Wolfgang’s Memorial

First a word from Barkley, I am not writing this memorial for Wolfgang because I did not have the pleasure of knowing him, he was laid to rest in January of 2004, so being that I was born on August 9 of 2004 I was never able to know him. Though I wish I could have had him as a role model, from what my Alpha tells me he was a magnificent standard Poodle, with an enormous amount of love in his huge heart. So that is why my Alpha is writing this memorial and he will be the one who picks out the pictures of Wolfgang that will be include with the memorial.

Love

Barkley

It is very hard to write a memorial about Wolfgang, who was a majestic white standard poodle that I loved very much. Because I did love him as much as I did, I know that to satisfy me it would take a 100,000 words to write a fitting memorial to him. Only I am not going to do that much writing about Wolfgang, I am going to keep it as short as I can. I am just going to hit the high points that show what a magnificent K9 Wolfgang was.

I do not remember the exact date when Wolfgang and I met, because it was 16 years ago, but I know it was in March of 1989, yet that is not important, what is important is the fact that Wolfgang was my loving best friend for fifteen years.

The strange thing about Wolfgang coming in to my life was that the day we, my wife and I got Wolfgang, I had no intention of getting a K9. We were living in an apartment, saving up our money to buy a house. The owner of the apartment did not allow K9’s in his apartments, so my last thought was to get a K9.

We had driven down to a little town called Larkspur, which was about 30 miles from our apartment, to a computer repair shop which was repairing our computer. The man who owned the computer repair shop work out of his ranch house home.

It was there we saw Wolfgang’s Dad he was a beautiful standard Poodle. The owner of the computer repair shop told use that Wolfgang’s Dad had just sired a litter a few months back. He then said that he was just getting ready to take the Dad back to the puppies. He then asked if we would like to follow him to the ranch were the litter of puppies were, I did not want to go, but my wife did, so we went.

Well it turned out that the litters of puppies were at a ranch house that was a working ranch, as well as having a day care center at the ranch. The owners of the ranch ran the day care center and they had the litter of puppies right in the middle of the area that they had the day care center in. All of the puppies had been held and cuddled by the children of the day care center from the very first.

When we looked in the pen where the puppies where, we saw that there was only a few puppy’s left. My wife then picked up one of the puppies and handed him to me, holding that puppy made my heart melt, but the one I was holding was not the right one. Over in the corner was a white puppy sitting in a funny way, he was not sitting like K9’s normally sat, he was sitting on one side of his butt.

Well I put down the puppy I was holding and picked up that one, it was love at first hold, I know that I had to have that puppy, even if it meant moving to a different apartment that would allow K9’s,

I looked at my wife and told her that I had to have this puppy; she then said that she knew that once I saw the puppies I would find one that I would fall in love with. She also told me that getting a puppy was why we had driven down to get the computer, rather then having it delivered to us, by the owner of the computer repair shop. He had told her about the puppies and she thought I needed a K9 friend to take care of and love.

Wolfgang was an unusual puppy, for instance he did not bark till he was 3 months old, and he scared him self when he did. He also never chewed up any of his toys; in fact Barkley inherited some of Wolfgang’s old toys.

In spite of that, Wolfgang had a puppy-hood was pretty much like every other puppy has. I would take him for walks, and we would play with his toys, he would get treats, as well as his dog food, and he would nap. He also had adventures on our walks that we called " going a growing and a prowling"; see "notes from Wolfgang", on the list of links to read about one of his adventures.

Wolfgang also went to school to learn how to behave as a grown white standard Poodle, and he did very well, although it was not until his second year that the effects of his schooling really became apparent. In fact in his second year, he started to learn things on his own.

By Wolfgang’s second year we were walking 6 miles every day, we would go a growing and a prowling at 5:00 in the morning so Wolfgang could be off leash for part of the walk. He was off leash for about 4 miles of the 6 miles we walked. During these walks, he would be about 10 yards ahead of me, for whatever reason he somehow learned on his own to come back and heel beside me, whenever he saw someone coming down the trail.

At home he always knew how I was feeling, and he would act in what ever way my mood dictated. When I was feeling unloved, he showed his unconditional love he had for me by the way he would nuzzle and snuggle up to me. If I was in a happy mood, he would bring me toys, to try to get me to play with him.

We walked and played everyday, till he could hardly walk to the end of the block, He wanted to go further but he could not because of his hips were going bad. Wolfgang’s hips were painful, even with the pain medication the veterinarian gave him did not help him very much. Even after his walks were just to the end of the block and back, we would still play but very mildly. The one thing that never changed right up to putting him to rest was the unconditional love he had shown from the first day I got him.

Well, I could go on and on, but I think that I have written enough about him to give you, the reader, at least a basic idea about what a great and loving standard Poodle Wolfgang was, there was one thing that never changed as Wolfgang grew older and crippled was the unconditional love he showed for me.

The hardest think I ever did was taking him to the veterinarian, I could no longer stand to see my beloved friend in the acute pain he was in. So that is why I decide to have him laid to rest. As I helped lift him up on the table where the shot was to be administered that stopped all of the pain he was in, I kept my eyes glued to his eyes, and what I saw was complete love and trust that made what I was doing all that much harder, but I know that it was not fair to make him suffer to satisfy my need of him. After he was gone, I held him for thirty minutes; I just did not want to leave him.

Nevertheless, life goes on; after Wolfgang was gone I never wanted another K9. Only in October of 2004 my feelings changed and I felt that I needed a new K9 friend, to fill the void left by the lost of Wolfgang. So once again when I pick up a puppy that sat on its butt like Wolfgang had done, it was love at first hug. I name him Barkley and he I and I are as close as Wolfgang and I were. But there will always be a place in my heart for Wolfgang. Lucky for me I have a big and loving heart.

Barkley’s Alpha