PANAMA

A few weeks ago I promised to tell you about my ‘best friend’ Panama. Let me start at the beginning.

I had a Cocker Spaniel named Lily. Then my daughter got as a birthday gift a Cocker Spaniel whom she named Jack. As a side note we also had a cat named Rosemary. Yeah, for awhile we had Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts. Anyway…My mother went through a time of breeding dogs; Cocker Spaniels to be exact and she made a little money at it, so I thought why not see if this will be an easy ‘part-time’ job.

Well, it wasn’t easy and it drove my husband nuts. Lily had a litter of five puppies. One, ‘Sweet Puppy’ didn’t survive, but that’s a story for another time. One of the puppies Peepers (another dog story, maybe) was really attached to me and I desperately wanted to keep him. It was a fight, but I finally got my way. I got out of the breeding business, and decided to enjoy Lily, Peepers and Jack as beloved pets.

Peepers lived fourteen years and everybody was heartbroken when he died (his parents had already passed on). At that time my husband stated ‘no more dogs’ and nothing I could do would change his mind. I mentioned this to my daughter and told her how much I missed having a dog. Somewhere along the line I also mentioned that I would like a big dog, maybe a Golden Retriever. So, that Christmas that’s exactly what she got me. A little ball of fluff that I named Panama.

                                              

(Sorry, I only have grown up Panama pictures in this computer.)

Panama started out about as big as two handfuls, but I swear you could sit and watch that dog grow. By the time he was six months old he looked like a full size dog, but he didn’t stop there. At about ten months he was huge. This is when my husband ran him over with a truck, not intentionally, he suffered a broken leg and pelvis. It was the third of July. We loaded him into the back of my SUV and drove him over to the only vet we could get a hold of. She took some x-rays and told me that he could be fixed, but it would be expensive. I pulled out a credit card.

Panama healed rather well, but he did stop growing after that. He didn’t like to be out in the cold either, but I had always intended he be an inside dog, so it really didn’t matter. After the whole episode of being run over by the truck and then the traumatic ride to the vet, Panama never wanted to get in the car again. Because he weighed over a hundred pounds and stood about three and a half foot tall at the head, it took two of us to wrestle him into the car, if he HAD to take him somewhere.

Panama was a monster in size but he had the gentlest heart. He never barked – there goes the watch dog. Once when we were out walking on the ranch we scared up a small herd of elk (about 75 of ‘em) he turned and looked at me and I could tell he was considering jumping up into my arms, something that had me a little more worried than a confrontation with the elk. He also never growled or snapped at another dog or person. He and Scout, our outside dog, used to play and tussle around but there was never a growl or even an accidental nip on Panama’s part.

When we were moving to the islands many friends came out to help us clear the ranch property we had been living on for seven years. A very kind and gentle man who was one of our neighbors, showed up during a work party and sought me out asking; “What can I do to help?” In that instant I had a flash of how kind and wonderful he and his wife treated their two dogs, one a huge sheepdog named Barney and the other a Cocker Spaniel, whose name I can’t remember. Anyway, I asked Mike to help me by giving Panama a good home. He talked to his wife Kelly, and they agreed.

It broke my heart to leave Panama behind in Idaho, but I knew then and know even more so now, that he’s better off and happier there. Man, I love that dog. He is my best friend.

{ DON'T ASK}

One last thing...my friends Brandon and Bryan over at A Beer for the Shower Have a released a new book

and they are giving away a free paperback copy. Check out their site and enter to win. It's easy. You know you want to.