Zeke
Our dog Zeke passed just before Christmas. Zeke was going on twenty years old which is pretty amazing in and of itself. Zeke had a great life and was the ‘goodest of boys’1. I made a comment recently about how it was looking good for me given that Ginny was providing such good elder care to which my friend responded that “the difference is that Ginny loves that dog more than you.” There is certainly some truth to it because Zeke and Ginny predated our relationship by several months and he was likely easier to love than me.
Ginny ‘adopted’ Zeke from an acquaintance one afternoon on King Street in Charleston. All of our dogs had kinda ‘found’ us in a similar fashion. Zeke was part of the reason that my wife and I gelled so well because he would come out to the country to run wild with my two dogs. Zeke was all prim and trim, regularly bathed and sleeping in the bed until he found me and my dogs. Because I lived out in a national forest, I would let the dogs run free and they might disappear for what seemed like days at a time and return to the house wiped out and covered in muck. Although I think it really scared Ginny when I would say that I hadn’t seen the dogs in a while because they were out running, I’m pretty sure the dogs enjoyed it.
When we moved upstate, Zeke took to the farm like a champ running with the horses and chickens2. When it was cold out, the dogs would often curl up in a pile together in front of the fireplace. Ginny would treat him to a spa day every so often to remind him of his early years. After the other dogs passed, Zeke was always at our side. We took him everywhere we traveled for many years and he became accustomed to long car rides. He always had dinner with us and I had started making purchases in three packs so Zeke could have his own. In his old age, he would always lie at my feet sleeping while I worked. When his back legs started to fail, I loved to see him dreaming of running kicking his back paws about.
Zeke always had the most patient personality of our dogs. I never once saw him act aggressive even though many thought he may have been because of his apparent breeds. We had always assumed he was about half German Shepard and Chow Chow3,4. Out of curiosity, we had a genetic test done on him last year and that was only partially correct. He had a number of other breeds mixed in and the most telling was about 20% ’super mutt’ which is exactly what you might imagine. Super Mutt will now forever be my favorite breed.
Zeke’s passing really marks the end of an era for us. He was the last of our beginnings together. As I was writing this morning and thinking of him, I remembered that the very first thing I ever posted to this website was a picture of Zeke in 20055. One of my servers is named after him6 so I’ll hopefully continue seeing his name daily for many for years to come. Although I had been making comments to Ginny about adopting new puppies, we’ll likely wait some time before we embark on any new dog parenting adventures. And while we try to shed this era somewhat gracefully, Zeke will certainly be remembered fondly and missed dearly.
- reddit/windhamdavid – https://www.reddit.com/r/lookatmydog/comments/fim036/goodest_of_boys_age_17/
- Dogs – https://davidawindham.com/dogs-3/
- German Shepard – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd
- Chow Chow – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chow_Chow
- Boozie and Zeke – https://davidawindham.com/boozie/
- Anthropomorphizing Machines – https://davidawindham.com/anthropomorphizing-machines/