Shakey was a dog

(A Re-blog from 2007)

Posted by Mike Bennion on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 1:32:59 AM

     When my kids were small we got a dog named Rusty.  He was too rough for them and we gave him away.
    After this fiasco, every time the kids asked for a dog Mom said, "No".  This went on for about ten years.
One day I got a phone call at work.  It was Luisa, my wife.  there was tenderness in her voice,  "There are puppies here!  The principal of the school where she worked had a dog who had puppies. 
    That evening, just over fifteen years ago,  a small cream and yellow bundle of joy wormed his way into our hearts.  He was wiggly and had sharp little puppy teeth, and had that wonderful puppy smell.  He was part Golden Lab and part Cocker Spaniel.  He had Lab ears with a semi-pug spaniel nose and a docked tail.  the Movie, "Beethoven"  had been out for a few years.  We opted to go literary instead of musical, and he was named "Shakespeare".  This worked well because when we came home he would meet us at the door with great enthusiasm and his docked tail would go a ile a minute.  He shook all over with excitement,  so we called him "Shakey"  for short.
    When Shakey came to live with us we already had tow cats, Tigger and Tasha.  Tigger whipped the young pup into shape and they soon all became great friends.  They all slept together in a contented heap.
    We were living in California when Shakey came to be part of our family, but soon moved to Southern Utah.
We had no fence at the new house so Shakey lived in the Garage for a few weeks while I was at work and the family hadn't come to Utah yet.  I would walk Shakey everyday when I came home form work and this became a habit.
    There was a pasture near the house.  the first time Shakey smelled a horse he came to attention and looked at me as if th say, "What in the heck is that?"  We went down the street everyday to a wash. and Shakey would explore.  One day we met a skunk in the dark.  Shakey wanted to be friends.  the skunk was not sure.  We got Shakey out just in time.
    Shakey soon learned that he loved cheese.  His nickname became "cheesedog".  The slightest crackle of plastic wrap at the fridge would bring him running.  He learned to do tricks for cheese.  He would give paws, Sit, lay down, speak and dance.  Liesel was a great drill sargeant, putting Shakey, through his paces.
    Kal-Erik teased the dog unmercifully and they would chase each other around the room.  Shawn was our trumpet player and Shakey would "sing along" with him, or with the TV.  Especially if he heard the Tabernacle Organ.  When the door bell rang on TV he would run barking to the door.
    The kids grew up and left hime one at a time.  Karl-Erik went for two years to serve a mission for our Church in the Philippines, where he was fed dog.  Shakey must have known because he bit Karl-Erik when he came home.  Shawn went to Argentina on a mission and Shakey bit him when he came home to be an "equal opportunity" biter.  He never bit Liesel.
    The cats left us one at a time. Tasha first.  Then Tigger, got cancer, shrank to skin and bones, and jsut went away one day.  Shakey was devestated and confused.  He looked around the house for days.  He took to going in and out of the house every half hour or so.   When we moved to Nevada we bought a doggy door.
    Several years ago Shakey was run over.  He suffered a collapsed lung and a broken pelvis and went deaf.
We thought we were going to lose him, but he bouced back and became hale and hearty again.  He never recovered his hearing, however, and the singing stopped.  He only barked in his sleep now.
    Shakey loved our walks in Henderson.  We had one dog down the street who jumped as high as the block wall and we always tried to sneak past.  He loved to greet all the other dogs, tail doing a little dance as he got acquainted.
    A few months ago Shakey got a tumor.  He was operated on and began to recover.  Then he came down with pancreatitis, and wouldn't eat.  The vet treated him and he became our "1,500 dollar dog".  At first he seemed to be getting better, but then started refusing dog food, His weight dropped drastically and we started seeing his ribs underneath the fur.  We tried to give him chicken and pedialite.  He despise the pedialite, and tolerated the chicken, but then wouldn't eat that.  Luisa had to go north to look after Liesel and Blake,  (our daughter and son-in-law) as Blake gets ready for open heart surgery this Thursday.
    I fed Shakey beef and he ate it at first but started refusing it two days ago.  this morning he was wobbly on his feet.  He had been breathing shallow and rapidly for same weeks.  He was moaning today when I came home.
     I took him out for a last walk.  He sniffed at the scents that the breeze gave him, but he walked so slowly with a limp, dragging his hind feet.  I put him in the car and drove to the vet's.  I picked him up and hugged him tightly, then handed him to the Vet, and he was gone.
    But he will live agian, and in the mean time, he is no longer old and tired.  I expect to see him again some day.
    Karl-Erik wrote a song about Shakey.  I called him tonight and asked him to sing it to his kids .
   
                                                                "Shakey was a dog
                                                                   a very good dog
                                                                   a very good dog
                                                                        Shakey".