"Lightning hit that oak tree we've been looking at for years. And oh I know this summer we'll miss the shade. We just made it through the coldest winter we ever knew, and our old hound Dixie passed away."
From Lucky Man by Mark Chestnutt
Dixie was probably the sweetest dog I ever had. She was an amazing dog in spite of herself. Dixie was the dog that EVERYONE loved. Even people who did not like dogs liked Dixie. When I would joke that I had too many dogs and needed to get rid of some of them, there were an infinite number of people who instantly said they would take Dixie.
I know absolutely nothing about her young life. With the exception of brief spurts, Dixie was timid. Her time in the "wild" led her to know what to do with wild small animals, living or dead. The other dogs only saw chipmunks, squirrels, crayfish, whatever as toys, Dixie would play with them first, then proceed to treat them as snacks.
I wasn't really looking for a dog when I saw Dixie, but maybe I was; I already had three beagles. I was driving down a street near my house when I saw a small beagle run out in front of me. I looked at it in the rear view mirror and watched the school bus behind me nearly hit it. I couldn't let it continue to run down the street so I turned around and went back and got her. She was a little afraid of me, but came to me in short order. She was very grubby so I put her in the bed of my truck and went back home. En route, she tried to jump out. I stepped on the brake to stop her.
Once back at home, I wasn't sure I was going to keep her, so I put her in the small garage and ran the errands that I was originally out for. When I got home, I peeked in on her and she had made a perfect little beagle bed out of a pile of rope sitting on top of a straw bale I had. She was adorable and she had a new home.
She got along great with the other dogs and obviously had some house training. There might have been a few accidents, but they were rare. Given her small stature, I thought she was a puppy. When the vet told me she was likely four, I thought he meant months. I was shocked when he said years.
Dixie continued to fit in with the beagle clan. While I have had dogs that I could understand why someone got rid of, I could never understand how someone could have gotten rid of Dixie, she was that sweet. She had an odd way of sitting where her back legs would almost cross dantily.
As Dixie got older, she went from the diminutive "puppy" that I thought she was to a small dog and then to a fat dog. No matter what I fed her, she put on weight. She didn't like exercise, but was an enormous dog for how little she ate. The vet diagnosed her with a thyroid problem and she was put on Solixine for most of her adult life. This did allow her to eat more normally and loose weight, but she still enjoyed her nap time, especially on the couch.
Much later in life, she started to have seizures. Once again the miracle of modern veterinary medicine came to the rescue and for a few cents a day, the seizures stopped permanently. One side effect of this medicine was that it could make a dog lethargic. No difference was noticed.
As with just about any dog, she did occasionally get out, but it always seemed to be by accident, never an intentional leaving of the fenced area. I was always worried she would be kept by whoever found her when she did get out.
She was a joy to walk and almost never tugged on the leash, staying just a few steps behind. As with all older dogs, the walks got shorter and shorter as she aged. She acted old long before her time, seeing life with me as some sort of extended retirement.
For the last several years of her life, she could not handle stairs. She could go up them just fine, but going down stairs almost always resulted in a couple steps followed by a great tumble the rest of the way. It was a miracle she was never hurt. For many years, she would have to be carried down the deck stairs to do her business.
Then she would got back up the stairs to the back door and bark, she deserved to be let back in.
The steep stairs inside were always watched with one eye in case she tried to come down on her own.
Because she acted old, her aging wasn't very noticeable, but there were changes. She was always flight over fight so she had to be fed alone or she would loose her food. She never had accidents in the house, but required more attention. She began to absolutely hate the cold.
Eventually she got to the point where I just seemed to know the joy she brought the world was near and end. I was at a late day mandatory work function. As I sat there listening to the speakers, I just knew she had died. There was no doubt in my mind.
I was right.
I still miss Dixie. She died nearly the same time as Sammy which made it extra hard. Dixie was one of the few dogs Sammy still liked. Sammy and Dixie were buried together and a paw paw tree was planted over them.
"I'm living the life of a Lucky Man. Counting my blessings, holding your..." paw.
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