been in January, my apartment was broken into and I was robbed. The villains made off with a TV set, a VCR, and my Sony cordless telephone. The story of that evening may be interesting to some, but I will refrain from getting into that right now. The purpose of this particular writing is to talk about the outcome of that robbery and how it changed my life for the better. In the days following the robbery, I changed the locks on my doors. I nailed blocks into the window sills, as the windows in my apartment were not very secure. I purchased renters insurance. And most significantly, I asked my landlord if I could get a dog.
He said that I could.
Using her contacts, my mom located a breeder in Maryland that had a litter of Rottweiler pups. We drove down to meet the breeder, Sandy Shaneybrook, and to see the puppies. When we first got to Mrs. Shaneybrook's house, we were greeted at the door by the father of the puppies. Dog people would probably call him the sire. I don't remember his name, but I do remember that he was very impressive. We also met the mother of the puppies, and even the grandmother. They were all very well behaved. After seeing the puppies, I knew that I wanted one so we made arrangements.
Angel came to live with me in February of 1995. She was 7 weeks old.
Having paid the breeder 450 dollars for her, she became the most valuable thing in my apartment back then. Of course, it didn't take very long for her to become priceless to me.
Back in those days, I worked a lot, went to school full time, and when I could I took Angel for walks. There are a lot of good parks in York county, and we saw most of them. The three major parks that we visited were Rocky Ridge County Park, William H. Kain County Park (Lake Redman), and Gifford Pinchot State Park. I used to work nights a lot, so in the mornings before I had to go to class, Angel and I would jump into the car and head up to Rocky Ridge, since that park was the closest to my house.
Once she was house trained, and it didn't take very long, she slept on the floor next to my bed. In the mornings she would wake me up to go out or just to play. I remember days when I would lie in my bed and throw her rope bone into the other room, shut my eyes for the few seconds it took for her to retrieve it, and then throw it again. In her younger days, she would gladly fetch just about anything you would throw for her: Tennis balls, frisbees, the rope bone, and even sticks. As she grew older she lost interest in fetching stuff, but she never tired of going for a walk.
She was always a good dog, and she loved people. If you walked into my house with me for the first time, she acted like you were her long lost friend. I sometimes suspected that she was just happy to see another face that was not mine. She didn't bark much and if she did, it was only one time. She would certainly growl, especially when she heard the mailman's truck or a shopping cart in the parking lot of the grocery store. I used to joke with people that, if you were to break into my house, you would only get one warning, a single bark, and then you would know that Angel was coming.
In 1996, I took Angel with me to Illinois to visit my grandmother, who was living by herself at the time. Somewhere on the other side of Indianapolis, I was too tired to drive any more, so I stopped at a rest area to take a nap at about four in the morning. I was driving a Subaru wagon at the time, and I just jumped in the back to sleep next to Angel who was riding in a large dog crate. Times like that are when you really appreciate having a good friend to keep you company. When we got to Grandma's house, Grandma and Angel hit it off. My grandma never claimed to be a dog person, but I think that deep down she was a closet animal lover. When I was a kid, there was a squirrel that lived near her house that would eat a chocolate-chip cookie right out of her hand. I could tell that Grandma was tickled to have Angel around because if I left for a bit to visit other family, when I got back Grandma would tell me stories about what Angel was up to while I was gone. Angel had a habit of napping on your feet and I know that Grandma appreciated having someone to keep her toes warm while she sat in her chair. Later, in 1999, Angel and I went out to see Grandma again, and Angel slept across the front seat of my Dodge Ram with her head on my lap for the whole trip.
In 1998, I graduated from Penn State. I was working as an intern for IBM in Mechanicsburg, and still commuting from my $330/month apartment in York. In those days being a Computer Science grad was like being on top of the world. Companies actively recruited graduates and I had accepted a job working for a defense contractor in Washington, D.C. called Raytheon. I was looking forward to making good money after all the hard work I had done to get to that point. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that it was going to be difficult to find a place to rent in the D.C. area that would let me keep Angel.
