Our Dog Kena'i
Our Dog Kena’i December 5, 2020
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Sometimes us old guys have a little compulsion to become a little contemporary.
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Our family has always been joke telling. Our parents set the example, especially the men, and it has been carried on through the second and into the third and fourth generation. We are such a joke telling people that one night on a camping trip, we only told the punch line for about an hour when we should have been going to sleep.
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One joke we heard many years ago and have repeated many times is about a man who was going on a trip to Europe and left his pet cat, which he loved dearly, with his brother.
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The next morning after arriving at his destination he called brother. After a little small talk, he asked his brother, “How’s my cat?”
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“Oh, he's dead.” replied the brother.
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“What? You can’t break bad news like that all at once. You need to prepare me.”
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“Explain what you mean,” the brother inquired.
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“Well, when I asked, you should have said, ’The cat’s on the roof and we can’t get her down.’
Then tomorrow when I call, you say, ‘The cat caught pneumonia.’ Then the next day you can break it to me that she passed away. This way I have time to adjust.” Instructed the traveler.
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“Ok. I understand now.” gasped the brother.
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“By the way, how is grandma?”
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“Oh, she’s on the roof and we can’t get her down.”
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We had a dog that was half beagle and half basset that we named, “Tagalong”, or “Tag” for short. As the primary characteristic of both those breeds, they like to follow a scent. Tag would put his nose to the ground, following it wherever it went, ignoring everything else, including the busy road in front of our house.
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I came home one day and June asked Robb, “Do you want to tell him or should I?”
I was fearful that my son had gotten into trouble.
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He said, “I’ll tell him. Tag is up on the roof and we can’t get him down.”
With a touch of humor, I learned that a car had hit him.
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We have had a good dog, Kena’i, a Corgi mix, for 15 years.. He brought us a lot of pleasure. He was as active as a pup but was past the tearing up stage, except for my handkerchiefs which he seemed to find when I failed to put them where they belonged.
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When we opened the kitchen door for him to come in, he charged full speed across the room and took a 4 foot jump on the couch. When he slid the screen door open, he innocently came in slowly looking around like, “Oh how did that happen?
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We would take him for walks but what he really enjoyed was the car rides. He was effective for many years at keeping the rats away and bringing them to our back door to show he was on the job. He mistook a mongoose for a rat once and showed that he lived up to his name, “Conqueror.”
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He loved to be scratched and when we would say, “Enough!” he would go to find another person to get more scratching. Of course, we’d have to tell how he dug up the pineapples June had spent the day planting.
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We got him when he was six years old. He reached 21 years of age this year and had slowed down a lot. He still took us for walks but a lot slower. He let a rat run into the house and didn’t even get up. He was almost blind in one eye and couldn’t see well out of the other. He had lost most of his hearing, or else he ignored us a lot. He had to have a couple of teeth pulled which made it hard for him to chew, though he could still do a good job on a steak t-bone. He wanted to stay close to us and would sleep just outside our bedroom door instead of the soft dog pad we provided.
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When he began to show other signs of other problems, the vet asked, “Have you considered how long you want to keep him?”
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It was a hard decision for the pet we had loved so long. It was dawning on us that he didn’t enjoy life anymore except when we’d take him for a car ride to some of the places where he could roam free. Recently his roving was cut short by him always wanting to be with one of us.
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So we made an appointment with the vet. The day before, we took him for a ride and let him roam at two of his favorite places. We gave him his own hamburger from Burger King. June gave him ice cream in the afternoon and I shared some more with him that evening.
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The vet took him in first, then brought us to him. She had already given a pain killer and he was laying on his side on the table. We gave him a last rub and he laid his head down on my hand. She gave him the final shot and he closed his eyes while June and I tried to comfort each other with the tears from our eyes. We were thankful for the joy the Lord had given us through Kena’i.
The next task was breaking the news to the boys. Since they didn’t live at home, we texted them first, before a phone call.
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The text said, “We had to put Kena’i on the roof today.” and that little bit of joy symbolized the great joy he had brought to our lives.
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He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.