Nuff Said

By Bob Zettler

June 12, 2015

Approximately 20 years ago, and after my last marriage ended, I made good on a promise to my children to bring home a new addition.  That weekend we traveled over to Beardstown to look at some “Illinois River” Yellow Lab puppies and their owners had them out on the front lawn for us to get acquainted with.  They were all a darker shade of Yellow but one stood out for me due to his nature and the size of his paws.  Within minutes, we all agreed that he was the one and the deal was made to bring “JJ” home.

Now some people thought we named him JJ as that is the name of a very, very good friend of mine here in Sangamon County.  However, as my children each has a “J” in their names (Joy for my daughter and Jon for my son), we agreed that was an appropriate amalgam of their names and it stuck.

JJ joined Barney, a Brittany who was well over a decade old in our family on Greencastle.  Barney wasn’t much interested in playing any more but he accepted JJ into the fold and they eventually became good buddies as both loved to pheasant hunt.  JJ was one smart cookie and with no training did what was expected of him in the field and the marsh.  They enjoyed their company even as Barney was losing his vision and hearing.  I can still recall that last hunt with the two of them where Barney got down into a drainage ditch over by Champaign County and we lost him for awhile for he couldn’t hear us or figure out where we had left each other.  He was retired after that since he was pushing 16…

Barney passed away at the Vet’s the next year but my children were able to say their goodbyes.  He was a damn good bird dog!  By now my daughter lived with me full-time and my son was fluctuating between his Mother’s home and mine. During a rough period, he convinced me that he NEEDED his own dog and the search was on.  This time it led us just up the road from where we use to live and Missy joined our family.  That is correct, we added a female much to my surprise and initial resistance but she and JJ hit it off and wouldn’t you know it, BOTH of them were a Foxfire Lab which is a much darker, redder hue.

Now JJ was one smart dog.  Maybe smarter than me at times and that first year the two of them went with me to North Dakota where we had a blast hunting upland and waterfowl.  Missy was an independent cuss but she and JJ sure made a great couple.  Then, it happened.  I was working upstairs one night when I heard one of them start yelping and I ran downstairs to see what had happened only to find the two of them standing side-by-side and JJ looking at me with a look of desperation.  And that’s when I noticed they were not only butt to butt but also ATTACHED by his you-know-what!!!

Now I had only read about this and thought he was in pain for she had to have locked onto him by accident so I grabbed the hose and turned it on them and within a minute they were separated.  Hallelujah!  “Bad JJ.  Bad JJ”, I said as I escorted them inside for me to watch over them.  Now what?  I had to go to work in the morning, so how could I protect Missy from JJ?  I decided I would place her in the metal kennel cage inside so no other sex-fiend could have his way with her, including JJ.  Went on to work that morning and came home around 5:15 to discover one of the panes in the front picture window was broken out!  Burglar I thought to myself and rushed inside to hopefully catch the perpetrator in the act.  Nope, no burglar and no Missy either and that’s when I spotted her outside in the backyard lying next to JJ smoking a cigarette!  You have to be kidding me, I mean this dog tried to dig her way through the tray in the metal kennel cage only to give up and bend the door enough to allow her to squeeze through the gap, then broke through that front window only to be confronted with a four-foot high Hurricane fence that she climbed over, then set herself upon poor, defenseless JJ with her wanton female ways and then 30 minutes later was smoking a cigarette with the big boy…Oh My!

I just couldn’t believe it as I had no experience with a female dog – and my family has had canine members since the day I was born – and now I was faced with the possibility of dealing with a pregnant dog!  And times were tough back then, I mean real tough.  After a few weeks, there was no doubt that she was expecting and now I had to deal with a new reality.  Did a lot of research and bought a Children’s plastic wading pool for her to take care of them, along with heat lamps, and all the rest to ensure nothing goes wrong.

Then came that Sunday night where we knew it was close and as my kids and I were talking with Missy lying next to me on the couch, I felt a wet sensation against my thigh (I was wearing shorts) and saw a puppy in its sack coming out.  “Jumping Jesus”, I yelled and ran off to get the box of rubber gloves so I could assist but by the time I got back, Missy had eaten the sack, licked up its contents and was preening puppy number one!  My children, my Ex-wife and I stood there and watched the miracle of life pop out one at time…actually, 11 times we witnessed this after we had moved Missy and her first-born to the pool.  Wow.  Just Wow.

We placed a different colored piece of yarn around each puppy’s neck so we could identify them and for the next few weeks Missy was the model Mother.  And since it was now December, we moved the whole show to the basement where this entourage took over, pooping and peeing.  And when it came time to begin whelping them, I was the “bestest” adjunct Mother and prepared them a gruel of Purina Puppy Chow, Calves liver and Goat’s milk.  And did they grow…

We gave them all names that somewhat corresponded to their looks.  There was Fluffy, Big Mama, Lil Bit, Star, Chunk and then there was Spot.  Why Spot?  Well it was because he had a small patch of black fur on his right hindquarter, sort of a birthmark.  And Chuck was named that for when he popped out I had said, “Look at that Chunk!”  Lil Bit was the smallest and Big Mama was..big and a female! 

By late winter we moved them outside to a fenced in backyard and that’s where trouble happened.  One day I came home and poor Lil Bit’s muzzle had been crushed by one of her parents.  It was horrible and we had to put her down.  Broke our hearts as she was simply so lovable. 

