# My childhood best friend would have been 27 today :-(



## 2kids3cats4me (Jan 6, 2004)

On January 4, 1980, my best friend and companion, a sweeter-than-life Siberian Husky/Timberwolf/German Shepherd mix was born.

I won't bore you with a bunch of sappy details since I've posted about him a few times already but he's been gone 14 years now and no matter how much time has gone by I always wake up on this day thinking about all the joy he brought into my life. I only hope that one day my kids will know what it's like to have a dog like that; although, I don't think there could ever be another BJ.  

May you continue to rest in peace, BJ! I'll see you on the other side some day! 

Edited: Took the exclamation mark off the thread title


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

Childhood pets have a very special place in our hearts, don't they? :luv


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## horseplaypen (Apr 1, 2004)

Sounds like a handsome fellow.


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## Megan1216 (Nov 28, 2004)

He sounded like a handsome dog with all those mixed breeds.


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## crazycat (Dec 31, 2006)

Sounds like a fantastic pet. May he rest in peace.


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## Jeanie (Jun 18, 2003)

We don't forget, Jolene. 

Would you like me to move this to the Rainbow Bridge? The years can't stand between our Bridge pets and our hearts.


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## 2kids3cats4me (Jan 6, 2004)

Sure, Jeanie... that's fine. I meant to come back here sooner to chat with you guys again but, oh boy, what a day it's been! 

Thanks, everyone, for the nice words. And, yes, he was one of the most beautiful dogs ever on the face of the Earth, both outer beauty and inner. I know it probably sounds corny to some of you that I'm remembering a dog and mentioning that "he would have been 27." I know very well that there's no way, except by miracle, that he would ever have lived that long. It's just that he was stripped away from me too soon and in such a terrible manner that it still hurts terribly to this day.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

We lost our Shepard/Wolf hybrid named "Fang" in 2000. She was 12 and had been having problems with arthritis in her hips and developed an age-health issue that made us have to make the hard decision. 

I always remember her birthday because she was born on Thanksgiving. I don't keep the actual date from 1988, every Thanksgiving is her birthday. She was a fabulous companion. She 'approved' of my now hubby...they wrestled in the front yard on our first date, she was snarling and growling at him as he grabbed at her, tugged with the thick cotton rope between them and 'threw her around' and she LOVED it! He was the only person never intimidated by her and she loved him back for it. She loved the rough play, but I couldn't play that rough with her so he became her 'wrestle-buddy'.
I especially loved her howl-bark to announce when visitors had arrived. She also had a wide range of noises she used to communicate with us and she 'saved' me from a snake during a hike in the woods one time. 
She jumpe in front of me and I tried to walk around her. She jumped in front of me again and leaned against my legs. When I stepped around her again, she jumped in front of me, growling, leaned against my legs and grabbed my lower leg in her mouth to 'hold' me there. When I stopped moving, she looked up and I looked where she was looking...to see a 6' long snake cross the path! I don't know what kind of snake it was (Sonora, CA mountain area) but I know I'd have freaked if I'd kept walking and encountered it at my feet...

As long as we continue to remember our furry-friends, they are never really 'gone'. They never leave our hearts, their footprints are too deep.


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## 2kids3cats4me (Jan 6, 2004)

Wow, Heidi! The description of your dog and his mannerisms reminds me so much of BJ.

We lived out in the country real close to a coulee and I remember, as if it was yesterday, hearing him howl to his canine family/friends (likely coyotes) in the distance all the time. 

I got him at the age of 5 as a Valentine's Day gift from my neighbor, a good friend of my parents. I will never forget the first time I heard his little puppy whimper as I walked into the house. And OMG! - the paws he had! You could tell just by the paws he was gonna be a big dude. 

Even though he was a really large dog, BJ was the kindest, gentlest and most loving dog I'd ever seen, all thanks to the attention to training given him by my dad. In the wintertime he would pull me around the yard on a sled and in the summertime, once I had turned about 13, he would insist on running along with me while I rode the 3-wheeler dad had gotten me. Even if it were the hottest day of the summer he'd go and I would have to drive back home just so he could get some water, shade and some rest.

As most people on the forum know by now, I had trouble walking as a youngster and BJ had this wonderful sense that I needed more help than others. Every day after school he was waiting at the end of the driveway to walk beside me back to the house. I remember one winter in particular (I was about 9) where I had slipped and fallen in the driveway and couldn't get a good foothold to stand again on my own. He knelt down to the ground so I could put my hands on his back and get up that way, but I still slipped. After that, he ran to the house and stood at the front door barking his head off, which alerted my mom that there must be something wrong, and she came over to help me back up. 

Wow! After typing that all out again I'm sitting her crying but I think it's a mixture of sad and joyful tears; sad, obviously, because he's not with me anymore but joyful because he was so special. He was like a little brother, although once he became full grown he was more like a 'big brother." He would stand on his hind legs with his paws resting on my shoulders and be at least a head taller than I was! 

He also loved all my friends to pieces. Any time I brought a friend home from school she had better be prepared to be licked to death once stepping off the bus! :lol: He was excited to see anyone drive in the yard, really. His looks gave a lot of people who had never met him before the impression that he was a dog to be afraid of but no sooner would someone go outside to tell them it was okay to get out of the car and they would learn what a soft heart he had. We would have farmland renters come in and out of the yard all spring and summer long for years and each and every day BJ would go and sit by the tractors and just chill out, as long as the farmers were there to talk with him. 

