Happy Valentine’s to Me from Zeus, My Heart Dog

I will always associate Valentine’s Day with Zeus and chocolates. For those who don’t know of him: Zeus was my heart dog. You know how once someone is dead, he or she becomes basically a Saint? Not Zeus! I loved him the way he was. Yes, I could have done it with all the stealing and the emergency visits, but I would not have changed a thing about him. Not one!

Today, I think that if he had to write something about his life, that’s what he would have written.

“My life started when I was over 3 years old. Let’s just forget the first three years of my life where happiness was not on the menu.

I had been brought by my last owners to a noisy place filled with dogs, some nice, some sad, some angry, and some hungry too, including me. Food has always been my Achilles’s heel!

It was such a weird place. People were walking by the cages, looking at me, and then passing me. That was until I saw her. She was walking and I made sure to lock my eyes in hers. She stopped. I looked at her, sitting quietly, wagging my tail. She had to know that I was the sweetest dog on earth. Wouldn’t you think so? They took me out, and I met her outside. It was love at first sight.

Two days later, on October 10, 2000, she took me home. It was a home I had to share with Douchka, a German shepherd, and Pouch, good old Pouch, a Golden Retriever. They seemed nice…. Until the next morning. After gulping down my food, I decided to see if I could taste Douchka’s. It was a bad idea. I learned! Douchka attacked me, but thanks to my Mom, she put herself between the two of us, and she was the one who got Douchka’s teeth in her arm. I was so scared she was going to take me back to that ugly place.

She did not. Instead, and don’t get me wrong, I am not bragging…. I became hers, and she belonged to me. I even gave her for Xmas one of those dog tags saying that she belonged to me, just in case she gets lost! I forgot, she changed my name. I had an ugly name before: Smudge. I became Zeus. Quite a change!

She had dogs before, but I was the first one who was just hers, no sharing there. I would not have tolerated it! I liked her girls a lot, but I loved her even more than food.

I went everywhere with her. From her office (I mean I went with her until I stole a sandwich from her boss, then, I did not get a chance to go back that often.) I loved being in her truck. One time, I remember, she took me grocery shopping. She went first to buy some bread and croissants, then she went to another place. I thought she had left the bread and croissants for me to kill time while she was somewhere else, but now that I think about it, I am not that sure! She did not seem too happy.

Pouch and Douchka were cool once you knew them. Douchka was very protective of us. No one could touch us when we were with her.

My Mom was really cool too. She was leaving everywhere some tokens of love for me. I wanted to please her, so I swallowed everything she put on my way even though sometimes it did not taste that good, but I did not want to disappoint her. One of the worst gifts was a black thing which started ringing when it was in my stomach. I swear that thing made me nauseous. Fortunately, it stopped soon. Real weird you know when your stomach rings, and then seeing Mom rushing to me, screaming like if I had been lost or something and that she had just found me! I was there the whole time!

Another time, it was that black thing Mom left by her computer. She was always using it there, and leaving it for me. So, I took it. Who could blame me to swallow that mouse, except that they were all lying: it was not a mouse. It was hard and bald. A huge disappointment!

One time, she got really upset with me. I guess it was because I did not eat it as fast as I should have, and again, I did not want to hurt her feelings but it did not taste that good! I was sleeping on our bed, and she came in, and placed near me a cute little pink bag with a bra and some other stuff in it. When she came back, I was just hardly finishing the bag, and she really got upset but I did my best. The bra was hard to chew. And I did not even have water nearby! She did not realize how good I was to finish the whole thing so fast!

Mom took me with her girls to many places. My favorite one was the beach in Florida where I had my own pool. Sometimes, I allowed her to use it as well as the girls, but it was mine. I had a good buddy at that time, another black lab named Hunter, but that poor thing was afraid of the water! Maybe he was not a real lab, I don’t know!

I remember that time where I hurt my knee and had to have surgery. That place was so frightening without her around. The next day, she came back to get me, and, since I could not climb stairs, she slept with me for over a month in a sleeping bag next to me.

Oh, and Christmas, I loved Christmas! One year, she put chocolate boxes around the tree for me. It had to be for me. I love chocolate so much but I don’t know why each time she was taking me to that emergency place where they were not that nice. Since I was adamant about not sharing my chocolates with them, they were making me barf!

I think ONE TIME, I made a mistake, OK, sue me! Mom had guests for dinner, and put those cute little chocolate boxes by each plate. I thought it was a mistake on her part, so I tried to correct it as fast as I could. I certainly did not want her guests to notice the faux pas! I swallowed chocolates, boxes, everything. That time, I saw several vets at different places. They were nice though, and you know they always made me feel special when they were seeing me in the waiting room. They were saying “Hi Zeus, you are here again!” It was the time where I started to lose my hair on my back and tail, and it was so humiliating!

That’s when I met another vet, Barbara Kummel, and I loved her to pieces. She was so nice to me, and my hair grew back, and each time she was giving me a treat. I know she passed away too, but I did not have a chance to say hi yet.

I started to have pains in my joints. It is really not fun to get old. I could not jump into my truck anymore so Mom got a cool ramp. I could not climb stairs anymore so we moved to a house where everything was on the same level. The previous house, I could not go to her bedroom so she had to sleep on the couch.

The new house was so exciting! I was sleeping in my Mom’s bedroom on a big bed but Jessica sometimes was screaming my name from downstairs because she was saying she could not sleep when I was wagging my tail. Hey man, I was happy … Had to wag that tail!