It was a sad day at the Johnston House. Today our beloved Annie Girl went over the Rainbow Bridge. It was my hope that my dad, Hal, was waiting for her as she crossed. She had a rough couple of weeks and we could see that she was going to continue to struggle. She would have been 15 years old in July (at least we think so). It’s a long post, so please bear with me as I struggle to figure out how to keep myself together. In a way, I said goodbye to my dad again today, as well. They were so interconnected that when she gave us a look, we could actually hear my dad ‘speaking’ through her. So long, you ‘crazy Dingo’.
Hal Gunardson’s note from October 5, 2018 (he passed away about 5 weeks later on November 17, 2018 – who knew that Annie would have been with us for ANOTHER 3.5 years after he made this note that I found on his laptop after he passed away.)
Friday morning. I dropped my shipmate, Annie, off at Fernandina Animal Hospital at 8am this morning to be sedated for her biopsy on the tongue lesion she recently developed. The vet told me that it looked like it may be cancerous. Said it is probably 95 percent sure that it is cancerous and located in a spot that would be impossible to surgically remove. I’m waiting for the call.
I’ve had many dogs in my lifetime and all were hard to lose when their time came but this is the worst. She has been aboard with me for the past ten years and in many ways has been the best canine companion I’ve ever had. It’s hard to imagine living aboard without her. Friends have come and gone, shipmates and crew have come and gone, but Annie, my canine alter ego, has been with me through thick and thin. Through fair winds and calm seas, blissful winter days in the Bahamas, a nor’easter off Charleston in late December a few years back. She has also been the best watchdog I’ve ever had. It’s her boat as well as mine. She appointed herself first mate in charge of security right from the beginning and has fulfilled that role with unwavering loyalty from day one.
Yeah, day one. I found Annie in the Broward County Animal Shelter in Fort Lauderdale ten years ago. Broward County Shelter is a large facility. They had four hundred dogs there at that time. It is also a “kill” center. Since they had limited space they kept the dogs for fourteen days and then if they weren’t adopted they were euthanized. On the Sunday morning I showed up Annie was on day twelve. The truth be known she adopted me. When I saw her in her kennel there was an immediate connection. I put her name down and they asked me to sit in a room while they brought her down to sit with me for twenty minutes to see if we bonded. They also told me I needed to know two things about Annie before they brought her down. First, they said she chases livestock, and second that she is totally out of control. I said bring her down. I watched as she yanked and pulled the young fellow who had her on the leash. When she entered the room and they closed the door she sniffed the entire room twice, reconnaissance so to speak. She then laid down at my feet and went to sleep. Twenty minutes later the young fellow returned and asked me, “What do you think?” I said she adopted me and it was a done deal. That was ten years ago and we have been inseparable ever since.
Jill’s Post-Script:
Well, Annie did slow down in the past 3.5 years, quite a bit, but it was not like that when she first came to live with us. She still had her bunk (a twin bed in our spare room) where I placed her beat-up sleeping bag. I always hoped she feel more comfortable if she could smell my dad on this blanket. I don’t think she gave a shit. Over the first couple of months, she continued to get more and more attached to me. To the point that I could not leave a room with her tippy tap nails following me wherever I went, like ALL the time. As the days turned into weeks to months to years, I learned to love that noise, even though it drove me nuts at the same time.
No matter how old she was – she was 100% the alpha dog within our 3-dog household. She could not stand Charlie but learned to tolerate him. She would just stand there and stare at him and he’d get into line immediately. I also think she loved Ajax. When she came to live with us, we got Ajax, our black Lab, as a puppy a few weeks later. She watched him grow up and he could never do any wrong with her. He would frequently try to get her to play with his toys. Rarely did she engage back, but sometimes she did. It would make me laugh and I am sure my dad would have loved to see her do that. He always wanted to get another Caroline Dog as a puppy so Annie could imprint her personality on the pup. Well, she did a bit with Ajax. I know he loved her too. Charlie did not.
She had a ‘dog stroke’ a couple of years ago – I thought that was the end. Apparently not! It took several weeks, and she started to just eat out of my hand only, but slowly but surely she recovered and then had another stroke. I nursed her back to almost 100% a second time, but she slowed down considerably after that event – no more jumping on her bunk after that. These later years, she flatly refused to sleep on any dog bed – she just wouldn’t do it! I did find a couple of small padded rugs that she seemed to like to lay on while constantly grooming her front legs and chewing on her dewclaws.
This dog literally had 9 lives and she lived every single one of them to their absolute fullest. Like she really did. She had absolutely the best life, better than a lot of people I know. As I sit here – she’s been gone about 1 hour, and I really miss her. I really miss almost stepping on her when I get up from any seat in the house. I miss her getting up EVERY time I stand up. I am glad she decided that I was someone she could love – I loved her too.
So long, you crazy Dingo. You will be missed – you and those crooked ears. Those crooked ears…..sigh….
So long, good luck and have a nice day!
Long Story Short: A Collection of Stories by Hal Gunardson 