pet connection

Call it love at first sight, or being made for each other. Call it destiny. Call it anything you want… but how can you explain the very special bond between a dog and a boy?

My nephew, Adam, is ten years old now and growing up very fast — too fast. When I talked to his mom — my sister — this past weekend, our discussion brought back memories of his birth and his first introduction to Dax. Or maybe it wasn’t his first introduction, after all.

Dax was a daughter of the Australian Shepherd Club of America’s first Versatility Champion. Her father had earned a championship in stock dog work, obedience and conformation; hence, a versatility championship.

Dax had her sire’s drive, and from the time we brought her home at ten weeks of age, she was on the go from morning until night. She loved herding, and she was a breeze to train in obedience and won her titles with ease, earning a High in Trial just about every time she competed. She was a whiz at catching frisbees.The only thing we tried that she didn’t like was pulling a wagon and since she was so good at everything else, we dropped that.

She was also a very effective, empathetic therapy dog and a nominee for the AKC’s ACE award in the therapy dog division.

Dax was my husband’s dog. She and Paul had a wonderful relationship. I got jealous once in a while because Dax didn’t think too highly of me; I’ll explain more about that in a moment.

Dax was also one of the few dogs we’ve had who wasn’t fond of kids. She wasn’t aggressive towards them; she just made it plain she didn’t think kids had any value unless they were throwing a ball for her. But since she wasn’t aggressive towards kids, we didn’t worry about it.

When my sister got pregnant with her first child, Dax was just under five years of age. I noticed that when my sister came to visit, Dax was paying a little more attention to her than normal, but figured it was hormones or pheromones and I didn’t pay any more attention.

Dax met my nephew when he was two weeks old. And she lost her silly little mind when she did. Dax took one sniff of the baby Adam and she began wiggling and crying, dancing and whining; I thought she was going to crawl into the bassinet with him! Dax had never paid attention to babies before and amazingly enough, never did again. But she was certainly enamored of my sister’s baby boy.

My sister’s strangely prophetic comment was, “She acts like she’s been waiting all her life for him!”

One day, my sister and I loaded Dax and Adam in my van so we could run some errands and at one stop, I stayed in the van with them while my sister ran into the store. Dax was horrified and barked at my sister as she left. Dax then looked at me, looked at Adam, and then barked at my sister again as she went into the store. When my sister didn’t stop and come back, Dax went back and sat next to Adam’s car seat. Apparently I wasn’t to be trusted with Adam and if my sister wasn’t there, Dax would have to protect him! As I said, Dax didn’t have a very high opinion of me.

We see my sister, her husband, and her boys a few times a year but every time we saw them, Dax would glue herself to Adam and he to her. When Adam began to talk coherently, he would tell us stories about him and Dax; adventures they had gone on together and things that they had done.  Apparently, they were superheroes who took on the wrongs of the world, or at least the wrongs seen from a young boy’s eyes!

When Adam was four or five, he began to tell his mom more about his adventures with Dax. Apparently they had lived together — she was his dog — and he and she lived on a farm. He told her these wonderful elaborate stories full of detail.

When my sister told me, I laughed and said, “Well, I’m not a novelist but maybe he will be when he grows up.”

My sister, though, wondered. She knew kids had vivid imaginations, but she said his stories had such detail and so many things that he apparently knew about but had not experienced so far in his life time. She asked me, “Could Adam and Dax shared a lifetime together in the past?”

I couldn’t answer that question. Obviously, she couldn’t answer it either but she paid attention to his tales.

Over the years, Dax and Adam continued to share an amazingly close bond, even when they saw each other only a few times each year. As Dax grew older, Adam often asked his Mom to bring him to my house so he and Dax could share more time together.  Even as an old dog with liver disease she enjoyed his company.

A month before Dax passed away, Adam spent most of Christmas Day 2007 on the sofa cuddled with Dax. She wasn’t feeling good but never moved away from him. Adam’s teary comment was, “Mom, I don’t want to lose Dax again.”

When we had to make the decision to let Dax go, I dreaded having to call and tell my sister but found I didn’t need to; as she answered the phone she said, “Adam just told me Dax is gone.”  As we shared tears, she said, “Adam’s hugging me right now, crying, but he says not to worry, he’ll see Dax again when it’s time.”

Several days later, I got an envelope in the mail from my sister. Adam had drawn a picture of Dax, with wings, up in the clouds, with himself standing on the earth. His words, in a word balloon, said, “I’ll be waiting for you, Dax, until you come to live with me again.”

I hope it happens soon.