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Today I arrived home from Descanso Gardens, opened
the door and watched my little dog, Hades, as he ran all
over the apartment, excitedly running all over the
floor. He chased his tail, then barked as I stooped over
to pet the two cats.
 He
barked again, as if to say, "hey, I'm the one you should
be petting!" He waited a few seconds, then rushed in and
chased poor Tabby, my 14 year old cat, away. No, this
was dog petting time...
I sighed, put down the groceries, and carefully put a
weeks worth of food into the refrigerator. Hades sat
there, barked a couple of times to get my attention, and
waited for me to finish. He was very familiar with the
drill.
When I was done, I smiled and went over to pet Tabby
again. Hades ran all over, chased his tail, and rushed
out of the room. A few seconds later he was back with a
toy. He upped the ante, demanding that I play with him
now.
I grabbed the toy and he refused to let go. We played
tug of war for a few minutes, until I pulled it from his
teeth. I threw the little toy across the room, and Hades
rushed to get it. When he got there, he stood over the
toy, looked back and me, as if thinking, "well, what do
I do now?" A few minutes to ponder the question, and he
left the toy and came over to be petted.
I spent the next thirty minutes playing with my
little dog. After all, he and I are best buddies. I went
to the kitchen to start dinner, and while it was cooking
I reflected on the interesting relationship between my
dog and I.
Claudia decided to get a dog. I didn't really want
one, as I was more fond of cats and I felt our little
apartment wasn't suitable for another animal. But she
was insistent and reluctantly I agreed.
Claudia got onto the web and began looking for dogs.
This was our second attempt at a dog since we had been
married. The first was a disaster. We got a very nice
"little" dog, but the landlady was furious since she
realized something we didn't ... it would be a very big
dog when it grew up. Not something for a small
apartment, and not a dog for a very sick wife (she had
severe chronic lung disease). So I had to give our first
dog away to a nice family. My wife was very upset with
this course of events ... most specifically, she was
upset with me.
However, Claudia was determined to get a dog and this
time she'd learned her lesson well. She found a small
dog, a Pomeranian, on the internet at a breeder in
Wisconsin. This dog was expensive, over $300, but it was
a purebred with a documented pedigree. We agreed on the
price and had the dog shipped via airline.
Now I wasn't too overly thrilled with this whole
plan. The first dog had been a miserable experience,
with her mad at me. I didn't feel a dog was going to
work out well, but on the other hand, it would make
Claudia happy. She was very sick at the time, and I
would have done anything that I could to cheer her up.
The dog arrived at his new home in a little cage.
This little animal was about 2 pounds and would fit into
your hands easily. He was so tiny, and he was terrified.
He had, after all, just spent two days in a small cage
in an airplane.
It took us a few minutes to coax the animal out of
the cage, but he finally poked out a head, then a paw,
then another paw. Of course, Tabby chose that moment to
see what was happening, and Hades ducked back into the
cage. Sigh. We had to coax him out all over again.
And what do you think the first thing that Hades did
when we finally got him to come out of the cage? He
threw up all over everything, of course!
Now Claudia spent the next hour or so playing with
him. The little dog was starting to warm up to her, and
then I came out of my office (I have my own room in the
apartment with all of my geeky computers and stuff which
is where I work from home). The dog took one look at me,
cringed and pee'd all over the floor! He was terrified
of me.
At the time, I thought it was kind of amusing
(although a little disturbing) but shrugged it off. We
were hungry, so I ordered some pizza, which arrived in a
half hour or so. We opened the box, each of us grabbing
a slice, and made went into the kitchen for a few
minutes.
We returned to get another slice, and the pizza was
missing. So was the dog. After a thirty minute search,
we found him under the couch, but we never did locate
the remainder of the pizza (half an extra large).
Over the next hour or so, I found teeth marks in
literally everything within a foot of the floor. Books
were destroyed, pillows were chewed, shoes were
rampaged, and even CDs and videos were victims of this
little dog's very sharp teeth.
And that's how he got his name .. .Hades.
Hades and Claudia bonded after that, and he became
her dog. Hades still pee'd all over the floor and
cringed whenever he saw me. We guessed that I must have
reminded Hades of someone in the past, someone who was
not nice to him. Perhaps his previous owner?
Hades and Claudia became best friends. Over time,
Hades warmed up to me somewhat, at least he didn't
cringe and pee all over anymore.
In 2003 Claudia went into a coma for 17 days. Her
chronic lung disease collapsed her lungs and her blood
pressure went up to the 300/200 range. Those were 17
very dark days, but in spite of all Claudia pulled
through and returned home. While she was gone, poor
Hades was stuck with me, and he didn't like it at all.
He spent most of those days stuffed behind the couch or
some other hiding place.
Over the next two years, Claudia recovered and the
bond between Hades and her grew strong. Hades warmed up
to me slightly, and would finally let me pet him
sometimes. It was as he was slowly coming to realize
that I was not that person from his earlier days who
harmed him.
Then, on January 31st, 2005, a Monday, Claudia called
me at work, saying she didn't feel good. I came home
quickly and found her in bed. She didn't look good at
all, so I called 911 and they rushed her to the
emergency room.
Eighteen hours later she passed away.
I remember coming home and looking at Hades sadly. I
wondered what he was going to do now that his best
friend was gone.
I was very sad and sat down on the couch. Tears came
up to my eyes. Suddenly, I found Hades in my lap,
looking up at me as if to say, well, you've still got
me! I looked into that innocent little dog's face, and
knew that his little fur ball was a lot smarter than I
had thought.
We slowly bonded over time, and now Hades and I are
best friends. He greats me at the door when I come home
from work, "helps" me carry the laundry downstairs,
keeps those "pesky cats from bothering me", and bids me
goodbye when I leave for the office. We go on hikes
together, including places like Vasquez Rocks and
Monrovia canyon.
So that's they story of Hades and how he and I came
to be buddies. |
