The Long Line To Linus

So it’s been almost two months since we lost Opie. It has definitely been a rough stretch for all of us, especially for L Bird. I think it hurt so much more because Opie was so young, he was only a year old. It wasn’t like it was with Frisco. We had Frisco for 11 years and he had lived a long good life and it was a  bit of mercy to have him put down because he was really starting to suffer from cancer and his quality of life was definitely impacted. So we knew we made the right decision, we were very upset and sad but it was different than Opie who had a long life in front of him and had it cut short in such a devastating way.

I have always been a two dog type of guy which means we are a two dog family. It really is all my Mom’s fault in a way, she said “When you have your own house you can have as many animals as you want!” Well, I definitely listened. As soon as I moved out I got a black lab mix, TJ. Then about a year later I got Roxy, my pitbull/american bulldog mix and I was happy, it was just me and my two dogs, then through a twist of fate I lost TJ to a girl I was dating.

***I originally got TJ for this girl I was dating, he turned out to be closer to me than her and in essence was really my dog. Long story short we broke up, she moved out and I got TJ because she couldn’t take him. I had him for about 6 months on my own when she called me out of the blue and asked if she could take TJ, she had a place that she could have him. After a long talk I agreed with the exception that if she couldn’t keep him for any reason I wanted him back. Well, it lasted about two weeks before I found out that she had given him away to a farmer. I personally think that the miserable bitch just took TJ out of spite and to cut the final tie to me she had. I actually tracked TJ down and went out to the farm to get him back, but as I was talking to the farmer his two boys were in the pasture playing and running with TJ. I didn’t have the heart to do to them what she had done to me, so I lost TJ.

So now without TJ, it was me and Roxy and we were fine but I knew that I would find another dog. That’s when Frisco came into our lives. Frisco was some sort of terrier mix, and he took a lot of grief from my friends. He had a little bitty head but a big body, my friends called him all sorts of names but the one that stuck was “Shrimpboat.” So the last 11 years it has been Roxy and Frisco and they were and are great dogs. Roxy is still extremely tolerant and patient with everyone and especially close to A Bird and Frisco was the same when he was with us. Then 2  years ago Frisco was put down and we were lost with just one dog, so A Bird and I went and she picked out Opie, the beagle.

Opie was one of the most animated dogs I have ever owned, he had so much personality packed into that little body. He was glued to A Bird’s hip, when he got up in the morning or before he went to bed, he would run to A Bird’s room and check to see if she was in there. If he saw her leave with the grandparents he went nuts whining and running from the window to the door. He just was a perfect little fireball of joy, minus how long it took to housebreak him lol. Then we lost him to the road.

We waited a few weeks and L Bird saw an ad in the paper for boxer puppies. She knew that I had always wanted a boxer, and I always wanted a white boxer and the ad said they had two. So after a lot of talking and guilt that it was only a couple of weeks since Opie we decided to drive out and take a look at them. We drove out into the middle of nowhere to a Mennonite farm and there they were 8 little puppies playing with 3 little Mennonite girls. The three of us  got out and sat down in the grass and played with the pups. I talked to the Husband and Wife and they were very friendly and really nice people, I fell in love with the two pure white boxers but they were both girls and we were looking for a boy. So A Bird really took to this brindle pup and she declared that he was the one she wanted. We paid the woman, got his paperwork and started for home.

In the car, we asked A Bird what we should name her new puppy and her first choice was Sal. I know, weird right? Well, Sal was out because that’s L Bird’s father’s name so we asked to try again and she picked Linus. So now we have Linus.

 

That’s the long line to Linus!