Annie(-Get-Your-Tongue) – 11.5 year old Boxer
“My best friend from first grade through my senior year in high school (when she passed), was my boxer, Sparky. Some seventeen years later I would adopt boxer/lab mixes “Meg” and “Rocky.” Meg, who was into everything and knew everything, had the deepest eyes I’ve ever seen. Rocky, who was the most handsome and easygoing boy, loved his food and lived life with vigor.
Meg and Rocky were inseparable, actually, we all were. Everything about them is my heart. We had Rocky for 13 years and Meg for 14.5 years, both passed in my arms at home in our endless bond.
The hollow feeling when they passed was as if my heart was spiraling down a hole with no bottom. I just wanted to touch them, to be home. Over the next few months, I couldn’t keep from looking at animal adoption web-sites, mostly at the Contra Costa County Animal Services site and PetHarbor. I found a scrawny little female boxer at Contra Costa County Animal Services in Martinez, CA who was not yet available for adoption so I wasn’t suppose to “touch” her and could only look. Of course I put my fingers through the cage and let her lick me as I ‘borrowed’ some food from a neighboring dog who was full and put more in her bowl. She was very thin and had a definite under-bite and the largest tongue I’ve ever seen. She held her paw up when she drank water so as not to get it wet (again, a VERY large tongue). She looked as though she had been on the streets for awhile. I had tears pouring down my cheeks as I drove away asking Meg & Rocky whether it was “time.”
Well, a few days later, when the little boxer became available, I received a message loud and clear (from Meg & Rocky), it was time! There was no reason for me to check that web-site again for the third time that morning, but I did just before the shelter was to open and the first dog newly listed was a boxer and her name was “THYME!” I rushed over, to out of breath to even cry,to shelter and asked to see both dogs. The scrawny girl who I snuck food to and whose tongue sticks out beyond her under-bite met with me first and she was the most affectionate and joyful dog I could imagine; she was mine on the spot (I knew Meg & Rocky answered my tears!). Her name would be “Annie” (Annie-Get-Your-Tongue). I wanted Thyme to come home with us also, however, she had to be spayed and I had to go out of town the next day, it turned out she was adopted by another family in the meantime. (She was my divine messenger.) I called my husband Jim on the drive home with Annie and after describing her, he humorously said, “Now you’re telling me we’re going to have a dog who sticks her tongue out at us all the time!”
When Annie “got” us five and a half years ago, she was around six years of age, her black muzzle sprinkled with gray. She sleeps with her tongue out (it just doesn’t all fit in her mouth) and she is pure happiness, expressing her joy freely. Annie’s smile is heaven and all she ever wants is for us all to be together, she cherishes being together while taking up most of the bed. Annie is ADORED beyond measure and she is love’s embrace. Her “timing” was perfect. (Two months later, she got a brother… that’s another Gotcha!)”
-Teresa, CA
A Dog A Day 