A Dog Named Barney Bats the Odds – Abandoned Pet Becomes Family Friend

In the late spring of 1987, our oldest daughter was driving home one afternoon from college classes when a very young, small brown dog rang in front of her car. Fearing she had hit him, she braked, jumped out of the car to investigate, and the dog jumped in. Our daughter brought him home until, she said, we could find the owner. Our daughter eventually went off to start her own family, but the little brown dog she named Barney remains with us still.

Though we walked surrounding neighborhoods and advertised in newspapers, we never found the owner. We concluded that since we live near the University of Maryland, and school was letting out for the summer, and because lots of students then and now live at a nearby apartment complex, it was likely that a student found it inconvenient to take the dog home to his parents. He likely turned the dog loose in a neighborhood where the puppy might find a home.

If that was the case, the kid made a smart decision, but I’m happy to have never met him, and I still wonder about people who abandon pets when they become inconvenient. Desertion of mates and children is just a step away

But, now almost two decades later, the puppy who could jump three feet high when rough-housing is now nearly blind, a shuffling shadow of the eager youngster who joined us so long ago.. A year ago this summer, we were at the beach when Barney collapsed while out for a walk. His back legs just stopped working, almost always the beginning of the end for dogs.

We immediately returned home, and the following day he was examined by the veterinarian who has treated him for years. . ..There was one possible hope, she concluded, but it came with risks. She wanted to try a particular steroid on him. It was dangerous to inject it into old dogs, but she said his heart was strong, and she thought he should survive. Without that option, he would soon die. It would be a one-time only chance, but if it worked, he would buytime, perhaps a year or more. The downside, she said, was that it sometimes did not work on a particular dog, and could immediately kill him.

It was his only chance to walk again, and to live. Thankfully, it worked on him. A couple of days later, he was home again, on his feet and acting as normal as a 19-year-old dog can.

Now, it is the following summer, and we see the back hips working less smoothly than just a few months ago. But, he has handled easily a trip to Florida, and another excursion to the beach. There may not be much time left for him, but he is lapping up every drop of life available before the inevitable happens. Our dog is my hero, as well as my guide to my inevitable future.
(500 words)