I have the cutest picture from when my brother was about 3, where he had fallen asleep on BJ. Well, some time had passed and BJ woke up but Jeff was still asleep. BJ looked at Jeff and laid his head back down, patiently waiting for Jeff to wake up on his own. 

It's really hard for me to talk about how I lost him. In a nutshell, on the last day of hunting season in 1992 a hunter mistook him for a coyote in the distance. My family was furious for a long time as were many of our neighbors. What idiot could mistake a 110-pound wolf/dog combo for a lanky skin-n-bones coyote?

Here I sit, literally shaking from typing all this out about BJ. I think it's best for me to call it a night. :wink: Thanks for dragging out all those memories for me, Heidi.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

Oh, Jo, what a wonderful dog he was! (I'm glad you explained what happened, I didn't want to ask.)

BJ was a great friend and companion. :angel


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Oh, what a terrible way to lose BJ! 
Fang was shot too, but she survived.

She moved up to the Sonora area with my then b/f when she was about 1.5-2 years old, several months before I moved up there, too. He, unfortunately, let her run loose in biker-heaven and she returned to his house one evening with a gunshot wound. 

Vet was amazed. It entered to the left of her spine, maybe 1" to the left about midway between her ribcage and hipbones. Zig-zagged through her body cavity, missing everything vital, and exited her right ribcage, breaking several ribs that healed in a jumble. I have NO IDEA (and neither did the vet) how the bullet missed her lung as it exited right in the center of her ribcage, where you normally thump/pat a dog. Perhaps it travelled under the skin? But the vet said it was inside her body cavity...I don't know. 

She also survived heartworm treatment. 
When I moved back home after leaving that b/f and taking Fang with me, she was pregnant. She had her litter at a vet's office because I had to fly to NY for my grandfather's funeral. I paid the vet the board money before I left. After the puppies were adopted to good homes she was spayed. I also paid the vet for that service before I even brought her into his clinic. When she tested positive for HW, the vet told me it would cost about $700. It was an unGodly amount that I didn't have just lying around. I asked if I could make payments and she told me: "Well, we're not a lending company!" I said thankyouverymuch and left.
I was insulted because I had been such a good and conscientious client.

I called a different vet who worked out of his truck making ranch/farm calls. (We lived 15 mi out of town and he vetted our stock) He treated Fang with the arsenic at our home, coming every morning for her injections. I had to keep her quiet and contained. No running around and getting her heart going to prevent large bolus' of HWs from being released into her bloodstream and clog her lungs and arteries. Other than a slight cough from the HWs landing in her lungs as they died and her body removed them, she did just fine. For under $200.
I love Dr. Ross!

Please, tell more stories of BJ. I am enjoying my trip down memory lane with Fang. 
BTW, she got her name because as a puppy at her first vet visit, the vet commented on the fangs she had! It just stuck.


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## 2kids3cats4me (Jan 6, 2004)

Heidi n Q said:


> Oh, what a terrible way to lose BJ!
> Fang was shot too, but she survived.
> 
> Please, tell more stories of BJ. I am enjoying my trip down memory lane with Fang.
> BTW, she got her name because as a puppy at her first vet visit, the vet commented on the fangs she had! It just stuck.


Saddest part about losing BJ is that we never found his body; I'm sure it's probably due to the fact that shooting a dog is illegal so the guy who did it disposed of his body to hide what a dufus he was.

The reason we pretty much always assumed it was a gunshot is because there was a huge puddle of blood found in a field about a mile away from our house, real close to one of our neighbors who owned one of BJ's female companions. :lol: Anyway, the guy who rented our farmland also rented from our neighbors and he was out in the grain bins or something that day and said he heard a gunshot. About 2 days had passed and we hadn't seen BJ but really didn't think anything of it because he was known for taking off for a couple days here and there and would always come back. Well, after putting 2 and 2 together with the gunshot, a missing dog and the farmer seeing the blood we pretty much assumed that's what had happened. Literally everyone in about a 5-mile radius of our house new what BJ meant to me and we had neighbors get in their trucks and drive around to holler for him and help us look. That's also something I'll never forget! It's so nice to know people really do care. 

BJ got his name from the initials of "Bob & Jolene." Bob was the neighbor who gave me the dog. He was the sweetest man around and, sadly, about a year and a half after giving me the dog for Valentine's Day he was electrocuted by a grain auger. He never really got to see me grow up with BJ, unless he could see from Heaven.  I do pray that somehow he knows how much joy BJ brought to my life. 

I told you I got him as a pup on Valentine's Day, right. Well, Bob and his girlfriend had my mom, dad and me over for supper that night and I walked in to the house hearing him whimper. I walked through the kitchen and into the living room where he sat on the couch with the lid from a heart-shaped chocolates box around his head. I still have that lid. 

I could literally go on and on about BJ. There was the time that my aunt and mom were picking corn from the garden and BJ grabbed some of it and began helping them husk! I have a picture of that, too, but of course that was the days before digital cameras so I have no way to show you. 

This has been so wonderful traveling down memory lane! You don't know how badly I would love to have another large breed dog, much like BJ, but I refuse to do that to a dog while I'm living inside the city limits. If I could just get my husband to agree to buy about 3 acres just outside of town I'd be set! :wink:


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