When it comes to renting and pets, it seemed to me that Rottweilers were near the top of the list of undesirables. It went something like this: If you could find a place that would let you have pets at all, then at first you would find places that would only let you have one cat. Less restrictive places would let you have a small dog. Of course, as rentals got more restrictive with regard to what kind of pet they would let you have, they also got harder to find. I finally found a place that would let you have large dogs. I remember talking to the rental agent on the phone, and I asked him if they would let me have a big dog. He said that yes, I could, but many of their units were not real big, so while I could have a St. Bernard, I wouldn't have much room for one. I said, "Well, that sounds great because I have a big dog, and it is really hard to find a place." He asked, "What kind of dog do you have?" And as you can probably guess, when I told him, he very quickly told me that he would not be able to help me and hung up.
I was stuck. I had to report for my new job in only weeks and I could not find a place that would let me have Angel. I really didn't have many options available to me. My mom couldn't keep her for me and I didn't have any friends that could accommodate her. Besides, I couldn't bear to leave her behind. Once, I was chatting with some friends on the computer late at night, and I told them my dilemma. One of my friends at the time told me that I should, "Shoot the dog." Quite naturally, I told him that I would shoot him before I would shoot my dog. Harsh, I know, but I really meant it at the time. I don't remember the last time I spoke to that guy.
After checking into buying a place in the D.C. area, I just decided that I probably didn't want to live in that area anyway. I am sure that people get along fine in the D.C. area who own Rotties, but it just didn't seem right to me. I finally declined the job offer that I had at Raytheon, and I took a permanent position at IBM, where I still work today.
Also in 1998, I met Angela who later became my wife, and the mother of my daughter. Angela lived with her grandmother at the time, only blocks away from my apartment. One night, after Angela and I had spent the evening watching TV in my apartment, she went home to go to bed. It was late, so I was surprised to get a call from her minutes after she had left. She had walked into her grandmother's house and realized that someone had broken in while her grandmother was asleep upstairs.
The first thing that I remember her saying was, "Somebody broke into Grandma's house. You need to come over here now, and bring Angel!"
To which I answered with a question of my own, "Did you call the police?"
"Uh, no."
"Well, hang up and call them now. We're coming over."
I don't remember whether we got there before the police did, but I do remember that the officer got a kick out of how Angel would chase his flashlight when he shined it on the floor. In the end, everybody was scared, but otherwise unharmed. The police suspected that the burglar had come in through a window in the back of the house, and probably went running out the back door when they heard Angela coming home.
In 1999, I closed on my house in Dover, and Angel and I moved over sometime in January of that year. Eventually, Angela would come to live with us there. I cannot recall a distinct date when Angela was officially living with us, as she seemed to move in slowly, over time. Women can be sneaky that way, you know. In time, Angel went from being MY DOG, to being OUR DOG, and to be honest, Angel was much better off for it.
In December of 2000, a little black cat named Hunter came to live with us in Dover. I can still remember the first time Angel and Hunter met. Angela was holding Hunter in her arms. (We probably still called him Mandy at that time, because we thought he was a girl at first, sorry dude!) Angel would whine and cry when she saw Hunter and when she heard him give his little kitty meow. Angela held him out for Angel to see and Hunter immediately hissed at Angel. It was hilarious to see this little black puffball who probably weighed less than a pound, hissing at the 100 pound dog. Angel and Hunter warmed up to each other eventually, and Hunter became one of Angel's best friends. He was known for keeping her company, especially when she started sleeping downstairs because she was having trouble climbing the steps at night.
In December of 2002, Angela and I bought our house in Enola, and the four of us moved up here. When we bought the house, we of course got homeowner insurance with the company that both Angela and I used, Nationwide. One day we were notified that someone from Nationwide had come by our house, most likely while we were at work, and had seen Angel. We got a letter telling us that if we got rid of Angel by a certain date then we could keep our homeowner insurance policy with them. We were outraged. We quickly decided that we were NOT going to get rid of Angel, instead we would be getting rid of Nationwide. In the following days, we moved ALL our insurance coverage to Erie Insurance. I understand that the insurance industry makes all their decisions based upon statistics. And statistically speaking, Rottweilers may be in some percentile that says they are an insurance risk. I will say that most likely that statistic is probably based upon a number of bad owners who are attracted to the Rottweiler breed for the wrong reasons. In any case, Nationwide would not be getting any more money from us.
