[multi-part post combined]
 
Dear Sandee, Saraferret, and Muldoone,
 
I know this is a sort of different request as my beloved dog has crossed
over the bridge, but I was wondering if one of you could check on him for
me and make sure he got over safely.  I adopted Wolfie about 5 years ago
from a shelter in the area.  I had been looking for a corgi or a corgi
mix, and one day he just appeared on their website.  It was the Friday
before Easter, so when I called, I left a message, and a volunteer
returned my call.  She said that the shelter was closed for the weekend,
but she was coming in that Saturday to walk the dogs, could I come see
him then.  I explained to her that I had to work at the hospital, but I
could be there Monday as soon as my class let out.  She explained that
Wolfie had been at the shelter for two months and was scheduled to be
"put down" on Monday because no one had put an application on him in the
two months he'd been there, and they suspected it was because he was
between 5 and 7 years old.
 
I begged her to not let anyone touch him, that I would be there on Monday
as soon as class was finished to see him.  That Monday he ran to my
boyfriend instead of me.  I told him that I would make him my dog, he was
so beautiful and had such a nice temperament.  He'd been picked up for
jumping the fence into someone's yard.  When they picked him up, he was
near death and only weighed 19lbs when he should have been around 35lbs.
 
He came home to live with me and was the best dog.  He rarely had
accidents, and that was an accomplishment in itself as I work 12 hour
shifts.  In the beginning he thought he wasn't allowed to leave the room
I'd left him in, and I had to keep walking him around the apartment on
the leash to let him know that the had free run of the house, and wasn't
confined to one room.  He wasn't allowed on the furniture in his previous
home I assume, but I was looking for a buddy so I trained him to get onto
the furniture with me and let him know that was ok.  He loved going for
car rides, I mean loved it.  We'd mention want to go for a ride, and
he'd be at the door prancing around waiting for his leash to be put on.
I tried to train him to do tricks and obviously had no idea what his
favorite treat was because I'd been working with him for two months when
one day I pulled out a slice of cheese for myself and he began doing the
tricks so he could have a bite!!  So his favorite treat was cheese, and
what he wouldn't do for some of that.  He liked to be our pre-dishwasher
and lick our plates and bowls clean.  He never seemed to mind other dogs
as much as they minded him.  I had moved home for about 11 months during
nursing school and had to move back out because my mother's Jack Russell
Terrier kept attacking my submissive Wolfie for no reason, totally
non-provoked.  But Wolfie did have a girlfriend.  She was a little buff
cocker who lived next door to us when I met my husband.  Boy did he love
her.  If she would nip at him because she was food aggressive, he didn't
do a darn thing back, just went the other way.  He was just the best dog.
Liked people, liked ferrets.  When I brought home my first ferret,
Frankie, Wolfie was jealous at first, but after that, they became fast
friends.  Wolfie even let Frankie lick his snout.  That was brave!!!
Matter of fact, when I brought home my whole boy Toulouse, Toulouse
thought he'd fallen in love.  He'd prance in front of Wolfie trying to
entice him to play and Wolfie would just look at him like he'd lost it.
Sometimes he like to play like a weasel and other times the old boy just
wanted to be left alone, but he never snapped at them.
 
My husband and Wolfie became good friends while we were dating and for
a while there after we got married, Wolfie kind of took to Archie more
than myself.  I was upset, but noticed before I knew I was pregnant that
Wolfie wouldn't leave me alone.  He just followed me everywhere and
wouldn't leave me alone.  It was like this until we dropped him off at
my in-laws to watch him this past weekend, and while he loves them, for
once, he wanted to come back home with us.  He wasn't the same as he
usually is, usually he welcomes staying with our in-laws.  We told him it
would be fine, he was going to stay with them and we'd be back home on
Sunday.  Mother's Day morning my husband I were driving back from an out
of town wedding.  We went to the store to pick up some flowers for both
of our mom's and my husband got a phone call from his mother.  She said
that Wolfie had run out the front of their apartment when they opened the
door, he just bolted.  She also told my husband not to tell me because
she didn't want to stress me out this early in my pregnancy.  My father
in law tried to chase him but he just kept running.  By the time we got
there, my brother and sister in law and their two children were there
also trying to look for him.  We asked people if they'd seen him and they
said they'd seen him run across a major street when people were trying to
help him, and that he'd run into the woods.  I said a prayer that he be
safe but that if he was hurt to please let him go fast and not suffer.
We searched the woods, we searched surrounding neighborhoods.  The woods
led to I-95 but it appeared to be fenced all around.  We called him, we
offered him a ride, we offered him cheese, nothing, couldn't find him.
After 4 hours of searching, we came home and made up fliers.  We went
back to distribute the fliers and talked to more people, no one had seen
him.  We'd offered a reward.  We searched from noon Sunday until 9:30
Sunday night.  I didn't stay out to look for him because he was afraid of
flashlights and camera's lights flashing so I didn't want to make him go
deeper.  It was supposed to rain.  I had faith that someone had gotten
him and he'd either lost his collar or that he wasn't hurt because he was
microchipped and no one had called from a vet's office.  My mom helped us
look, and thought maybe he'd find his way back to my in-laws.
 
