Puff

When my family lived in California, we had a beautiful Cocker Spaniel named Puff.  We rescued him from the SPCA and they told us he was five years old.  When I took him to the vet for an initial checkup, I was told he was more like ten.  I didn’t mind, though, because we loved him.  It turned out, however, that he had serious separation anxiety. 

The first time we left him at home, we went to church.  As we drove up to the house afterward, we knew something was amiss.  Our first clue was the blinds hanging at odd angles!  We walked in and it looked as though a hurricane had hit the inside of the house.  Puff was happy to see us, but I feared we would have to return him to the SPCA.  My husband, Mike, and I talked about it and decided to give it a try with Puff.

I bought a large crate for Puff.  I had read that crate training was good for dogs with separation anxiety.  I would put him in the crate when I needed to leave the house and felt like he was secure.  I quickly learned that Puff was not happy in the crate.  Our neighbor mentioned his excessive barking.  I also realized that I would have to bathe him every time because he would be soaked in urine when I would get him out of the crate.  So I began taking him everywhere I went.

At the time we had Puff, I was homeschooling my kids, David and Bekah, through a local Christian school.  The kids were able to take P.E. and band through the school and had various activities there.  I also had monthly and quarterly meetings with the teacher who was in charge.  Puff and I became a fixture in the school parking lot as we waited for the kids.  Puff would sit in the back seat, happily looking around or napping; I would read.  If I needed to speak to the teacher in charge, Puff was a perfect gentleman while he waited in the car.  In Vista, the weather was almost always cool enough to leave Puff in the car with the windows down, especially if I found a spot in the shade.  I couldn’t leave him alone at home, but he was great in the car!

Puff loved going to my parent’s house.  When I was going to be gone for a long time or it was too hot for Puff to sit in the car, I would take him to Grandma’s and Papa’s house.  They loved having him there because he was such a good boy for them.  They missed not having a dog, after their Basset Hound Holly died, so having Puff there was fun for them.  My mom said that about half an hour before I would come to pick him up, Puff would sit looking at the front door, waiting; like he knew I was coming.

Puff also enjoyed going along to the kids sporting events and practices.  He enjoyed the attention he received and loved walking.  At one of Bekah’s softball games, David wanted to walk Puff so off they went.  Puff decided he needed to poop right in front of some teenage girls.  I thought David would die of embarrassment and he never again asked to walk him!

When we first got Puff, I decided that he would sleep in the living room.  I bought him a nice bed and set him up.  I kissed him and told him goodnight.  I went to bed and soon Bekah crawled in bed with us.  After about half an hour, we heard a light thundering coming down the hall and Puff came flying up on the bed!  He decided he did NOT want to sleep alone!  Bekah and I screamed and then laughed really hard.  From them on, Puff slept on the bed with us.

One day I had to get paperwork ready for my quarterly meeting with the teacher in charge of David’s homeschooling.  I kept both kids papers in open file boxes on the floor; David’s box was on the bottom.  When I got out the papers I noticed they looked funny.  I examined them all and tried to figure it out.  I smelled them and realized, with dread, what the problem was.  Puff would get up in the night and wander through the house, apparently urinating on David’s file box!  That day I purchased a baby gate to keep at my bedroom door so Puff could no longer roam through the house at night.  I made photocopies of all of David’s papers so the teacher would not have to handle and file urine soaked papers.  She thanked me profusely.

Sometimes Mike worked late and would be hungry when he got home.  He would quietly get food and sit in front of the television to eat it.  Puff had a really good sniffer and would rat Mike out every time by sitting at the baby gate barking.  Mike would come get Puff and they’d eat together.  Some of Mike’s fondest memories of Puff are sitting at the table eating, with Puff standing on his hind legs sharing his food late at night.

In September, 1999, we decided to move to Las Vegas.  Mike was working three jobs in Vista and he got a really good job offer in Vegas.  Mike left for Las Vegas in January of 2000 and the kids and I went in July of 2000.  We were a little concerned about how Puff would be in Las Vegas with his health problems and separation anxiety.  We didn’t know anyone there who could baby sit him and the summers are hot.  It was a source of concern for me.  It turned out that we didn’t get to take our boy with us.

Puff had a lot of health problems.  He had an enlarged heart and congestive heart failure.  At one point, he had some mild seizures.  He was also overweight.  Eating people food was not good for him.  I managed his health as best I could.  One day he started bleeding from a tumor by his rectum.  I took him to the vet and with all of Puff’s other health concerns, the vet was reluctant to do surgery.  I had to make the excruciating decision, alone, to have Puff put to sleep April 8^th, 2000.

I missed him so much.  He was my little shadow and went everywhere with me.  I sobbed for weeks.  I was panic stricken when I realized I couldn’t smell him in the house anymore.  I felt so alone.  I muddled through the rest of our time in Vista, not going too many places and waiting for the house to sell.