On People and Dogs

The relationships that people have with their dogs can often be quite remarkable. It certainly has been in our house for the past 34 years. We began with an Old English Sheepdog we named Jazz. He was our first baby, born a year before our daughter Jenn. Jazz lived a long healthy life and was a wonderful companion: fully grown out, he was and remains to this day, the most gorgeous dog I’ve ever seen. When we lost him, we made the mistake of burying him in the backyard and I cried like a baby. The kids had never seen me cry and to this day they remember it.

We then made mistake #2 and got a female sheepdog we named Molly. We were trying to preserve Jazz’s memory and it wasn’t fair to the new dog. Our relationship with Molly was OK but she never measured up to Jazz. Not her fault. And an error we vowed not to repeat.

So we tried the rescue dog approach after Molly passed and courtesy of the local shelter, Cody came in to our lives. He was a retriever/lab mix with a few other strains thrown in for good measure. Cody was a sweet and energetic dog who bonded with our youngest daughter Lauren. But we couldn’t get him to abide by the rules of the electric fence that we had. Nasty jolt of electricity and all, he would walk right through it. This proved to be his undoing. We were having a horrific rain storm and Barton Creek (down the trail about 150 yards from our home) was raging. Cody had to go out (wearing his little doggie sweater that Marge had found him) and for some unfathomable reason, he took off and ran right through the fence and down the trail to the creek. I took off after him but couldn’t find him. Several days passed and we were freaked out. I searched for him to no avail. And then the worst: a neighbor who walked the creek each day came to our door carrying Cody’s body. He had drowned in the creek, done in by the weight of the water absorbed by his sweater. We were devastated.

And then one of Lauren’s basketball teammates told her about a litter of chocolate labs at her house. She brought one of the puppies to a game and we held this brown little bundle of fur. Well that did it and Emma became the newest member of our family. We were unfamiliar with labs and their ability to eat almost anything. Emma could eat things that were ostensibly fatal to most dogs: a two pound box of Godiva chocolates, wrappers and all; a box of chicken wings; grapes and cherries; well, you get the picture. She was indestructible and a total love. She was shorter in stature than most labs but made up for it in the weight department. Our vet constantly chided Marge about Emma’s weight but in the end, Marge’s propensity toward treat-giving and Emma’s total delight with each treat made her a life-long chubster. Still she lived a wonderful life of almost 15 years. Her finals days were brief and without pain. She was a marvelous dog in every sense of the word. She passed within days of Marge’s mom so it was a gloomy November for us last year and it put a damper on Christmas as well.

2012 came with the Balon family’s longest time without a dog in the house. And then Tony Ciola (owner of Tony C’s and The League in Lakeway) told us about a breeder in San Marcos who had gotten him his new lab puppy Slugger (after his old lab and been killed by a car). We called the breeder and she didn’t have any pups at the moment but she knew of a breeder in College Station who had just had a new litter of yellow labs. The woman sent us some pics and we fell totally in love with one of the white pups. We drove up to College Station and picked up the most beautiful white lab we had ever seen. He was the pick of the litter and the sire’s choice. But through a series of freakish events, Skylar became available and we snatched him up. Within the first 5 minutes of the trip back to Austin he threw up on Marge in the back seat.

Marge was unfazed. This puppy could do no wrong. He was, as the breeder described him, a “real lover boy”. Most affectionate male dog I’ve ever seen. And then when it came time for him to be neutered, the vet called and said the blood test revealed he had the kidney function of a 19-year old cat. A visit to a specialist confirmed the vet’s suspicions. Skylar had congenital kidney disease and had less than 6 months to live. We were shocked beyond belief. And worse still, the six months turned in to less than a week. We had to put Skylar down six days after the visit to the specialist. After all the dogs we’d had this was by far the worst because the precious little guy was only six months old.

So here we sit today, dogless again. But you might have guessed it. Skylar’s aunt just had a litter and we found the cutest little black lab. So in about three weeks, we’ll trek up to College Station once more and begin anew. Skylar will always be in our thoughts but this new pup apparently has a similar personality. And life, as it must and always does, goes on! Wish us luck.

Obviously, this blog had nothing to do with food or wine. But if you love dogs, I hope you appreciated it.