Before He Met Us

Generating a singular favorite memory with a pet is certainly a challenge, maybe a bit bigger of a challenge than initially realized. With family pets, much like our human family members, we create so many awesome memories that isolating one is almost like… which song or movie is the greatest of all time. These memories can be wholesome positive memories, bad things that have happened, somewhere in the middle, but always memories that continue to last a lifetime.

Ripley, our one and only family dog, has unfortunately already passed and will always be remembered for the love he consistently brought into our lives. He gave us many years of extreme joy, amidst all of the turmoil that his dog-like choices sometimes brought us. From him eating my golf clubs, along with the bag and shoes, or the hundreds of times coming in from the outside and running through the whole house with more dirt on him than it seems possible. He always went through life with loving thoughts and actions, from his perspective.

His presence was a constant dependency upon our loving him back and providing him with the life that we grew together as mutual family members. He loved to go hiking with us, though car rides were somehow the worst thing he seemed to have to endure. He would always jump right into the car, even though he would always whine, pant and sweat the entire trip. Doing whatever it takes to show that we were the love of his life started from the beginning, and continued through to the ending of our time together.

He was part hound and all of the wonderful world smells in this world were his life. The nose of a hound has a tendency to get them into more trouble than anything else, enjoying the smells intensely just like he was watching his favorite TV show. Many dogs, hounds maybe more so than others, can barely walk along beside of you because of that nose, and Ripley was no exception. His life would quickly shift based upon whatever smell he was taking in at that given moment. The worst (for me/us) was the smell of a deer, he loved it, and would chase after that deer for a while, quickly leaving our sight and resulting in worry for us.

The life of Ripley could easily fill the pages of books and be dramatized in the movies just like most pets I think. Family pets do so much good, bring so much happiness, while simultaneously causing so much mischief, the drama never ends. It seems weird what we love about our pets, how we care for them in a way that brings them right into the family, even though they get into more trouble than our human family members.

Ripley was named because of the county he was born in. As we pulled away in the vehicle after loading him in the car, we all began dreaming aloud of what his name should be. He was a newborn in the family and our young daughters were super excited to be able to share in this experience of bringing home a new addition to our family. We all were participating in the naming ritual, throwing out names like Marley, whoah, cannot do that name, everyone already brought to tears by just saying the name. Other names like rover and spike also came rushing out of the mouths of our sub teenage girls. We must have tried about 50 names, but nothing was really seeming like a good fit for our new puppy though.

As we continue to drive back towards our home, we pass the county sign, the one that says “Leaving Ripley County” and we mention that could be his name, Ripley. The discussion quickly resulted in a unanimous decision to move forward with the name of Ripley based upon many factors, and his name is forever etched in our memories. That day generated the spark of love that we will always share and hold on to.

It was also that day, for me at least, that encapsulates my fondest memory of life with Ripley. We adopted Ripley from a co-worker, whose pet had “accidently” spawned a litter of puppies. They had purchased their purebred dog in attempts to breed and give to others a glimpse of what they had in their family member. This accident that happened turned out to be one of the greatest accidents of my life. After the puppies were weaned and ready to leave their mother, I was given the opportunity to select one and my entire family became filled with excitement.

We drove to meet the owners and their puppies, in a shopping center parking lot, not at their home. They brought the puppies to the location in the back of a truck, in a crate. There were about 7 or 8 puppies all piling over each other playing together. We met and exchanged the normal pleasantries, and began inspecting the puppies, and watching them play. We were able to join in the play to a small degree, but we didn’t want to have a bunch of puppies running around a parking lot, so we were very cautious and limited the amount of open cage time.

As we continue to discuss the different markings along with the various attitudes that are already being expressed by these puppies, we slowly begin to take note of which ones we liked. These were hounds so they all had these brown splotches on white fur and they were all very attractive. Some were a bit bigger, some a bit smaller, there were puppies with more brown spots that white fur, and vice versa. We began to speak about what we would like in a new family member of the pet variety and started to single out some characteristics of our new friend and family dog.

I recall some of them whining, some of them completely unengaged, and then… this one guy crawling over top of the others in attempts to reach us. He wanted to be petted and played with so much that he was literally climbing over top of the competition. Every time we would move him to be able to look at one of his brothers and sisters, he would just climb his way back over to us. As if, he instantly fell in love with us and already knew there was no one else he wanted to be with.

This memory brings me to tears almost every time I replay it in my mind. He loved us before we really even had a chance to love him back. He began a journey with us somehow knowing that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with us, and no one else. A journey that would ultimately prove without question who loved who the most, as he gave us all of himself, never holding anything back.

Throughout his life with us, he never ceased to express that he loved us more than anything else, no matter what. It all began that day when we picked up a little puppy from the back of a truck in a shopping plaza parking lot. He cared, he loved, he gave everything to prove that we could be loved even before we knew him. He continued that quest long after he arrived at our house, and up through the day he would be with us no more.

All of our lives were made more pleasant that day of his arrival, not just his or mine. His life was certainly forever changed, and in return he constantly provided the entire family with total life changing experiences, with love that cannot end, and with a renewed joy for life itself. He loved us first and was not afraid to show his love, so we couldn’t help but to love him back. We were never able to provide him with the same level of amazingly abundant love that he gave us, though we made every effort to repay the gift he was giving to us.

I miss him truly and will forever remember the day Ripley came into my life.