HOW MY ONE TRUE LOVE, DORA, GOT ME NOT ONE BUT TWO HEART DOGS
They say you only get one heart dog. Fortunately, I’ve been blessed with two heart dogs; Shekel Sr and Shekel Jr. When Shekel Sr passed, he was only known as Shekel back then, friends conspired to get me anothet Border Collie, this time a puppy, so I wouldn’t have to be Shekeless…
Shekel Jr took time for me to get close to. I loved him at first site, but not the way I did Shekel Sr. Shekel Sr was, from the instant we got him, just too precious. He had come from 3 owners and lots of abuse and was in many ways a damaged dog.
And I didn’t even want him.
Dora, my wife who is now in memory care, insisted we get a dog. Hold on to the thought about memory care, it is part of our story.
Not long before she found this border collie they called “Spark Plug” at the local Humane Society that she located online we were in Israel. Dora liked the money there, called the New Shekel, and decided whatever dog she got, and she wanted a boy dog, we would call him Shekel.
When we returned I told her if she got a dog I was not in any way responsible. I’d be nice to the dog, but he would be her problem all the way around, including feeding and walking. So she finds “Spark Plug” and we go to see him. We had seen another dog before, but he wasn’t the one as someone else snagged him before we could get our landlord’s permission sorted, which you need to adopt a dog when you rent.
I was warned to the dog, but Dora just adored him. They said he was a defeated dog and wouldn’t really interact with people. He was a biting hazard and would take lots of tlc.
Now at the time we didn’t know Dora was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s at only 50 years old (stared in 2015, we are at 2017 in our story). She was 52 in the year 2017. What the doctors had said was she was suffering catastrophic anxiety and generalized anxiety.
Other than some short term memory loss and her anxiety, Dora was cognitively active and alert, she could still cook and stay at home by herself and be just find. She had lots of energy and felt that a dog, especially one that needed a lot of tlc and would be a challenge, would give her something today and help her anxiety.
Or that’s what she told me to practically break my arm convincing me she needed a dog and even though I didn’t want one, it was necessary for her well-being.
Obviously I couldn’t say no.
Spark Plug came to this visiting room and at first looked defeated and wouldn’t interact, but slowly he sauntered over to Dora and suddenly pushed up against her, looked her in the eyes, and was like, “you’re my person, now let’s go home.”
He also pressed against me and I pet him. I tried desperately not to fall in love, but my heart went out to him.
After all the paperwork and etcetera we came to pick up our new dog, who Dora immediately renamed Shekel, per her decision in Israel.
I don’t know what happened or how or why, but when we took that boy, he had my heart lock, stock, and barrel. Before we even got home, he was “my baby” and I knew he was my first and then only ever true doggy love.
He did help Dora…and me. When I got stressed or angry, Shekel would pounce on my and put me in timeout until he sensed I was better and then he would let me move. I have to say, aftdr 4 years of him doing this I rarely get as angry or stresseful as I used to before he came along, so his rehabilitation of me was permanent.
Fast forward to February, 2021, and Dora is in the hospital after what seemed like a psychotic break. The past year prior was hell and we couldn’t get a diagnosis or medication, but Dora’s “anxiety” was almost 24/7, and she wasn’t her normal self. She was not nice to me, either, and yet Shekel would often calm her and shorten her episodes. She was never mean to Shekel.
She ended up in Pittsburgh at UPMC where they ran many tests. I was there staying with Shekel at a dog-friendly hotel. These were such dark times and had been for a year but that boy, my Shekel, softened the pain and was just always there for me.
One day, somehow, Dora called me from the hospital. By then we had for the terrible news of her diagnosis lf Alzheimer’s and that it was fairly advanced with an unusual amount of brain atrophy.
Somehow this was an extremely clear day for Dora.
She tells me how much she loves me. She tells me she understands what’s coming and for me to always tell her story and to be brave and to use this to show people the love of Jesus. Sbe says she has lived a happy life with me and is content and that if Jesus told her she would have to get tbis terrible disease in order for Him to save one soul, she would choose this path so I needed to make this count for her.
