shared my life with a Brittany Spaniel named
Freckles for a lot of years. He was my bird
hunting buddy, my woods tromping buddy and
my all around companion for years. We raised
Quail in the back yard to train him and to give
him something to practice with. We spent many
hours in the field pointing and flushing those birds.
Alas Sir Freckles had a problem. Ear infections
when he was young haunted him his whole life.
Several surgerys never quite fix the problem and
the infectections finally took his life. I was happy
to remain pet free after the loss as I don't take loosing
pets very well. But It wasn't to be......
After a couple of months my wife comes home
with this tiny ball of fur that I later found out she paid
way too much for and presented him to me. This
is Buster Brown she announced, and with that he
reached out and bit me smack on the nose with those
little needlelike teeth that puppies have . Well this is
going to work out just swell I thought. He's too small
to hunt and too cute to hate .. what's a guy to do?
Having always been a large dog owner
I had a lot to learn about small dogs.
Like how easily they can burrow their
way into your heart. I knew this dog
was special from day one. Maybe he
sensed my apprehension about owning
a snotty little ankle biter but from day one he played up to me no matter
how hard I resisted. Soon I knew it was no use fighting it . I found myself
laying on the floor so he could chew my ears and nose and while I acted
like I didn't like it, and all the while that little shit was digging a whole
deeper into my heart He did little things that no other dog I ever had did.
When I sat in the computer chair he climbed up (with my help of course)
and laid across the back of my neck, and I might add snored like sailor at
times. The little fart knew hecouldn't play with his toys while the bigger
dogs were around so he would jump up.. run to the door barking and get
the other dogs stirred up. When I would go open the door theywould all
run out barking except him. He would then run back to the L/R and upset
his toybox and dig out a squeaky toy to play. I could tell in his eyes when
he was about to do it.
Yep he was a card. Loved to ride, loved
to go for walks, and especially loved to
go for ice cream. He was also a very
important 'filler' when I sat in The butternut
recliner. Him and his son filled in the void
on either side of me and made me feel secure
lol I could go on forever but I do have to
mention one more trait of his. Whenever
me and my wife would come home all
three small dogs would come to the top of
the basement steps the moment the garage door started up. When my wife
came home , again, all three dogs would be there to greet her. But when I
came home alone only two dogs would be there. Ole Buster would be in my
sons old room ,up on the bed where we took our naps, rolling around on his
back waiting for me to come and greet HIM ! lol
I think that's when I realized that maybe.. just maybe our 'special' feelings were
kinda mutual. It's taken me a while to write this a little at a time. And it still
hurts. so I'll just close out with a couple photos of my friend and a heartfelt R.I.P.
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