This is a tribute to General
who passed away on November 3, 2005
I never had pets as a child and only came to realize the joy and unconditional
love of a pet when I married my wife Lora, so I always find it amazing
how pets and people hook up.
I know that General and I were meant to be together through the series of events that brought us together. When Lora and I met, she had a great friend named Woody. Woody was a German Shepard, and a great dog, but was definitely a momma's dog. Through the years we hooked up with a couple of cats, Miss Daisy and Bonnie Sue. Great cats, but cats are cats and not quite the same as a relationship of a dog.
Woody was getting on in years, and I thought maybe we should get another dog. I am a runner, and thought it would be nice to have a dog to run with. Of course when you think of a dog that runs, you think of a Greyhound. I tried several times to contact the Greyhound rescue people, but they never got back to me. Around that time Lora had a friend that had just adopted a Dalmatian from Pati (Dylan), so I went to the web-site, and we set up an appointment to meet Ariel. Ariel was a very sweet dog, but wasn't a perfect match.
We then met up a week later and met General. Right away Gen and I hit it off. We played, rolled around and had a great time. Now you are all probably thinking big deal, you found a dog, but I came to find out later General was a biter, and the mere fact that General ever let me get that close to him without taking a very aggressive snap at me was amazing. I found out some time later that General had bitten others looking to adopt him, and Pati watching me play with General that day was amazed that he was comfortable with me. The only other people that I know of that General was totally comfortable with was Pati and Mark.
General was a street dog that Pati and Mark found roaming the streets of Miami with his sister Dixie. They named them General and Dixie because they found them roaming in the General vicinity of Dixie Highway. Pati had told me that the dogs were tied to a tree for days and were probably for breeding purposes in some sick individual's puppy mill. I can only imagine the abuse the dogs went through before Pati took them in. This probably explains General's personality and reaction to most people.
Now don't get me wrong, this was not perfect. From the start, Gen took a couple of snapping bites at Lora, and we had considered trading him in, but Lora and Gen worked it out. From there it was a total life style changing adjustment. With Gen, you could not have anything within reach. This means trash cans, toilet paper, kleenix, newspapers, magazines, mail, and clothing, anything you could imagine he would get, and I mean anything! On the recommendation of Pati, we hired a trainer. We quickly realized that General's trainer was a bust, but General's training sessions with us continued, and he was making good progress training us.
General and I were getting along great. We loved to rough house. General was a fierce competitor that match my somewhat hard personality, but I had concluded that after running him 4 miles a day and playing with him for another ½ hour was still not wearing him out. Now this is where I should have checked myself into a mental institute.
So I thought maybe he needs a four legged playmate. I called Pati and she said she had just gotten a little girl that someone had dropped off to her. Her name was Vibe. We had gone to meet Vibe, and Pati was right. She was sweet girl that was from a lot different back round than General. We went back a few days later with General so the two could meet. They seemed to get along well, so we did the deal.
First, we changed Vibe's name to Bubbles. Now if I thought our lives changed with General, you should have seen it with Bubbles in the mix. Any area of disruption that General missed, Bubbles filled in and covered. These dogs had fun!
Through the years General has gone through or eaten no less then 3 dozen pillows with cases, a dozen bed spreads, mail, bills, important documents, cash, clothing, magazines and so many numerous things that I can't even remember. General loved to eat pillow fuzz; I will never forget him standing on my bed hovered over a pillow ripping the stuffing out it. Fuzz flying everywhere, I yelled General, he looks at me with the biggest smile I've ever seen. General smiled a lot through the years; he loved life and his family. As big of a disruption as General was, he was the most loving and fun dog I could have ever hoped to have had.
People always ask me why we would ever put up with these dogs and particularly General. The risks and challenges that went along with him were more than I would ever have imagined, but so was the love and joy he brought to our life. I could have never bailed out on Gen as others did. He would have been heart broken, so would I. As I wrote above Gen and I were meant to be.
General passed away at home, in his sleep. Five feet from me, just the way would have wanted it.
General, I did the best I could for you. I wish I could have done more. I will never forget you, and I know where ever you are, you will never forget us.
With all our love and memories,
Your family, Lomma, Boobie Doo, Bonnie Sue, and Papa Joe.
Give our love to Woody Hoody
and Miss Daisy. We will all meet up again.
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