How Trouble Saved My Life

How Trouble Saved My Life

Trouble

The year was 1981; I had just come out of an eight year relationship that was not only abusive, but also included a heavy drug addiction. I had hit rock bottom. There was three months of lonely solitude. I was depressed and not eating. I dropped to 118 pounds on my 5’10 frame. I was in so much emotional pain I didn’t think I would live and really I did not even care if I did. I knew in order to survive that I would need to make some changes in my life. Then on September 16th of that year I woke with an idea. Being my birthday I would go to the dog pound and bring home a new friend, this would be my birthday present. It would be my way of starting over, a clean slate.

I arrived at the pound and went inside to see what was available. In the first cage I came to was this little tiny dog. She was white with brown spots. Her legs were so short that her back end had to sit like you would if you were sitting side saddle. She had one ear that was “broken” and one ear that stood straight up. Her brown eyes were the saddest eyes I have ever seen. She was adorable and at once I knew this is why I had come. I didn’t want to dismiss the other dogs there after all I had only looked into the one cage. As I walked from pen to pen my mind kept going back to that first little pup. I rushed through the rest of the kennel and back to that first cage becoming so afraid and a little panicky that someone might take her before I could get back. Twenty minutes later I walked out to my car with my new friend.

Two days after I got home the little pup got sick. I took her to the Vet and he gave me medication for her and told me to get some children’s cherry cough syrup, I could also offset her coughing by getting her into the bathroom with the hot water running to produce steam, thereby breaking up the congestion in her chest. He gave her a fifty-fifty chance to live. SHE NEEDED ME!!!  I decided not to name my small friend, in case she didn’t make it.

I spent every hour of the next few weeks by her side. Her coat under her throat was red from the cough syrup. She coughed a lot, so much that it was hard for her to catch her breath. I thought she was going to die. I would hold her and rub her neck hopping to calm the cough. Finally the third week she started to get better. I was so wrapped up in her that I had forgotten my own problems. I knew in order for her to survive I would have to be healthy and so I started to take better care of myself. It took a full two months until she was well enough to be a puppy. My little friend would make it!! I was ecstatic!! It was then I realized that I too would make it. I had put on five pounds and was on the road to recovery. I would name my friend Trouble that is what her name would be.

That was 32 years ago.  My best friend passed away in August of 1999 at the age of 19.  Trouble provided me with many years of companionship, and helped me through many rough times.  She was always there when I needed a shoulder to cry on.  She was always there with her funny antics and cute tricks, and she did a lot. For instance you would give her the command to jump up and while in the air I would shoot her, “Bang.” She would fall to the ground with her tail wagging. Then you would say “Dead dogs don’t wag their tails,” and she would lie still, acting dead. She had many other tricks but this was my favorite.

She loved me unconditionally, without any questions.  I really believe that if it wasn’t for her I would have just given up, because until she came into my life it had no meaning.

I know she will be waiting at Rainbow Bridge, and I can’t wait to meet her and cross that bridge holding my little friend close to my heart.  I miss you Trouble!

Trouble was cremated and her ashes are memorialized on a hill top overlooking the desert she loved, with a friend named Sideshow Bob who passed before her.  I made a rock headstone that says,

Trouble’s Headstone

Bob and Trouble were buddies, good friends, Watch over her Bob,  until were together again. Rest In Peace Trouble 1981-1999.