A Boy's Best Friend

A Boys Best Friend

 

When I was twelve years old we got Jake our Springier Spaniel. Jake was brown and white in color, and had curly hair on top of his head that faded from a dark brown to almost a blond color. I write this story now thirteen years later, on the day that we had to put him down.

            As a kid this dog became my best friend, and we did just about everything together. When we first got him I remember sleeping down in the living room near his kennel which being an outdoors dog was outside. I worried that he would get lonely in the night so I wanted to be nearby, and I also gave him one of my shirts to sleep on which smelled like me. I think it was in this moment that our deep friendship started to grow. As Jake grew he started to teeth and instead of using a chew toy, I became what he chewed on; my dad called me the walking rawhide because my arms were covered in small scratches and scars from his sharp puppy dog teeth. In the fall of that year we took him with us grouse hunting, heading up near Pine City we stayed in my dad’s van for the night. Jake was not very good at hunting, and in a lot of ways he never became much of a hunting dog. That first time out he just sat on my feet the whole time, and that night in the van it got cold and dad said that Jake slept with me in my sleeping bag.

            Each year brought new things we did together. When I would go sledding on the hill behind my house Jake was almost always with. He would chase me down the hill, and if I fell and rolled down the hill he would try to nip at me. Jake and I wrestled almost every day, my parents ended up buying me a Carhart jacket that would hold up against how hard we wrestled. Yet Jake was always an even tempered dog, he only would get ruff with me, and man did I push him at time. I remember seeing if I could get him mad by keeping him from his food, yet Jake never showed real aggression.

When we would go up to Mille Lacs Lake Jake would go fishing with me. There was one time while fishing in Hawk Bill Point Jake spent the whole time trying to figure out what this submerged log was that was near our boat. When I got my own boat which had shelves around the sides, Jake would never be on the floor, he was always walking on these shelves or on the front platform where he was able to see everything.  As we got older and I was able to drive, I took Jake with me up north. Jake never liked riding in a vehicle so usually I had him in the passenger seat next to me, hoping this would help calm his nerves. Jake and I at the land would go snowshoeing and hiking through the land, looking for deer sign, and in his case go chasing them if he saw them.

During my time at college I didn’t get to see my dog very much, I know it was hard on me, and I could only image how hard it was in Jake. There was one time when I came home, Jake barked until we let him stay inside, and he came in my room and slept on top of me.

In the fall for his last few years we would go out to Granit Falls to Pheasant hunt with my relative Tim. Jake loved pheasant hunting, but he often got too far in front of us. I remember one time Jake was way too far ahead flushing bird after bird, and you could see him springing in the air looking back at us, as if to say, “hey come on guys, the birds are up here.”

Jake was not always great, he actually was a very stubborn dog. Jake would always see how far he could push the line with me, when in the woods he would go further and further out until I yelled at him. When let in the front yard of the house he would run to the neighbors and eat all of their bread that they put out for the birds, Jake would eat as fast as he could knowing that I would start yelling at him to get back to our yard. In his last two years of life this stubbornness really came out. Jake was hard of hearing, had poor eyesight, had arthritis and didn’t walk well. With these issues and his stubbornness if he didn’t want outside he would just ignored you, looking away or not even getting up. Jake also when done with being outside would bark until someone came and let him in. Those last few years my outdoors dog became and inside dog; the heat of the summer and cold of winter was too hard on him, but when the weather was just right he would stay outside the whole day without complaint.

Truly I could write story after story about this dog that was my best friend. He helped me through some really tough times, and gave me a companion to go out in the woods with when no one else wanted to go. There are still days that I wish we could go just one last time, hiking in God’s great creation, but I know that his time has come and that the happy dog I have known for thirteen years needs to find eternal rest. I am not one to say that dogs do or don’t go to heaven, but I know that God has been with my dog and with me through all of this, and I truly believe that God enjoyed all the times we spent together. Jake was truly a gift from God to a boy who needed a best friend.