Todd the Dog

When I was a kid, we always had dogs.  Living out in the country, we went through dogs fairly quickly.  Either our dog would get hit by a car (most common) or picked off by a hawk.  Ok, the hawk thing never happened but I always wondered if it would...

We had St. Bernard, schnauzers, poodles, terriers, mutts, not all at the same time, but over the years that's what we had.  When I was in Jr. High (I'm guessing about 13), we needed another dog.  The last one had died of something or other.  My brother really wanted a dachshund.  I think he just liked that he could call it a "wiener dog".  What is it with boys and the word "wiener"???  Crazy.  Anyway, my mom found a listing in the paper for a dachshund and it became ours.  His name, Shiloh's Hot Toddy.  Dumb, but we shortened it to Todd.  Over the years, Todd became my dog.  He slept with me, came to me whenever I called, followed me.  He was mine.  Of course, Todd was also the biggest annoyance ever!  He barked at absolutely everything.  If a leaf blew, he barked.  If someone sneezed, he barked.

As I went through high school, Todd became more and more annoying.  He'd bark in his sleep!  We joked that of all the dogs we'd had die over the years, Todd was the one that wouldn't die!!  By the time I left for college, he was getting up there in age.  I think he was 13?  In doggy years that's pretty old!  I went to college in Ohio for a year and of course, Todd stayed behind.  In October of that year, I remember my mom calling me to break the news that Todd had to be put down.  After I left he got sicker and sicker.  He was starting to have kidney problems and the vet was recommending all sorts of medication.  My parents are good people but a dog is a dog.  They're not going to spend hundreds of dollars on a dog.  So my mom told me Todd had been put to sleep.  Of course I was sad for a time but what can you do?  He was old.  Dogs get sick and die.  It was bound to happen sometime.

Fast forward to a few years ago.  My family was having a big get-together.  The Cowell family tends to get loud and boisterous at our functions.  We are super competitive to we'll play kickball, Catch Phrase, Rock Band, whatever we can do to challenge each other.  For some reason on this day, we started talking about dogs.  By this time, I had been married for years.  Salli and her husband were there.  Shawn and his wife was there too.  My cousins were there.  We all had stories to tell.  Most recently Salli had had to put a dog down.  But Salli being the big softy that she is didn't want her dog to suffer.  She was fearful that the dog would feel the needle go in his paw and be in pain, even though 10 seconds later he'd be dead.  Still, those 10 seconds shouldn't hurt, right?  So she did what any loving pet owner would do.  She had a friend take the dog into the woods and shoot it in the head.  Problem solved.  No pain, no suffering.  Just BAM!  Dead.

As we were all laughing at how bizarre this story was, my uncle asked "isn't that how Todd died?"

You could hear a pin drop.

WHAT?????!!!!!


Slowly all heads turned toward me.  I'm pretty sure my face had drained of blood because I remember seeing mouths moving but no sound was entering my head.  MY DOG HAD BEEN SHOT IN THE HEAD???  As I stared at my uncle, his reply had lost most of it's gusto.  He said "uh, you didn't know that?"  Nope!  Sure didn't!  My mom was quick to jump in and explain that yes, Todd was sick.  He wasn't going to live too much longer anyway and they were about to leave for Europe for a few weeks.  Who would watch Todd?  It was doubtful he'd make it to Christmas and why spend the money on a kennel when he was just going to die?  It was a mercy killing.  Truly...really...a mercy killing.

Somehow I was able to see their point.  Todd was old.  He wasn't going to last forever.  The fact that my family kept it a secret from me for almost 10 years was quite surprising.

And that is how Todd the dog shall always be remembered.  He just wouldn't die...until he was shot in the head with a .22