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Off The Fence - Saying good-bye to this woman’s best friend, Ari the dog
Susan Thompson
for Smoky River Express
I recently had to say a sad good-bye to a good friend.
My dog Ari passed away in her sleep at the ripe old age of almost 15 years old, or about 100 years old in dog years.
I’ve had dogs since I was a kid on the farm, but Ari was the best dog I ever had.
She first showed up as a stray at our acreage about five years ago, back when we lived in Three Creeks near the Shell Plant. I was sitting outside in a hammock, and our husky Eko suddenly gave a friendly “woof” and trotted off with her ears perked up. Eko came back a few minutes later with a dog she seemed to already know and be friendly with, even though I’d never seen her before.
I gave her a few pets. She was a sweet dog, friendly, but a little nervous. She would shake and shiver.
The new dog stuck around for a few days, so finally we started feeding her. She didn’t have a collar or ear tattoos, and the info we posted on the radio and to the SPCA didn’t get us any calls. We checked around with all the neighbours we could but with no luck. For all we knew she’d been dumped in the country by someone.
I named the new dog Ari.
A couple of weeks passed. Then Ari and our German shepherd Cola cornered and attacked a porcupine together. Ari got the worst of it, turning her own mouth into a pincushion.
My husband and I pulled out most of the needles immediately. We were shocked at the strength in Ari’s 45-pound frame. The two of us could barely hold her as she strained with the pain of it. She seemed to be made of steel cable, not muscle and bone. We got the worst of the needles out and then took her to the vet to get a couple of really bad ones out of her mouth, and some pills to treat possible infection.
After that, her attitude toward us changed. She was devoted to us, probably because we’d helped her when she was in pain.
That almost came to an end when we finally found out she belonged to neighbours down the road who’d gone away on a long vacation.
Unfortunately for them, by that point Ari was determined to stay with us. Despite the fact they’d had her for years, and despite the fact that we returned her to their house several times, she would always immediately leave and come back to our place.
Finally the neighbours decided she was senile and would keep wandering. She didn’t look like an old dog then, and even the vet had thought she was only about two years old, but it turned out she was already 10 and elderly. The neighbours let us keep her and got a new puppy for themselves.
Ari never left us again. I loved that dog to pieces. There was no question she was mine either, since she followed me where I walked and would stop shaking when I petted her. Eventually she stopped shaking altogether.
Ari was relatively small and sweet but she was also tough as nails. The neighbours told us she was a collie wolf cross. We sometimes wondered if she was actually a coy dog (half coyote), but she hated coyotes and would patrol our property and bark to keep them away.
Not long after she came to stay with us, she also helped save my children’s lives.
My oldest daughter Trinity, who was about five years old at the time, was walking in our front yard on a very hot summer day and came in to ask us if our German shepherd dog was swimming in our pond about 20 feet away. We said no and she told us it must be a “big grandpa beaver” then. We’d had some beavers in the pond and the creek that fed it. My husband went to investigate with both kids, not thinking it was anything dangerous because of Trinity’s beaver description. He left the children 15 or 20 feet behind him picking some flowers while he walked to the edge of the pond.
Suddenly an adult black bear charged out of the long grass near the pond – running straight for our kids.
Trinity eyes went wide, and she raised her arm to point at the big animal bearing down on her and her little sister, saying just one word in sheer terror: “BEAR!”
My husband started running for the girls, but seeing he couldn’t possibly make it to them before the bear did, he yelled for the dogs.
Our German shepherd Cola charged up and turned her hips at the last second to slam into the bear with all her 120 pounds. That spun the bear away from the kids and it started running toward our trailer instead.
That’s when Ari came running out of the dog house where she’d been sleeping and attacked. She jumped back and forth behind the bear, biting it hard on its sides and even on its back. Black fur was flying everywhere and the bear pooped in fear all over our front stone patio. Ari herded it away from our kids and house. The German shepherd went to my husband and the kids but Ari didn’t let up. She kept attacking and attacking until the bear was completely off the property.
I’ll never forget her courage and strength that day.
Ari always had a strong fighting spirit. She was the boss dog and kept our other dogs in line, even our latest, a big male shepherd named Saint who intimidates most people who come to our place. One snap from Ari and he’d behave.
A few weeks ago she became so elderly her back legs stopped working properly. I seriously considered putting her down then, but after a few days it was if she used her sheer strength of will to walk properly again, forcing her back legs to move.
She didn’t seem to be in pain, so I delayed the visit to the vet. Then her eyes started to suddenly fail too, and she could only really see out of one eye. We knew she wouldn’t be around much longer. Even then, she somehow killed a woodpecker.
In her last few days, Ari started sleeping out by the end of our driveway, near the open fields where she could hear the coyotes and the wolves. Finally, she passed away in her sleep as I’d hoped she would. We should all be so lucky, to live to a ripe old age surrounded by a loving family, passing away peacefully at home.
It’s still hard. Ari was a very special dog, and I’m going to miss her.
R.I.P., Ari.
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