How Can You Not Like This Dog?

 

 

I have never been a fan of dogs. Well….until we got one called Ethos.

 

I lost interest in dogs when I was about 5 and my puppy ran away from home. One cruel kid told me it was my fault.

 

On my paper route, I got chased by dogs. One of them bit me.

 

When I met and later married Pickett, I learned that dogs were part of the package deal. I got along with them OK, but mostly dogs were noisy, demanding creatures to be avoided. When I realized I was allergic, we got hypo-allergenic poodles.

 

I saw more dogs with the arrival of Sara, who was born with a passion for animals.  I kept making her return stray or rescue dogs that needed a home. Later she became a veterinary technician and now runs a thriving dog-grooming business near Blacksburg.

 

Just two years ago, Sara and family were living in the little house next door to our B&B with their three dogs. One of them was a 6-year-old combination coon hound/Doberman named Ethos.

 

How did he get that name? Children and cats had gotten names starting with A-B-C-D, and when Sara looked up E she found that Ethos was related to ethical, a good trait. But Ethos wasn’t so ethical: he tore up a couple of basements in rental homes, angering landlords. Neighbors didn’t like his constant howling. He just didn’t belong there.

 

But next door, Sara could let him loose and he could roam our 400 acres all day, howling almost constantly.  Why do hounds howl? I looked it up on Google. The answer: because they are hounds. Makes sense.

 

What I liked best was he was his own dog, loyal to nobody. You call him and he won’t come. My kind of dog!

 

When Sara moved away, she begged us to keep him. I readily agreed. He belonged on our farm. Probably more than I do. No one knows the land better than he does. And he is super-friendly with guests.

 

Now he roams for hours, inspecting every corner for big game or whatever demons may lurk there. I even enjoy his howling. I read “The Hound of the Baskervilles” by Sherlock Holmes and found a hound even louder than Ethos.

 

Maybe he’s not loyal, but he sure likes me. We have developed a certain bond. When we have B&B guests who don’t like howling at night, I will take him out on. a leash. He’ll go just because he likes me. He is my dog!

 

I think I am actually allergic to Ethos. But the house is big enough, so that he doesn’t bother me much. He is worth it.

 

We had two standard poodles, Niko and India, who were inseparable. They would roam the farm together and sleep next to each other, cutely on a dog bed.

 

When Niko died recently at age 12, India (age 7) was understandably heartbroken (I guess. How can you tell?)  She saw the attention I was giving Ethos. She clung a lot more to me. She follows me everywhere.

 

The two dogs don’t get along particularly well, but just before 5 p.m., they find common ground and come to tell me is time to feed them. Kind of like an intervention.

 

Awww. Now I have two dogs.