Betty's Birthday

Betty has made it to double digits! Today is her 10th birthday!!! If she could talk, she would probably comment on all the changes in her life during the past year. With the exception of Esther, the entire dog line-up has changed including a couple of temporary puppy litters. She would most likely say the worst thing has been the addition of Alice and Mabel. Even though she has learned to tolerate them and even plays with them some, she never hesitates to set things straight if they encroach on her personal space.

In honor of Betty’s birthday I’m posting a piece I originally did for Pearl Soup and then later put on my 360 blog. Most of you have already seen it, but I felt the need to post it again. I still sometimes think about Veronica and wonder what if...

Veronica
January 17, 2002

The plan was to teach my children responsibility. However, life doesn’t always follow our plans.

My friend, Shelley, called me in late August of 1999 with news that Ethel, her lemon-spotted beagle, had unexpectedly given birth to two puppies. She claimed that I had volunteered to take whatever might come of the union after laughing at her distress over finding Ethel and Oscar together earlier in the summer. I still have no memory of making such a rash statement. At first I told her I didn’t want them, but my children begged and pleaded giving me all sorts of reasons why we should get the puppies. The more I thought about it, the more their reasons made sense. They had always wanted a dog that they could actually hold… even as a full-grown dog. We had a rottweiler living in the house at the time with plans to get two more later in the fall. They assured me they would take care of the puppies themselves. I figured it would be a great lesson in responsibility. That is how Betty and Veronica came to be part of our lives.

They arrived at our house on a Saturday in October. I really don’t think I’ve ever seen puppies any cuter than those two. The mix of beagle and squirrel dog made a beautiful combination. I have to give my children credit. Parents always hear that line: “Don’t worry, Mom, you won’t have to do anything…we’ll do it all ourselves”. In this case, they actually did. They fed the pups, kept their water bowl filled, played with them, went with me to take them to the vet for all their puppy shots… all the things a responsible pet-owner does. In the late afternoon, they would sit on the back steps and sing to the puppies while holding them in their laps and stroking them until the puppies went to sleep. As a mother, it warmed my heart to see that my children could show such compassion.

Winter came and things had settled into a routine around our house. We had added two rottweiler pups in November who were living in the house. Our household had basically “gone to the dogs”, but we were loving every minute of it!

One Sunday afternoon in February, my daughter called to her brother to come help feed the pups then headed out the back door. She immediately came running back in calling for me to come help. Betty and Veronica were fighting and she was afraid that one of them was hurt! I rushed outside and began hollering at the dogs to break it up. I could see that Betty had Veronica pinned and wouldn’t turn her loose. My husband came rushing out at that point to try and separate them. He sent me back in for a gun. I realize this sounds cruel, but he didn’t know if he would need it to put a dying dog out of its misery or put down a vicious dog. We couldn’t have been more wrong about the situation and the results were tragic. Piecing it all together, we realized an entirely different scenario than a fight had taken place.

Betty and Veronica had been romping and playing as we had often seen them do. Apparently, Betty had gotten Veronica’s collar caught in her mouth and it had wedged between her teeth. Veronica had struggled to get away and in the process her collar had twisted around to the point of choking her to death. The collar was still wedged so tightly in Betty’s teeth that she couldn’t get away. That is why she was lying on top of Veronica and wouldn’t get up when called. My husband had to cut the collar off Veronica and literally pull it from Betty’s teeth.

I spent the next week seeing everything through a blur of tears. My heart ached for Veronica’s death, for Betty and how she must have felt in the minutes after the accident, but most of all for my children and the grief they felt.

The passage of time heals our wounds and eases our grief. As I write this, Betty, who was supposed to be an outside dog, lies sleeping on the daybed behind me. I wonder sometimes when she dreams if it’s about Veronica…or if she even remembers Veronica. I know that I’ll never forget Veronica or how she taught my children far more than just how to be responsible.