It was about mid-November 2004 and I was in the throws of my Vet Tech program at Vermont Tech. I had figured out what my passion was and I was enjoying learning about veterinary medicine. The program at VTC is small, maybe 18-20 students. In order for us to learn hands on how to perform things like blood draws, radiography, anesthesia and restraint the school houses small animals for a semester before adopting them out to the students. Sometimes there were two or three dogs, three or four cats, a handful of mice, rats and a couple of guinea pigs. In my first semester I was not planning on taking a dog in. For one thing, I lived on campus and my mother would be tasked with taking care of yet another animal I brought home and for another we already had two dogs and three cats. We didn't really need another animal in the mix.
If you were interested in adopting an animal through the school, then you signed up to take the dogs or cats home over school breaks so that they could acclimate to your house a bit, and so you could get to know the dogs outside of school better. By the time October break rolled around all the animals were spoken for and I didn't think much else about it. As the Thanksgiving break approached we noticed that the girl who was scheduled to bring home Evie was not showing up to classes, and no one had really seen her on campus to know what her plans were. For the Thanksgiving break Evie and a couple of the other animals stayed on campus as no one had decided they were taking them home. After the break I think most people assumed someone would take Evie home, but the girl who no one saw still had her name on the adoption list for her. It wasn't until about 2 weeks before the end of the semester that we found out she was no longer involved in the program and Evie was "homeless" as of the middle of December.
To be honest, I don't think anyone else wanted to take in dear, sweet, Evie. And I am not really sure why I thought I should consider it. She was young- maybe 2- and hyper. Walking her outside required arm strength as she had little to no leash manners. She routinely barked and bounced and in general drove people a bit nuts. To work on as a teaching animal she was actually pretty well behaved- though a bit high strung. She had a beautiful coat of black and there was something about her that made me think maybe she could be a good fit in our house. I am pretty sure my friends thought I was nuts. I am pretty sure my mother was hoping she wouldn't fit in well and then we wouldn't have to adopt her. Regardless I set it up so that I could bring her off campus for a weekend to my house to see how she would get along with my crew. At the time we had an aging Sheltie that had belonged to my Grandmother and Nonie who was 4 and still quite active herself. I figured if nothing else Evie would get a chance to get off campus and play some before being relegated to her kennel again. I picked her up from the school kennels Friday afternoon, and loaded her into the car for the hour long trip home.
If the car ride home was an indicator I should have left her at school and not thought twice about it. I stopped at a store to get a drink for the road and when I went back out to the car she had eaten the air freshener that was hanging from my dashboard. I chalked that up to the smell and figured she was nervous. We made it back to Pittsford and I stopped at my dad's house to drop something off quickly again leaving her in the car. I was gone for about 3 minutes and when I came back she had chewed her leash to shreds. I blew it off as my fault and continued on home. She came in the house and she and Nonie took to each other right away. They played and romped and bounced all weekend long. Evie snoozed in my mother's bed and cuddled with us on the couch. It appeared as though she would be coming home to stay.
When I relayed this to the program technician I tried to pretend the look on her face was happiness, not relief. In truth Evie was never suited for kennel life and she was driving everyone nuts with her incessant barking. Now that she was coming home with me, the noise would be done soon enough! When the school semester ended and finals were done, I brought Evie back to the house. It didn't take long for her to wear off her welcome. The good behavior she had exhibited (except for the car ride) the previous trip was but a faint memory. She spent the first week barking. Close to non-stop. At anything that might be moving or might be new or different. Having lived in a kennel for a semester and who knows what before that her house training was lax at best. She pestered the old Sheltie and even was a bit too exuberant for Nonie. I am pretty sure my mother thought I had brought home an imposter the first time and now I brought a monster back for good. Evie was a trying dog, to say the least.
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| Evie's first Christmas at home |
By the end of Christmas break, after some rough patches she was starting to settle in and the barking had ceased. She was making small strides in the house training department and we found that she was in love with ball playing and being out in the snow. When it came time for me to go back to school for the next semester she was on her way to becoming a better behaved member of society. The worst "incident" was the thieving of Yorkshire pudding off the table during New Years Day Dinner. In front of all of us she just stood up on her hind legs, stretched and pulled the food towards herself, happy as could be. Food, it turned out, was something Evie was quick to snarf up.
