{"id":5573,"date":"2022-05-22T08:42:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-22T12:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=5573"},"modified":"2022-05-22T08:48:05","modified_gmt":"2022-05-22T12:48:05","slug":"origin-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2022\/05\/22\/origin-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Origin Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is part one of a \u201cSunday Story\u201d.  There\u2019s no politics here, just stories about our \u201cpack\u201d of dogs here in Pataskala.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marvel Comics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Every heroic Marvel comics character has an \u201corigin story\u201d.  Some are so familiar, they are in inscribed in the national memory.  Superman arrived on earth as a baby, a refugee from the planet Krypton.  Peter Parker was a teenager bit by a radioactive spider.  Batman was the rich kid Bruce Wayne who lost his parents to criminal violence.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My wife Jenn and I have five dogs.  They are all \u201crescues\u201d, and while we don\u2019t have all the details, they each have their own \u201corigin story\u201d.  And those tales aren\u2019t just \u201cgood stories\u201d; their \u201corigins\u201d often explains their behavior later in life.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are their stories (\u201cChung-Chung\u201d from Law and Order<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Buddy is our oldest, somewhere around ten years old (as a rescue, your never quite sure).  When we got him, they said he was a three-month old puppy, but an examination of his teeth showed him to be closer to a year-old.  But he was small, so the \u201cpuppy\u201d image was still there.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got Buddy from the local shelter.  He had already \u201cfailed\u201d in another home.  He was definitely a \u201cnipper\u201d, not serious bites, but constant nips.  And when he arrived at our home, I wasn\u2019t sure it was going to work here either.  He bonded with Jenn (literally in the car on the way home from the shelter) but for a while he wasn\u2019t quite so sure of me.  We worked a lot on the nipping, and  Buddy began to settle in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he really didn\u2019t feel a part of our \u201cpack\u201d (we had two other dogs at the time) until one night, we let him sleep with the rest of us in bed instead of in his crate.  Overnight, his attitude completely changed, and it has stayed that way ever since.  There\u2019s something in the \u201cacceptance\u201d of sleeping in bed with us, that seems to make all the difference to these dogs, all lost or rejected by others.  (Now with five dogs, we have a king-sized bed!). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clues and Miracles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t know Buddy\u2019s exact origin story, but there were some behaviors that gave us clues.  Buddy loves women, but he isn\u2019t so sure of men, particularly men with hats and definitely men with sunglasses.  Make that hat a hardhat, and Buddy is definitely not a happy guy.  And Buddy cannot stand \u201cbeeps\u201d, on phones, on TV, and most importantly, the backup signal on trucks and machinery.  Was Buddy found on a construction site, with hard-hatted workers and moving equipment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we do know is Buddy seeks shelter when he\u2019s scared.  His two \u201csafety zones\u201d:  underneath our platform bed, and in the bathtub.  It doesn\u2019t takes much to send him there, a truck on the street, or a TV commercial with beeps.  And when we have guests at the house, Buddy will often hit the bathtub, often to the surprise of those later using the facility!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddy is a medical miracle.  In 2016 he developed a lump on his throat, that turned out to be lymphoma.  In dogs, even with surgery, his life expectancy was no more than two years.  But the good folks led by oncologist Dr. Erin Malone at Med Vet in Worthington, removed the tumor, and Buddy went on an experimental chemo-therapy for eleven months.  He not only survived, he thrived.  Now more than six years later, he\u2019s a fat and happy senior citizen.  He loves cheese, carrots, and whatever else he can get.  And he\u2019s a great \u201cbar dog\u201d, happy to sit under a table without attention:  as long as a few spare French fries make it his way from time to time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Northeast Rescue<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We lost Buddy\u2019s pack-mates, including his close friend and \u201cmentor\u201d, our amazing Yellow Lab, Dash.  Dash was an \u201cold soul\u201d, who showed Buddy the ropes of living in the Dahlman household.  When Dash suddenly died (cancer as well) Buddy was alone, and sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenn and I went to Florida for the winter, and Buddy was a great \u201ccamper\u201d dog.  And we decided that one dog was just fine for us.  But when we got back home, the spirit and scent of Dash was still in the house, and Buddy seemed sad once again.  So we took it as a sign when a dog that looked almost exactly like Dash appeared on the euthanasia list of the Franklin County Shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shelters have an incredibly tough job.  Dogs arrive in all kinds physical and psychological conditions.  With limited budgets, there\u2019s only so much the shelter can afford to do to help each dog, and sometimes the compassionate thing is to euthanize them.  This dog had severe ear infections that looked like they would require expensive surgery.  The Shelter wouldn\u2019t adopt him out, but they would allow him to be taken by a Lab Rescue.  Otherwise \u2013 the Shelter couldn\u2019t afford him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we became a \u201cbranch\u201d of the Northeast Ohio Lab Rescue (with their permission, of course)  \u2013 and went and got our new guy.  The two year-old Lab was already named with the \u201cdignified\u201d moniker of Atticus so  we started  him as \u201cAtticus Finch Dahlman\u201d.   We took him to our wonderful vet here in Pataskala, Dr. Hickin, who diagnosed his ear issues as food allergies.  Atticus went on a diet of salmon and sweet potatoes (you can buy that), and his ears, itching, and hearing all improved immensely.  Soon, he too joined us in bed, and we had another Lab in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atticus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But we also discovered that while Dash had a \u201cdeep soul\u201d, Atticus had a \u201cscrew loose\u201d.  He was renamed \u201cAtticus Baddicus Dahlman\u201d; if there was trouble to be found, he could find it.  Atticus was incredibly anxious, and had serious separation issues.  While he\u2019s better, now four years later, still if we leave the house for a few hours then come back in time for dog-dinner, he\u2019s still too upset to eat.  He wants to \u2013 but he just can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Buddy, Atticus wasn\u2019t a good traveler.  It took him hours and miles to settle in the car, and he never really got used to the camper.  While he did spend several weeks on the road with us in Florida, in the end it was never a great fit for him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old Memories<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

And we discovered quirks with Atticus that gave clues to his \u201corigin\u201d story.  Whenever Atticus gets anxious or excited, he spins in narrow circles.  Our best guess:  he was crated in a small cage, and the only motion he could make was tight circles within the walls.  And Atticus had scars along the bridge of his nose and is very \u201creactive\u201d to chain link or slat fences.  Did he stick his nose through the cage, causing the scars?  And finally, Atticus is a wonderful dog, but reacts badly to being cornered, under a table, or between barriers.  Whatever caused that, it\u2019s a memory he can\u2019t get rid of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atticus in now five years old, approaching middle-age.  His life, and Buddy\u2019s, dramatically changed during the Covid pandemic.  Not only did we stop traveling,  but both Jenn and I were in the house most of the time.  And our \u201cpack\u201d of two grew, as we gained three more \u201crescues\u201d, all first as \u201cfoster dogs\u201d.  But we (mostly me) are really failed foster parents. Once a dog is in our pack, it\u2019s hard to let them go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s next week\u2019s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Story Series<\/h5>\n\n\n\n