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I was in my late thirties, coaching and teaching at Lake Holcombe High School. This school was about sixty miles south of the dairy farm I grew up on just south of Hayward Wisconsin. I was single and enjoyed going back to the farm on weekends and for the summer months. We had two dogs on the farm, a Beagle named Bonnie and a collie mix named Snuffles. I had raised both dogs from puppies on up to the adult dogs they were now. I loved dogs and they were a big reason for my coming home to the farm as often as I did. They got along well and both loved to see me when I came home. Snuffles was an outside cow dog and had a dog house on the back porch of the farm-house. Bonnie was an inside dog and her favorite trick was to go up to my bedroom, pull back the covers and curl up on my pillow when ever I left and didn’t take her along. At night mom would warm her blanket on the old oil stove and put her out on an old soft chair on the east porch. My Mom love dogs as well and always made sure they were fed and talked to. My Dad and brothers were more on the order of, dogs were for getting cows and hunting. But for me, my dogs became a part of me, they were special and friends for life.

It was July and my older brother Dan wanted to get me a special birthday present. He knew we didn’t need another dog but arrived one day with a big card board box. He sat it on our porch and then came out to the barn to talk to me and my brother Russ. After a bit I noticed the box on the porch and asked Dan what was in it. Dan said go look for your self. When I opened the flaps of the box, there was the cutest puppy I had ever seen. A Springer Spaniel, liver and white. Great big feet, long floppy ears and a short tail that never stopped wagging. I picked him up and he licked my face, I was hooked and this was my going to be my special dog. The farm was a perfect place to raise a dog. A very big yard and pasture  to run around in. We also had forty acres of woods with trails to walk and ski on. I didn’t like to have to tie dogs up or put them in a kennel and on the farm there was always someone around doing chores or just in the house.

Both Bonnie and Snuffles were jealous of Chief. They did not want to share me with him and they let him know it in no uncertain terms. Chief could not understand why they would growl and snap at him when ever he came over to play. Chief would get that hurt look on his face and look at me for an explanation. I couldn’t help but to pick him up and let him know I loved him with all my heart. This special bond would last for the whole 15 years of his life. Bonnie loved to curl up in my lap when I sat down in the house to read or watch television. Chief tried to crawl up too, but Bonnie made it clear, that wasn’t going to happen. So I had to teach  Chief to lay down by  the side of the chair so I could scratch his ears and pet his head.

Both of the older dogs love to go for walks in the woods. Chief was to young to go so I had a pen that I put him in. He did not like that one bit. He would sit and watch until we came back.  Finally I felt he was old enough to come along on one of our trips. He tried to keep up but would stumble and tip over a few times but always got right up and battled on. I was cutting brush on one of the trips along the trail and the other dogs were hunting around near by. Chief was too, but wandered away at some point. When I was ready to head back to the house I could not find him. I called and searched for a half an hour. I had chores to do back at the farm so I had to leave and go back. Dad saw chief was missing when I came back and said he would go down and look for him while I washed the big bulk tank in the milk house. My mom was a strong Christian and always taught us to pray and ask God for guidance when faced with the problems of life. I knelt in the milk house and asked God to help Dad find Chief. About a half hour later I looked out towards the woods and there was Dad and Chief coming down the lane. I was so relieved and thanked God right away for answered prayer and ran out to meet them.

Mom did not want another house dog so I put up a snow fence pen and build a solid dog house for you to sleep in at night. You never put up a fuss and would go right in at night when I put you to bed. But early in the morning you would be sitting up, watching the farm house door for me to come out and get you.

Chief was so special to me and I remember each incident that happened in his life. Once I wanted to get a picture of Chief up on one of our big, four-foot high, hay bales. When I backed away to take the picture, chief jumped off and jammed his shoulder into the ground. He gave out such a yelp of pain and dragged his body off to the house. He recovered quite rapidly but it took a bit to regain his trust. Another time Chief followed me out to the pasture and stepped on a hot electric fence gate that was open at the time. This time he ran to the house and stayed there the rest of the afternoon. Chief learned to go around every gate in the electric fence. Like all dogs Chief loved to roll in anything that stunk and then to bring it home for a treat to chew on at a later time. Mom would raise a fuss when he brought those treats up on the porch and I would have to burn them in the incinerator. Chief saw nothing wrong with drinking out of the toilet bowl or the Christmas tree stand during the Christmas season. Chief would give me that, so what look, a big lick on my face and I couldn’t help but hug him back.

