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In 1992 when our
younger daughter was 13, her puppy of 4 months was run over and
killed by a neighbor speeding down our street. Obviously she was
devastated and it took her father and me exactly 18 hours to miss
the presence of a dog in the house....a dog we originally didn't
want because of our lifestyle. Arielle agreed to visit North Shore
Animal League with us to possibly pick out a new puppy. Off to
Port Washington, NY we went...some 30 miles from where we lived in
NY. For those SGM sisters outside the NY area, North Shore Animal
League is probably one of the most reputable animal shelter
facilities in the entire northeast, if not the nation.
We arrived at NSAL
and Arielle immediately made a bee-line for dogs that resembled her
lost Phantom. This was going to be nigh on impossible as Phantom was
a curious mix of black lab and Dalmatian. She came across black lab
mixes and was attracted to two puppies....one a long haired lab mix
female, and one a short haired lab mix male. The NSAL caretaker have
us both puppies to hold and led us to an area where we could play
with them and decide if we wanted to take either one home. We also
had a form to fill out stating what kind of living conditions the
dog would be adopted to, had we ever had a dog before, what happened
to it, etc. They almost wouldn't allow us to adopt a dog because of
Phantom's accident
The little female was
such a sweet puppy, content to be cuddled and hugged. The little
male was a holy terror. He nipped and chewed on us. He ran around
the play pen terrorizing other puppies and other visitors to the
NSAL. He tore up Arielle's jacket and overturned my can of
Coca-Cola. He was horrible. And we three looked at each other and
visually agreed "this is the one". Please don't ask me why
we chose the holy terror.....perhaps it was his winning, if not
annoying personality, or the fact he had tiny paws and we figured he
wouldn't grow to be too big. We live on a boat 4 months out of the
year and a big dog is really out of the question for us. Perhaps we
chose him because we have always been a mite bit adventurous in
everything the entire family does. He was listed as black
lab/terrier mix so we thought he wouldn't get too big and he did
have a great deal of personality even if it was destructive.
On the way home in
the car, the puppy chewed his way out of the carrier box NSAL had
given us and made a valiant effort to rip up the car. When we got
him home, he destroyed everything he came in contact
with....carpets, walls, furniture, clothing. We named him Goblin
because he was quickly earning it. On a trip to the vet we learned
that the terrier part of his mix was a lie....he was indeed half
black lab/half greyhound!!!!! So much for a smaller dog we
could take on the boat! We almost took him back to NSAL but our
daughter's potential tears and willingness to work with the animal
stopped us. Slowly, Goblin learned not to chew the shingles off the
side of the house, eat the patio furniture, and to stay out of the
wastepaper baskets. He became an adept sailor and an effective
watchdog, very protective of his humans, Arielle in particular.
While he was friendly to anyone allowed in the front door by us,
he'd put up quite a show of bravado to anyone coming on our property
uninvited. Little did they know all they had to do was throw a ball
to him and he'd show them where we keep the silver!
In January of 1996,
disaster almost struck. We knew we were going to have to leave NY
and move to Florida. We'd rented a house in Florida for a year
because we didn't want to commit to buying a house in an area we may
not like. The lease specifically said "no dogs". What to
do, what to do? Goblin almost solved the problem for us. One of the
movers left the door open while taking a piece of furniture out to
the truck and Goblin was out the door like a shot. While playing
"you can't catch me" with my husband, he ran headfirst
into a moving truck, splitting the top of his head and part of his
stomach open. Our vet sewed him up and said he'd be fine but there
was no way he could travel for at least a month. So, while the three
of us drove to Florida from Long Island in cars that were packed to
the roof with belongings, a month later Goblin arrived in Fort Myers
by plane! His ticket included a seat in coach and a human handler
who walked him during the stopover in Charlotte, North Carolina.
But we still had that
"no dogs" clause in the lease. The homeowners lived in
Nebraska and the lease called for a quarterly inspection of the
house by the real estate agency....by appointment. Whenever the
agent made an appointment to inspect the house for the day, my
husband would load all Goblin's belongings into the trunk of his car
and drive around with them for the day and Goblin was boarded for
the day, getting his flea bath and his nails trimmed. We actually
HID a 62-lb. dog for an entire year until we bought our own home in
December 1996.
Goblin is now 8 years
old and the darling of the neighborhood. Being half greyhound, he's
obviously a runner and has a 16 mile beach to gallop his heart out
on. He has ibises to chase, other dogs to play with, and readily
defends his domain against all intruders unless, of course, they are
willing to toss him a ball. Then all defense bets are off. We keep
telling him that he is a lucky puppy because no self-respecting
human should have adopted such a horrid puppy. But we consider
ourselves the lucky ones because he truly loves his family and we
love him.
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