Over the years that followed something happened to this wild Lab mix-- she grew up! It wasn't a quick progression, and at times she challenged me, but the challenges strengthened our relationship. Evie was the smartest dog I've had the pleasure of working with. Nero was clever and could open things I didn't think possible, but Evie was easy to train and willing to please. She learned tricks, and commands, and became a master of fetch. If you were to ask her (and she were to answer) what mattered most in her life the answer would be: Food, Ball, Swimming, Snow, repeat. If we were out hiking by water she needed a leash on her or she was in it. Once we were hiking along the creek and she jumped into the water-- right alongside a Beaver that I hadn't seen. Thankfully she came when called. Once she went into the creek and couldn't find the place to get out so my brother had to jump in and help her out. In all the time we owned her I never saw her tire from playing fetch. She would have played ball or chased sticks and toys all day, every day if possible. It was even better if combined with snow.
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| Evie and her stick |
Shortly after she had been home I noticed she came up slightly lame on occasion after long walks. I asked the vet I was working for and she said she wondered if it was her hips. We took some x-rays and discovered her hips were horrible. Riddled with dysplasia, if you didn't know she was walking around you would have thought she couldn't. Evie on the other hand, didn't pay much mind to the hips. We started her on a glucosamine supplement and she was not bothered by her hips until she was about 8 or 9 years old, at which time she responded well to pain meds as needed. This was a dog with a pain threshold higher than anyone or any animal I had ever met.
When I went to vet school, leaving Evie behind was a hard decision. She was pretty firmly bonded with my mom, and her vocalness (though less than when we first got her) made her a poor candidate for an apartment. I decided it was in her best interest to stay at home. When Nikki and her crew moved in, Evie had new friends to play with and I realized it was a better fit than bringing her to an apartment with no other animals for her to interact with, especially while I was in classes. It worked out well, as Nikki was able to keep an eye on her arthritis and made me feel better about not being home to micromanage her medical needs.
Over the last few weeks Evie developed a urinary tract infection, was put on meds, and treated, though it didn't appear to clear up well. After talking it over with Nikki and Mom Wednesday we decided she really needed a bigger work up (more blood work, maybe radiographs etc.). Nikki told me she thought something else was up as Evie was quiet, and her abdomen seemed a bit rounder than normal. Thursday she brought her into the clinic and bloodwork showed she was anemic, and had high white cell count despite having been on antibiotics for awhile. Her x-rays showed little detail in her abdomen making it look like there was fluid there, but she appeared stable. The diagnosis was probably cancer, but she needed further work up to confirm it. Nikki set her up for her ultrasound appointment in Burlington on Saturday and I would be around to take phone calls about it. I realized Friday morning that there was no way that if something was to go wrong I could get home over the next few weeks with finals coming up to say good bye, and I also knew that I would be happier if I could be at her ultrasound appointment. I left school Friday at 12:30 and planned to drive the 12 hours to get home to be there. Once I hit Northern Maine- somewhere between Houlton and Orono- I got a phone call from Nikki. She and my mother didn't even know I was planning on coming home so I thought it was odd, but I also knew why- Evie. When Nikki got home Evie was struggling to stand up and come see her. She knew something was wrong. Evie was weak but Nikki managed to get her into the car and took off towards the clinic. Unfortunately, Evie didn't make it. In my heart I know she waited so she wasn't alone, and I couldn't be more grateful that Nikki was able to be with her. My only regret is not leaving Thursday afternoon and driving home so I could see her face once more. Life in the house is not the same without the big black goof, greeting you at the door with some object in her mouth (toys, shoes, cat food dish... whatever was around) and an enthusiastic woof and tail wag. Nikki's crew is here, but mornings without Evie barking because she wants someone to throw her toy leave the house feeling empty. If you had asked me if I would miss that bark three years ago, I would have laughed at you and said her silence would be appreciated-- but in truth that silence is far louder than her bark ever was, and I miss it.
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