Heaven Scent
One hot Fourth of July weekend night, we had some company at our house here at the farm. A guest had come into the house letting me know that one of our dogs was out on the front porch. I looked at my two big lab mixes that were already in the house, and knew it wasn’t one of our dogs out there. They insisted, “There is a dog on your front porch and it looks like a big grizzly bear!” I went out to investigate, and sure enough, there was the big black shaggy dog resting on our porch. He wasn’t bothering any of us, so I let him spend the night out there.
The next morning I called the dog officer and no one was in the office that weekend, because of the holiday. This was no emergency, so we waited for the following Tuesday. Over the weekend, I had been feeding him, and we struck up a friendship. He would follow me all around the yard. He seemed to be a nice old boy just lost that’s all.
Well, Tuesday came and I had finally gotten in touch with the Dog Officer. She was very busy and was not able to come pick him up at the time. She had already heard of the big black shaggy dog though, through recorded messages on her answering machine that she had received over the weekend from other people in our neighborhood. The dog had been going from house to house on our street, but no one else wanted him around so, they chased him off. The other neighbors had been calling her to come pick him up. We live on a farm and have many animals, he must have figured this was the place to be and settled in. The dog officer asked me if the dog trusted me enough so that I could give him a ride to the local shelter to drop him off. I agreed, and sure enough, he was happy to go for the ride in the car.
The dog officer said she would try to find his owner. She took out an ad in the local paper, in the lost and found. No one claimed him. I called all the shelters in the surrounding towns wondering if someone was missing their dog. No one claimed him.
My husband and I discussed the possibility of adopting him if no one were to come forward to claim him. My husbands reply was, “Absolutely not!” “We had already taken in two goats and a pig from a divorce situation and he didn’t want to take any more animals in. I reluctantly agreed and let it go.
Fourteen days had passed since I had seen that shaggy old boy, and I hadn’t given it much thought, until the phone rang. It was the local shelter explaining that the fourteen days had passed and no one came forward to claim him. They explained to me that they had tried to muzzle him to give him a vaccine and he went crazy. They took this incident to be a sign of aggression, and found him to be un-adoptable. I own the most lovable dog around, a Lab mix; he does not like to be muzzled at the vet. He reacts in the same way when you try to muzzle him, knocking tables and chairs over. I did not think this shaggy old boy was being aggressive at all he was probably just scared. They explained further that his time was up, no one came forth to claim him and they could not keep him any longer he was going to be put-down.
Well my husband came home from work that night and went to go in the house as he always does, but he could not get the door open something was behind the door blocking it. Guess, who? You guessed it. It was the big old shaggy boy. He was lying in the back hall of his new home. I went and picked him up from the shelter and brought him home. I named him Romeo. He was a true love, love boy!
From that day forward on our trips around town, we would see the Dog Officer. Romeo would be in the front seat next to me in the car with his big head out the window. She would smile, and always say hi to him.
I had lost my brother when he was only 33 years old. My brother and I were very close. I had become very depressed after he died. Sometimes I would think to myself this dog appeared out of nowhere no owner, no tags, or trace of anyone owning him. Where did he come from? I believe it was my brother, who sent him to me. Maybe that would sound completely ridiculous to someone else, but just knowing Romeo was around had brought me comfort and great peace. I had owned many animals in my lifetime but never had connected to any of them the way this dog and I connected. Romeo turned out to be a great companion. He and I spent many a night, him lying on the floor by the fire, and me sitting on the couch sipping my tea. He would have followed me to the ends of the earth.
He was not just a great companion to his human friends but the other animals on the farm as well. Our outdoor cats would lay in the sun with him right by his side. The cats would come running when they saw him outside and they would rub against him to greet him. Our indoor cats would need at his shaggy fur and make a cozy bed within the fur of his belly I would find them sleeping together like that at night. He never even flinched as they did this to him. He never chased, or nipped at any of his feline friends.
We knew he was an older dog because we had taken him to the vet when we first brought him home. His teeth were, worn, and he was aging quickly.
He had progressively gone deaf and his hind legs were giving out on him. Even on the days when he wasn’t feeling well he would still follow me around the house from room to room. He let us know when it was his time to leave, so we took that unavoidable trip to the vet. I stayed right by his side the way he always stayed by mine. I knew he was deaf so I made sure we looked into each other’s eyes, I thanked him, and I said good-bye. I knew in my heart, he was going home to be with my brother.
I said a little prayer and asked my brother to take good care of him.
His time on the farm was brief, four years, but he made lots of friends here, and really enjoyed the outdoors, and living on the farm. He was a true friend and he is greatly missed by all of us. Romeo had taught me one of life’s most important lessons about loss.
Sometimes in life, someone will connect with you in a way that you will never forget as long as you live. The bond you share is like no other. When their gone it truly leaves a void in your life, but you know you were, truly blessed to have known them, and to have had them in your life no matter how brief.
My Brother and Romeo were those two someone’s in my life….
Written by Suzanne Manning, Acushnet, MA
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