James Etheridge

Sometimes when we visit lifelong friends, we connect with others and wind up making new friends. A few weeks back, over the Fourth, that is exactly what happened to Jackie and I. Truth be told, it was Jackie more than me. We spent a few days at our friends Jerry and Betty’s farm in Blairsville. That is where we met our new friends Stormy, Tug and Bean, who are Jerry and Betty’s dogs. Stormy, Tug and Bean are pit bulls.

And they are lucky pit bulls, at that. Each one of them came to Jerry and Betty as a rescue with a different story. Bean came into their lives when he was discovered by Jerry’s cousin, who found him curled up and sleeping one morning in his garage. He was about a six-month old puppy, near death, covered in bite marks with a bladder infection and infested with parasites. No doubt due to her mothering instinct and sensing how sick Bean was, Georgia took to him as soon as Jerry and Betty brought him home.

A friend of Jerry and Betty’s found Stormy. The dog was wandering the banks of Lake Chatuge in the middle of the winter. Their friend managed to get her into the car and took her home. Stormy was also undernourished and parasite ridden. After about a week, Jerry and Betty’s friend contacted them. She knew that Georgia had crossed The Rainbow Bridge recently. She also knew that they needed Stormy, Bean needed Stormy and Stormy needed a home where she would be cared for, loved and respected.

Tug was discovered by Betty. He was tied to a tree outside of a ramshackle house in Blairsville. Betty would ride by him daily on her way to and from work. Eventually she stopped at the house, knocked on the door and offered to take the dog. The man who answered the door told her that the dog belonged to a woman who lived there, but she wasn’t home. This continued for some time. Finally, Betty stopped one day and the woman answered the door. Betty offered to pay her for the dog. “No, he’s not for sale,” the woman said. Betty pulled out a crisp one hundred dollar bill and offered it for the dog. The woman took the bill, looked at Betty and said, “Cut the rope. He’s yours.”

Stormy, Bean and Tug are three of the best behaved and well mannered dogs I have ever been around. And that is due to the love, care and kindness that Jerry and Betty have bestowed upon them over the years.

Due to circumstances beyond her control and a prior traumatic experience, Jackie is terrified of pit bulls. It is a deeply rooted fear that makes her uncomfortable around the breed, even if the dogs are gentle and loving. On our earlier visits with Jerry and Betty, we had met Georgia and Bean. Jackie was not completely comfortable around them and even though we assured her that everything was okay, she approached them with caution. When we left the house and headed to Blairsville for the Fourth, she was still apprehensive.

That didn’t last too long after we got there. The dogs were happy to see us and, though there was lots of body wiggling and tail wagging, they did not jump on us and attempt to knock us down, as we were used to with our whippets. Once inside and after settling in, Tug took to Jackie immediately. She sat down on the sofa and he brought one of his toys to her. She tried to take it, but he wouldn’t let her. You know the drill. They want you to take it and throw it, but they act like they don’t. She finally got the toy from him and threw it. He chased after it, got it, brought it back and she threw it again. After he grew tired of the game, he cuddled up on the couch next to Jackie. Storm curled up next to her on the other side and Bean lay at her feet. That pretty much continued the rest of the weekend.

At dinner that night, the dogs all sat obediently by our chairs. They patiently waited for table treats and, when they got them, took them gently and politely. Betty told me that they fed treats in turns and each dog waited patiently for their turn. There was no whining, begging or knocking one another out of the way to get to the food. I must admit, however, that Stormy was not above putting her head in my lap, so as I ate a big brown nose was sticking up from under the edge of the table.

After dinner it was TV time. When I say TV time, I mean TV time for Stormy. She loves to sit and watch TV, dog movies and commercials in particular. Jerry sent me a video earlier this week of Stormy watching Gone With The Wind. Hey, she’s a true Southern Belle. There’s also one of her watching Old Yeller. I assumed she cried at the end. Everybody cries at the end of Old Yeller. If you don’t cry at the end of Old Yeller, you have no heart. I’m sorry, but that’s how I feel.

The next morning and every morning afterwards, Tug came running downstairs and into our bedroom. He would leap up on the bed with Jackie, lean hard into her as she petted him, and then roll over on his back so that she could rub his belly. Every evening he ran down to tell her good night and every morning he ran in and jumped up for his belly rub. Jackie would laugh and laugh at how hard he leaned into her. The two of them bonded very quickly.

One afternoon Jackie was sitting in the living room chair with Tug curled up next to her. Bean and Stormy were lying at her feet. I looked at her and laughed. “How does that crow taste, Honey?” “I know, I know,” she laughed.

Before we left, Betty took pictures of Jackie on the sofa with the doggies. One of the pictures is featured above. Check out how she and Tug are looking at each other. The morning we left, Jackie was almost in tears. “I don’t want to leave the doggies,” she cried. It was a long goodbye, because there were multiple hugs for all of the dogs. As we drove up the drive toward the gate, Jerry and Betty stood in front of the house waving. The dogs all sat with them, watching us. Jackie looked back and got choked up again. “I wanna go back,” she said. On the way home, we met a group of friends in Cleveland for lunch. Jackie told them all about her three new friends she had made and how much she loved them.

It was a great weekend with our friends, old and new. Having lost our two dogs within less than a year apart, Roscoe last March and Tilley this past February, it was great for Jackie to be able to spend time with three loving, gentle and beautiful dogs. She kept telling Betty and Jerry that she wanted to take Tug home. They laughed. I laughed too. I knew she wasn’t really kidding.

Last week she looked at me and said, “I want to see the dogs again.” She called Jerry and asked him to bring them and meet us halfway. He laughed and said, “Have Jimmy bring you up in August.” So it looks like we’ll be making another trip to Blairsville soon. And it looks like we may be visiting our old and new friends a bit more often. Next time maybe I’ll sit down and watch a couple of movies with Stormy. Perhaps Lady And The Tramp. Maybe Homeward Bound or a couple of episodes of Rin Tin Tin. But not Old Yeller. That’n makes me cry.