I had a four-wheeler  and Chief would climb up on my lap for rides down the trails in the woods or just down in the pasture to get cows. Chief loved to go hunting and would retrieve birds well. He got that disgusted look on his face when I missed and always thought a shot meant game to retrieve. In the winter I would just have to put my cross-country ski boots on and Chief would go wild. He loved to race down the trail, stopping to smell every track along the way.

There were many health issues along the way. Like most long-eared dogs, Chief would get ear infections and several trips to the vet, which he hated with a passion. Part of which came from the time the vet stopped at the farm to treat a cow. His long antenna was touching an over head electic wire so  when Chief watered his tire he got the shock of a life time. Chief did not like to have his ears treated and cleaned and would cry out like a young boy. Russ didn’t mind and would do the complete job which I could not bring myself to do. After many year of this Russ said he had enough and we should just put chief to sleep. Mom knew how hard that would be for me so we both made it a real matter of prayer. On the next visit to the vet he tried some new medicine that didn’t burn so much and to dry the ears out he sewed them up over his head. After two weeks I was able to cut the thread and Chief lived another five years after that.

Then one friday I came back to the farm to learn chief had been hit by a car. The driver came in to the house to tell Russ and Mom that he had killed our dog. But when Russ got out there to the road Chief had come to and came running over. Chief had blood coming out his nose and threw up several times. Mom put the dog pillow down in the front room and Chief stayed there for several days. He did make a full recovery but  developed seizures later on. The first one scared me to death as Chief just got rigid as a board and shook all over. Again a trip to the vet and little white pills to take several times a day. It was a real trick to get Chief to take his pill. He was great at spitting the pill out of his mouth. I found if I stuck them in a little piece of hot dog that Chief would swallow them down just fine. Later in life Chief got lynes disease. More trips to the vet and more pills to get down. It was July and very hot so chief loved to go down in the old basement with a dirt floor. He could dig out a small spot and relax in the cool dirt. I would sit  on a wooden chair and read for a while and then try to sneak back upstairs. As soon as Chief woke up he would come right up stairs to find me.

It was always so hard to leave at the end of the summer and when I packed my suit case up stairs. Chief would lay on the other bed and moan. I would drive out the driveway and look back to see Chief sitting on the porch, watching me for as long as he could.

So many trials and troubles we worked through together. Your undying love made up for all the sort comings you may have had. I loved to have morning devotions with Mom and Chief right by my side. First we would have to give you part of the toast we were eating , or you would slap us with your paw. When Dad died and mom was alone at night, Chief was such a comfort, always right by her side. Mom loved to take Chief for walks around the yard. Chief knew my name and when mom would say, Bob is coming Chief would jump up and run out to meet me. We went though so many things together and I had to leave you in Gods hands so many times, we developed such a special bond and I didn’t know what I would do when you passed on. I was a loner and didn’t have any close friends. Very few girls would put up with a sour old farm boy so Chief was my best friend.

After a loss in a tough football game I would drive back to the farm and see the warm glow of  a light on in the front room. I knew mom would be up waiting for me and that I could lay down on the floor and just hug Chief and he would lick my face and tell me it was ok it I got my butt kicked at the game. The mean things that the fans said and the hurt inside of the loss would melt away. When I found out I had a tumor by my optic nerve and had to have a three-hour MRI. I survived by picturing Chief and Mom sitting out in the yard at the farm, praying for me the whole time.

Later when Mom died I drove back from Ashland every day to spend the night with Chief. We both missed her so much but we found comfort in each other. By then Chief was 15 years old and developed kidney stones. He had trouble urinating and the vet said he would have trouble the rest of his life and he was to old to take the surgery very well. I knew it was time. I held Chief in my arms and stroked his head  and told him how much I loved him and the vet gave him the shot to put him down. I carried Chief out in a body bag and took him home to the farm. I buried him out in the yard near the cook out place where we had so many happy memories. Then I drove to the cemetary where mom and Dad’s  graves were and told them Chief had died. I couldn’t come back to the farm for two weeks. It was so empty and cold  with out Chief and Mom there. But slowly the wounds healed and now I can go back and find comfort in the old farm-house and yard. The warm memories of the happy times flood my mind and peace returns to my heart.

Now when ever my heart skips a beat and I think this may be the end, I dream of that reunion in Heaven, Mom will say, Bob is here, and I can picture Chief running to jump in my arms. We will stroll over the green meadows and all be together again. What a reunion that will be!

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