Our new agent advised us to file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance, because he said that Nationwide could not legally cancel our insurance based upon our dog. We did file a complaint, but is was rejected without consideration because we had failed to meet the deadline, which I think was something like 14 days from the day of notification. I do remember that it seemed like the Department of Insurance was working for the insurance industry and not the consumer. I guess they know who butters their bread.
In October of 2003, Angela and I made it official. We tied the knot approximately 5 years after the day we met. Also in that month, a little orange cat named Pumpkin came to live with us. It didn't take long for everyone to get along. If anyone had a problem with the new addition it was probably Hunter, but Pumpkin is so laid back, he didn't make too many waves. I won't say that Angel was thrilled about sharing our attention, but she tolerated both Hunter and Pumpkin very well. Besides, the cats didn't get to go on walks, and that was exclusively Angel's territory.
Less than three years later, there was another important addition to our family. When Taylor came home from the hospital, Angel took it in stride. If she could put up with these two cats, a baby wasn't going to be a big deal. Of course, when Taylor first came home she probably didn't notice Angel too much, she was too busy sleeping, and eating, and getting her diaper changed. I can't say that I remember too well how Angel reacted to the new baby. I am sure that Taylor got the majority of my attention. She was pretty laid back by that time and was probably happy as long as nobody was taking her spot on the couch.
As Taylor got older, she did notice her doggy, and she was known for giving the doggy biscuits, which Angel appreciated. Taylor would lay her head on her doggy's back and she would give her kisses and she would even try to climb on top of Angel like a horse. Angel would have this look on her face that said, "Can somebody do something about this kid?" All in all, Angel and Taylor got along great. Taylor loved to take Angel on walks and Angel had no problems with that.
As time passed, Angel's health got worse. There were a couple times that we thought we were going to lose her for sure, but she somehow pulled through. Angel loved to go on walks with us around the neighborhood, but there came a time that we had to leave her at home, because we were worried that she would get hurt. I know that it really made Angela sad when Angel wasn't physically able to go with us any more. In the last year or so, Angel spent a lot of time sleeping on our couch. She would have the hardest time coming up the steps but somehow she managed to muster the strength to climb up on the couch. I would come into the house sometimes and hear her dog tags jingling as she jumped down.
Just last week, I asked my wife a question. If she could go back in time and change something about the past, would she, and what would it be? Her answer to me was personal, and I won't share it here. If you want, you can ask her yourself and she may tell you. I told her that if it were possible to change some bad decision that I had made in the past, that it would be tempting, but I would have to resist that temptation because I could not afford to risk everything that I have in my life today. We had that conversation on Friday, two days before Angel, one of the best friends that I've ever known, would leave us in this life.
After Angel had passed, my mom and I talked about Angel and what she meant to us. My mom reminded me of something that I don't really think about too much any more. She reminded me that I had given up a good job so that I could keep her. That is when it dawned on me. The significance of this beautiful black furry dog with the brown spots over her eyes and those ears that are soft as velvet. If I had never met her, I would not have the life that I have today. I would not have the wonderful wife that I have, I would not have my precious daughter, I would not have most of the people that I call friends today. This beautiful dog who loved me and mine unconditionally, was largely responsible for who I am and what I have.
Right now, my heart is broken. I know that time will make it better. I am also aware that there are little hidden timebombs just waiting to go off, like when Taylor sees her doggy's collar sitting on the mantle and starts yelling, "Oh no! Oh no! Doggy keys!" She thinks the tags on Angel's collar are keys. And as she runs around the house looking for her doggy with the collar in her hand, the tags jingle just like they would if Angel was wearing the collar, and all of a sudden the dinner that Angela and I were eating doesn't taste that good any more and it is getting hard to talk because my throat is getting all tight.
Angel was many things to us. To us she was a friend, she was family. When times were tough she was always there to let us rub her ears. She didn't mind listening to our troubles. She will always be in our hearts. I will never forget her.
And to those burglars who broke into my apartment back in 1995, you can keep the TV and the VCR and even the cordless phone. I got the dog, and she will live forever in my heart.
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Tags:
Best Friends,
Dogs,
Rottweilers