Then she says, “I have a confession to make though. I didn’t insist on getting Shekel for me. I didn’t need a dog, though I do love him.” (The hospital says she about Shekel all the time)
She goes on, “Shekel is YOUR dog, Bill, I got him just for you. I knew when I saw him, you needed him and he needed you.”
Now fast forward to August 13, 2021.
Dora is on medication and doesn’t have near the anxiety, but she can no longer have such conversations and she can’t walk Shekel alone. At this time have a caregiver who comes every day for 8 hours and she cooks for Dora, and me, cleans, and also walks the dog with Dora.
Today my boy is sick and I get the terrible news I need to come in and say goodbye.
As this is unfolding a friend instinctively knows that for my wife and me, another Shekel needs to be found and brought to us asap.
He shows me pictures of dogs he found and I then take them and show them to Shekel and ask for his approval that another Shekel comes to us. Shekel actually paws one picture, the rest he ignored, and gives me a “nose kiss”, as if to say, “this one will do, Daddy.”
We are with him until just seconds before the second needle. In light of Dora’s condition, it was felt if Shekel passed in front of her she might have a terrible breakdown. I am still sad I wasn’t there right at the very end, though it had to be this way for Dora. If she was still “there” she certainly would have stayed right to the end. She loved that pup.
Dora couldn’t register he was gone. She thought he took a nap and we’d be back for him. She didn’t understand why I was crying.
What do you know, between my friend who found the dog and another who was close enough to the area to get him and drive 3 hours to my house, the very next day Shekel Jr arrived, practically a puppy version of Shekel Sr!
(I’m not sure the Shekel Jr I got is the one in the picture, my friend Jean picked him from 3 choices based on his behavior, which was a good choice. But without Shekel Sr choosing the picture he did we would have gone to a different place, so he did choose Shekel Jr in my mind.)
Dora loved him and somehow to her she was Shekel turned back to being a puppy. She had always said she wished we could have had Shekel as a pup and now, here “he” was, as a pup!
I loved the boy and his presence helped Dora a lot. I’m wondering if somebody in her spirit Dora had pulled the same stunt to once again get me a Shekel.
Chosen by his adopted doggy dad, Shekel was here and he was now my doggy son.
In October of last year, after not being able to find more than one person to help with home care, and as her condition had worsened, my beloved wife had to be taken to memory care full time, though I still hoped it was just temporary.
That’s when my little boy became my second heart dog.
He knew mommy was gone and it was just him and his daddy, so he poured on the affection and he started putting me in timeout, just like Shekel Sr did.
I see Dora at least three days a week. She always asks about her “Shekel”, and to her, he is just reborn as a puppy. She has a stuffed animal version of Shekel Sr, so do I, but to her Shekel Sr and Jr are the same dog. The point being she never had the trauma of losing Shekel Sr thanks to my friends’ fast and efficient actions.
But it was that first lonely night without Dora I knew I had my second heart dog.
I was upstairs and Shekel Jr’s crate where he sleeps (and, yes, he loves his crate) was downstairs. I was obviously quite depressed and heartbroken, at times I still am. Suddenly he starts crying and barking and making a big fuss.
I go downstairs and open his crate and he instantly jumps out and jumps on me to put me in timeout. He nuzzles my face and pushes against me and gives kisses. I’m a blathering mess, releasing my grief but happy to have my boy, and then I suddenly feel for him exactly as I did for his adopted dog daddy.
At that moment I can’t thank Dora enough who even as she knew instinctively what she didn’t tell me back in 2017, that she knew and sensed she couldn’t be with me, like she had been, for much longer and that I just needed a heart dog of my own. Without her doing that, I wouldn’t have had either Shekel Sr or Shekel Jr.
And so thanks to the love of my life and wife of my youth, I have now had two wonderful heart dogs to help me be a better human.
Pictured: Dora with Shekel Sr back in 2017 and my boy Shekel Jr taken in August 2022.
