Okay, maybe that isn't 100% accurate. Growing up, my brother had a dog named Tippy. He was all black with a white tip on his tail. He was a 'mutt'...but if memory serves, he kind of looked like a lab...but I think his tail was different...that's about all I remember. I know he was an outside dog, and I remember that my brother, Bill, loved him...but I don't think I had much to do with him. One day, he was just gone. At the time, several farm dogs went 'missing'...but I honestly don't remember much more than that.
Many, many years later, I met my future husband. At his house, we had an aquarium. In that aquarium was a pregnant guppy who died. (Guppy? Is that right? Sorry, it doesn't look right, but anyway, I digress) That upset me. Also, after we were married we went to Wisconsin with my Father In Law and got about twenty bottle calves. I picked this Brown Swiss and named her Sadie, and she was one of the first ones to die...THAT hurt...(she looked like the Precious Moments cow...the one in the Nativity)...so then I was like NOPE!! DONE WITH ANIMALS!! I DON'T LIKE THEM!!
CUT TO: Jt and Ben wanted to show rabbits for 4H. Suddenly we were the owners of like, eight STUPID rabbits. Can I just say something about rabbits?? They aren't nice. They don't have any personality. Okay, fine, maybe YOUR rabbit had personality, but ours didn't. Other than one...Duke. He had one. He thought he was some sort of a dog or something. He was supposed to be a Lop...but his ears....one went straight out sideways and one went straight up. JT spent tons of time holding his ears down....and when he let go, Duke would shake his head and there they would be...forming an L....looking like he was trying to pick up some radio station or something...it was hilarious. But...like all animals, Duke died. He was the last to go, but he went. And I felt horrible.
One day, John brought home a white lab puppy. I wasn't happy about it, but I named him Chance. He was so cute. He was about seven months old when John and the boys tried to take him hunting. He jumped out of the truck and broke both of his back legs. He was put down. I remember so clearly....how upset we all were...how we couldn't stop crying...and the hole he left behind.
Not so long after we lost Chance, John came home with a new white lab puppy. We named him Ozzy.
Ozzy was such a dork...I'd take him for a walk, and halfway through, he'd lay down, and I'd have to carry him the rest of the way. Like a baby. He'd just lay his little head on my shoulder...his little ears bobbing up and down...and he'd go to sleep. I was like, dude, seriously...we just went around one block!!
Ozzy was supposed to be an outside dog. That didn't work out. John and Ozzy bonded...like crazy bonded. Ozzy couldn't stand it when John was gone. He would beg to be let out whenever John's truck wasn't in the driveway. He had to go smell his parking spot like a hundred times just to make sure he wasn't there. Ozzy could never get close enough to John...he wanted to be on his lap and in his face...and to be honest, John felt the same way about Ozzy!! (I told them many times to "get a room")
Ozzy was an incredible hunter, which is what John was hoping for. Oz would go NUTS when he saw John's hunting buddies, because he KNEW he would be going hunting. He did everything John asked of him...right up until the very end.
Also, the dog never barked. EVER. I can maybe count five times he WOOFED....and two of them were at the Alliant Energy guy...LOL
Ozzy came down with bladder cancer this spring. He fought it, but on November 9, 2019, his suffering had gotten to the point that we couldn't help him anymore. John put him down.
The hole this dog left in our lives is...huge. I told myself this spring, when we knew things were bad...that I would be fine with it. No more dog hair...no more dog throw up...no more worrying about the dog....
I couldn't have been more wrong.
Ozzy...I miss you. John is devastated...you were a good boy. You were more than just a dog. You were our family member. You will never be replaced, because there is no other dog like you. RIP, my sweet boy. Ozwald Jacob Greenfield. I'm changed forever because of you.