Not knowing what had happened we were at a loss on what to do and by now Missy REALLY wanted out!  The puppies were driving her nuts and she began to either climb the fence to get away, or when we kept her inside, she would break that same window pane out to roam the neighborhood. And then it happened.  I came home and Spot had been “gloved.”  What that means is the skin had been peeled back and down away from his lower muzzle and throat with it just hanging there while he wagged his tail at me.  The only thing we ever conjectured was that most likely his Dad or Mother had snapped at him and got their teeth caught in his lip and when Spot tried to get loose, he got gloved.  It was another horrible sight but when we got him to the Vet, they felt they could fix it.  He was home a few days later but ended up having two more surgeries for the skin to take and he became our $1,000 dog.  Lovable, smart but expensive!

Then, the unthinkable happened.  I came home one day and there was Missy lying in the driveway with multiple major injuries that she could not recover from.  You see, she could not take being around those puppies and literally kept breaking out that window that I just put a board in it which she would then push aside to roam the neighborhood.  The kids and I loaded her and JJ up for her last trip to the Vet and JJ and I lay next to her as she left us…nuff said.

It had already been decided from the get-go that Chunk would stay and be our new canine family member and we were able to place the other puppies with one going to a co-worker, another going to a young man whose Father and I hunted together, one going to my Niece in the Joliet area, another one to a friend in California and three to people in Ohio.  That left Chunk, Star and Spot.  Now Star was suppose to have been sent to a woman in Oklahoma but that fell through.  And we had decided to keep Spot but he was an Alpha Male and conflicts arose daily between him and Chunk, and even JJ to a lesser extent.  So, much to our dismay we decided to find Spot a good home and the search was on.

And we loved Spot, especially my son loved him. And Spot was unique too, for besides his lopsided face from the $1,000+ worth of surgeries he had that birthmark which had grown and I swear it looked like the state of Illinois!  Sure, it had annexed parts of Indiana but if you look at the pictures, you will see what I mean.  Pretty soon I had a line on a family in northern Illinois who lived on a farm and had children.  The whole family drove with me to meet them in Pontiac and they fell in love.  So Spot went to his new home and we were left with JJ, Chunk and Star.

JJ and Chunk loved to hunt and traveled with me to North Dakota until JJ was diagnosed with diabetes.  One day I noticed him walk into something and that is what I saw the clouds in his eyes.  Got him to the Vet where he was put on insulin – shots twice daily – and in all too short a time he lost his vision for good.  We had to childproof the house and yard so he wouldn’t get hurt and made him comfortable until my birthday where he was outside doing his business and his leg simply gave way and broke.  Turned out he had bone cancer too and that was the first time I had ever seen that old boy scared.  It broke my heart that day when we had to take him and say goodbye…nuff said.

That left Chunk and Star at home with us.  We would occasionally hear about the other puppies and were saddened to learn that several were eventually diagnosed with diabetes and they too left us.  Now I had never had Chunk fixed, for it was our desire to keep JJ’s line going through Chunk and then another mate, but when it was discovered that diabetes ran in this bloodline…we just couldn’t go through that anymore nor put another canine member through it.  Then Chunk developed diabetes but at least we caught it before the vision failed and fought it for nearly two years before we had to decide.  Those last few weeks or months were so difficult for Chunk was loved by all.  He was so laid back and the staff at Chatham Veterinary Clinic doted on him when I would bring him in to see Dr. Boyce.  My son and I must have started that last journey four times before it just had to be done.  There wasn’t a dry eye in the house…nuff said.

That left Star and me without a hunting partner for the first time in 15 or so years as she had never been hunted for she and Chunk just played too much and she did not appear to have the instincts of her Father and Brother.  However, I decided to try her out when I went to North Dakota the next time. What’s the worst that could happen? 

And you know what, that first day she was fantastic and retrieved birds and stayed close to boot.  Then came the next day where I had to leave her in the Van while we hunted sandhill cranes. When we came back a couple hours later, I discovered she had tried to eat her way out of the van and my door and the ceiling were in shreds!  I could have killed her but she was my son’s dog and I borrowed a kennel from my friend the next day to keep her and my van safe.  Right.  Came back a couple hours later and she had eaten her way through the kennel and tried to eat her way out of the passenger door this time.  Came this close to ending her life again but didn’t for the aforementioned reasons.  And we had to understand, that Star had NEVER been alone EVER since she was born.  She and Chunk had been like two peas in a pod since day one and I should have anticipated trouble for on the very first day she had been left alone at home after we lost Chunk, she knocked over an eight month old 52” LCD Sharp TV smashing the screen!  That was the first time I almost killed her, so we worked around her the rest of the trip and limped home a day early…

 

Then, Star too developed diabetes and we began the painful process of losing her over the course of the next 18 months.  And that trip to the Vet was the most difficult for it was the end of the line for our family for what JJ had brought into it some 18 years earlier. We had her, along with her parents and Chunk cremated, so they could all be together and with us.  And even though she did so much damage, she was loved by us all and is still missed.  Nuff said…

Now that was nearly two years ago and some 13 years after they were brought into this world at our former home on Greencastle and today I received word from his family that Spot too will join them.  They are heartbroken as he was such an important part of their family and even to their grandchildren.  So I relive the losses we have endured over the years beginning with JJ, followed by Lil Bit, Missy, Chunk, Star and now Spot.  It is truly an end of an era as these dogs have touched so many people from here in west-central Illinois, to east-central Illinois and Northern Illinois, and to California, North Dakota and Ohio.  There is no telling how many people they have touched with their unconditional love for us and our love for them.  Thank you JJ and Missy for bringing them into our lives and for all the joys they have shared with us.  

God’s speed Spot…nuff said.