One from the Way Back Machine

The year was 2003, or thereabouts. I had been fostering dogs for about three years, mostly with Animal Connections. In those days we got most of our dogs from the Louisa County shelter and we spent most Saturdays on the sidewalk in front of Harris Teeter at Barracks Road shopping center.

I had a dog named King, a very solid and handsome dog who had the markings of a Swiss Mountain Dog so we were telling folks he was a mix thereof (you take your best guess in rescue and never make any promises concerning breed).

I was at an adoption event with Karin Straley outside Harris Teeter when a woman came by and recognized King. She said that she had given him up to the shelter and now she wanted him back. She proceeded to tell me some long ridiculous lie about how the shelter people had told her that they would find a foster home for the dog and she could get him back any time she wanted. That was obviously bullshit and I had to wonder if I looked dumb enough that she thought I would believe it. She had two or three kids with her and told me how much the kids loved the dog and missed him, blah, blah, blah. I told her that she could fill out an application if she wanted to do so although I was thinking to myself that there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that I'd ever give her that dog.

Even if I had been considering it, the dog's reaction made my decision very easy. When the woman and her kids approached the King's crate, instead of being happy to see them, he turned his back to them, and laid down in the back of the crate with his back to them, clearly communicating that he wanted nothing to do with them.

I don't know if it was that same day or at another adoption event, but I met a nice young couple fresh out of the Peace Corps who had recently relocated to the Charlottesville area. I liked them. I admire anyone who makes a commitment to helping others; I think it says a lot about them and I adopted King to them.

This evening I received an email from them letting me know that King, renamed Nileke, had just recently died.  This is their letter:

Brent-
You probably don't remember us, but we adopted King (we changed his name to Nileke) from you in 2003, if I remember the year correctly.  We were the couple who had just gotten back from the Peace Corps and were so broke that we had to give you the $90 adoption fee a few months after we took him home with us.

I wanted to let you know that Nileke passed away this week of kidney failure.  More importantly, I wanted you to know that he had a wonderful life, and all of us owe you a debt of gratitude for fostering him and ultimately getting him into our home.

He lived with us in Barbourvsille, VA for about 5 years, and then we all moved out to Colorado.  We ultimately got Nileke a brother and sister (both rescue dogs), and we wound up having two daughters of our own.  Nileke patrolled our acre of land in the mountains at 8600 feet elevation, ran around in the snow like a lunatic, and always watched out for the family.  We eventually moved down into Boulder, Colorado, and he had a great yard to play in and was able to see our girls grow up (now 5 and 7 years old).  Over the course of his life, he has been climbing with us in Virginia, West Virginia, and Colorado; gone to the ocean during summers in Delaware and North Carolina; travelled cross country with the family; and taken part in every major milestone of our family.  He was my best friend, and he was loved by the whole family.

Even though I am writing with sad news, I hope that the fact that he had such a good life  brings you a smile.  Thank you for the work that you do with dogs, and know that it makes a difference.

I didn't remember their names or their story until reminded by the email, but I had never forgotten King, and in fact I had been thinking about him recently. I am my own harshest critic in many ways, but one thing I like to think I've gotten pretty good at is judging people as dog adopters. I patted myself on the back this evening, because I had obviously made a good choice for King in this case.