Lady Tonya

Lady Tonya

In my memory, I had a couple of dogs when I was a little girl. Yet I didn’t have any special feelings with animals; I meant they were just dogs and I played with them. That’s it. One day, my view has been changed because I met Lady Tonya. She was such a beauty and an intelligent animal.

I met Lady when she was 7. The same situation as Smoky had and even worse, as it took her almost 6 months to adopt me. I didn’t know the reason until my husband told me. He said: “She is jealous.” Wow! I have never thought that animals would be jealous as human beings do. She had this reaction because she grew up with my husband and she didn’t need/want to share the love with anyone else – even Smoky. However, everything has changed due to the appearance of the newcomer.

Since I came to the family, I took charge of the care for the animals. I fed her, brushed her, gave her shower and so on. Guess what? She was the first dog I have ever hugged. I was not used to it but I loved to hug her. When we went for a walk, I even didn’t need the leash as she wouldn’t do anything when I said “NO”. She even didn’t bother the cats in neighborhood when she was not allowed. However, she killed a cat accidentally. That’s not her fault as she was provoked too many times, and then she couldn’t tolerate anymore. I wouldn’t blame on her though.

Lady was very friendly and all the neighbors loved her very much, especially children. She would sit or lie down to let kids pat her. I never heard any noise she made towards kids. Actually, she barked at human beings very rarely, unless she sensed something wrong.

Dogs are not as smart as cats, in a way. Lady liked to go to the creek as Smoky did, but she sometimes came back with a gift for me that Smoky never did – the special gift from skunk. Oh, my goodness! It took me a lot of time to wash her with tomato juice; otherwise, I couldn’t stay in the house for one more second. I am always wondering why dogs become a little stupid when they meet skunks?  

Our relationship was built up day after day. When she started following me going outside at night, that’s the time she had adopted me. When I laughed, she made happy noise; while I cried, she cried with me. I remembered that she was so anxious and made lots of noise outside the exam door when I was in a clinic to get a shot. That’s why I loved her so much.

Unfortunately, 3 years later, she became weaker and weaker. I took her to a couple of vets, but they couldn’t figure out what happened until a vet saw her bleeding nose. The vet told us that she was poisoned and couldn’t stay much longer. Well, I hate to say that she was right. Lady died two days later in an animal hospital. She was so young and I wish I had met her a few years earlier. We cried a lot for her death. That’s the first time I cry for an animal.

Anyway, I appreciated that we had the chance to share our lives together. If I will have another dog, I would love to have the similar breed (I guess she was belong to Border Collie), and name her Lady Tonya Jr.

By Yuki 12/15/2010