I woke up Monday morning around 7am, and decided I was going to go back
out to look for him, that maybe the rain had driven him out to find his
way back and I'd see him in my searches.  As soon as I finished that
thought, the phone rang.  I answered and it was a man asking if we owned
a dog named Wolfie.  I said yes and started to think, thank God someone
found him.  He continued on to say that he worked for the highway
administration, and he was driving along the highway and saw what he
thought was a fox but it had a collar so he backtracked and took off the
collar and called us.  He said that he thought Wolfie had been hit by a
car and he was gone.  He was on the on ramp from I-95 to 695 in Essex.
That wasn't far from my in-laws apartments and the woods we'd been
searching for him in.  I lost it.  I told him I'd be up to get him and I
wanted his collar so the man waited alongside the road with his collar.
I called my husband who lost it and when he got home, we left and drove
up to get our best boy.  We got out of the car, we thanked the man, took
the collar and I put it back on Wolfie's neck where it belonged.  We
gathered him up, he was stiff as a board, and put him in our backseat on
his big blue pillow.  On the way home, I sat in the backseat and talked
to him, told him how much we loved him, and that we knew that he was in
heaven now and that God was taking good care of him.  I told him a sort
of story about the rainbow bridge and how he could ride in cars that
wouldn't hit him all he wanted, and how he could go through the woods
and smell everything and pee on everything (one of his other favorites go
figure), and how I knew he didn't hurt anymore.  I told him that I didn't
understand why he ran out of the apartment, why he couldn't wait one more
hour for us to get there, but that I wasn't mad at him for it.  I just
wish things had been different.
 
My heart is broken, my in-laws feel awful and are devastated.  My
husband's heart is broken.  I feel like all I do is cry.  We buried him
in my mom's backyard yesterday since my homeowner's association would
have had a cow.  We finally made the pawprint molds we'd wanted to do
on him for a while, although it was difficult to do physically with him
being so stiff.  We made another mold for a marker for his gravesite that
will take about a week to fully dry.  We bought flowers and one of those
things you put in the ground at gravesites to hold them.  My friend
Brittany who owns his girlfriend brought over one of Olivia's favorite
toys for Wolfie to have even though I could never get him to play with
toys, just as a gesture for him to take with him to heaven, so that maybe
he'd ask God to teach him how to play with toys up there.  I went back to
my mom's house last night to spend time with her since I really hadn't
spent any nice time with her on Sunday.  We went out and had a piece of
cheese at his gravesite in memory of him and my husband had asked if we
thought Wolfie would give God his paw.  I said, sure, if he's got a
piece of cheese in return for it.  Paw and high five were his two cheese
tricks.  Anyway, I went out to say goodnight to Wolfie but I found it so
hard to leave.  I wanted to just lay down next to him in our bed one last
time, just to cuddle with him on the couch one last time, just to take
him to Liberty Dam for a walk, one last time.  Just to have his stinky
kisses, one last time.  What I wouldn't give to have one last time with
him to do everything.  He did get one last kiss from me yesterday and
one last ride yesterday, just not how we had planned.  We just thought
it was going to be so different, that we'd be at a vet, helping him to
go to the bridge when this happened.  We just thought it would be so
different.  I don't know how we're ever going to get past this, I mean,
I know we will grieve, and that eventually he will be a memory and we
will have dealt with this pain, but it feels neverending.  He was so
special and so loved and cared for.
 
If the bridge greeters, one of you could check on Wolfie and make sure
he's happy in heaven, and that he heard me about finding a reflecting
pool on the doggie side to come back and visit us in our dreams.  Let him
know how much we miss him and how we tried so desperately to find him,
and that everyone loves him.  That he knows how special he is, and that
while he may look at us know and see tears and sadness, we know that he
had a good life, and we know that he at least had a good last 5 years
with us.  We just wish it could have been longer and ended differently.
I just pray he didn't suffer and it was quick.  I assume it was as people
are traveling at a high speed.  I have to think it was quick for my own
sanity.  Just let him know we know he's still with us in spirit to make
sure he comes back and checks on the baby he followed me around for.  He
can be it's guardian angel, it will need one, and there isn't anyone we'd
rather have looking over it.  Just let him know we love him so much.
 
Thanks,
Jen and Archie Manlapaz
 
To see pictures of Wolfie, check our site and go under his name to see
his page which will be updated soon.
 
http://jenandarchie.tripod.com
[Posted in FML issue 5245]