Today is a really sad day for me. Today - April 1st - is the day my dog Bear didn't come home four years ago. I don't know why it still bothers me so. Why I still send a little prayer up that he's alive & being treated good or if he died, he never knew pain or fear or any kind of suffering. We live in a rural area with houses sometimes a mile apart & not many have fenced yards so sometimes dogs go "hunting" but mostly they stay in their yards or nearby. The neighbor across the road has a pond so the dogs would go over there for a dip. Totally ignoring the large kiddie pool filled with clean water in their own yard. Bear, his litter mate Axle, & my husband's dog Sweetie had a routine. Outside to potty first thing in the morning, run back in for breakfast, & away for whatever adventures they did. They would come back mid-day, running in & gulping water like there wasn't a pond, a creek, & ditches. Bear was food aggressive & would be eating his food, staring at you & growling at you but we always ignored him. But I guess this made him the alpha because he plopped himself right in front of the box fan I had going just for them. In the winter it was a space heater. They would sometimes leave the yard again but mostly they would stay. I would feed them a second time in the evening & everyone went out for a final potty break. Bear had arthritis or hip dsyplasia & sometimes would be downright grouchy. He would get stiff & refuse to come inside. So we'd have to lure him with treats.
All of our animals have been spayed or neutered (except the puppy who was dumped here two months ago) but at the time Bear disappeared, neither he or Axle had been neutered. We had signed up for a low cost program & had been approved & paid our part but was waiting for an opening at the vet's. I wonder if he would have been neutered if that would have made a difference. If maybe he smelled some female & got far enough from home that he couldn't find home. Or someone thought he had been dumped & killed him. I pray no one used him as bait for fighting. A valid concern because some people do not treat animals good at all here. We never saw the point in keeping collars on them or having them microchipped since they are all mixed breed dogs. Another concern is snakes. We have venomous snakes like copperhead, cottonmouth/water moccasin, pygmy rattler, & timber rattles. Bear tried killing any snake he saw & had even been bitten before but recovered.
Here are photos of Bear & Axle. Their mother was a husky dumped here & their father was a corgi dumped about a mile down the road. He made it to our house & we fed him for a year but he never let us get near him. He died from what I suspect was distemper. Once I saw him become noticeably sick I tried tricking him into an old pen so I could then get him into a kennel & a vet. But I was too late. The mother was run over by my neighbor. I believe Axle may have been the runt. He had seizures so I brought him in & babied him for a week or two. He never had seizures again but he looked to me as mama & he was a little "slow".
Weren't they cute??!!!!
Here's one when they're a little older but still puppish.
As they got older......
When Bear went missing my heart shattered in a million pieces. Just not knowing if he was suffering somewhere just about killed me. I drove up & down nearby roads, parking & then walking to see if he was in a ditch. Called the closest neighbors. Talked to the mail carrier.
Watching how Axle reacted was just as painful. He stopped playing & spent hours yelping in all directions, calling for his brother. He stayed glued to me & stayed in the yard. He was always coming up to me & getting more petting & attention. This went on for months. He finally started to slowly play but he still acts aggressive towards our other male.
I don't think I would be like this if I had closure, no matter how painful the truth is.
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