Dog(s) and humans. What amazing relationships there are and have been! I give the majority of the credit for the legendary, EPIC tales of comeradery and faithfuness, dedication and unconditional LOVE to the dogs in my life.
I only wish I could be the man my dog(s) see me as...
An only child, I was a baby and had a championship lineage Doberman Pinscier puppy (Count) as my best friend.
That would lay the foundation of a lifetime of having dogs in my life.
Way too many stories to tell, but I will tell ONE, about my black Lab Bud, how I got him, and how I got him back after he was stolen from me. Bud was hand-delivered to me by the God of All Creation at the LAST possible moment.
I was working for a business owner in south Mississippi, and I had been provided a house to live in that was one of his recent purchases to resell. He had a major fight with his wife and he moved out of their family home. He began selling his properties, including the house I had been living in, but he let me and my Lab Bud come stay with him in another house in the woods he acquired through this process.
All of the adversity took a toll on his personality and he took a hard line with his employees, myself included, and one morning he was SO over the top I had enough, told him "I quit" and headed up to get my meager belongings and my dog off his property.
Before I could get there, he had someone remove my dog from the property, and he said I couldn't get him back until I paid him $800 back for "advance payments" he had paid me over the last couple of months.
Over the next 7 weeks, I worked for another similar business in the area, filed a police report and met with the sheriff's department in an effort to get my beloved dog back.
I had a couch to sleep on at a friend's house, but I didn't get much sleep because I was CONSTANTLY thinking about any way I could find my dog and get him back.
I spoke with a couple of former coworkers who still worked for the dog thief, my former employer, to get ANY information that could help me find my dog.
I had an outstanding job opportunity come my way, too good to turn down, but it meant leaving Mississippi and moving to the capitol city of Louisiana, and I knew once I left Mississippi I would never see my beloved dog Bud again. I had had Bud since he was 4 months old in 1990, and this story happened in 1997.
The night before the day I was leaving the state to go to my new job, I made phone calls just to thank those who had been so kind to try to help me recover my dog. It just so happened that that very night the subject of my stolen dog came up in a mixed group of people, and someone there said they thought they knew where my dog was. The guy who had been given the responsibility to hold onto my dog had a horse show/auction to attend out of state, so he had left Bud with someone else, and that person is who this guy who said he thought he knew where my dog was, he had just been there.
I was able to meet up with him the very next morning, the SAME DAY I was leaving for good and knew that meant never seeing my dog again. He took me to the horse farm and sure enough, my beloved Lab Bud was there!! I told the lady whose place we were at that that was MY dog, he had been stolen from me, and I didn't care who left him there for her to watch, I was taking my dog and I gave her the business card of the sergeant on the sheriff's department to call so he could confirm my story and learn the legal jeopardy she was in, especially if she didn't let me take my dog with me.
Bud and I left together, and I was able to start the next leg of my life journey with my best friend, my brother, my child, my black Lab Bud by my side.
The CLEAR lesson I learned was that no matter what I tried, no matter who I involved in my efforts to get my dog back, in the end it was the Hands of Almighty God who gave my dog back to me, after I surrendered and simply gave thanks to those who had tried to help me along the way, the worst 7 weeks of my life, became an incredible TRIUMPH by the Grace of God!!
