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HOW ODIE CAME INTO MY LIFE
 On a sunny cool Montana day after work, I decided to take a walk around the small shopping center that was directly behind the restaurant I worked for. One of the stores was a pet supply store. Now this store never sold cats or dogs but on this particular day they had two 8 week old beagle puppies playing in a children's play pen. I had been wanting another beagle for a long time. Seeing those puppies was a sign in my head that one of these beagles was going to become my baby. I never shop or window look: I hate it. This store never has animals just pet supplies: There were two beagle pups. It was my beloved Dad's birthday: He had died a few years back and he had given me a beagle when I was 14. I picked the puppies up and Odie let me know I was going to become his Mom. He wouldn't let
me put him down. He kept jumping up on the side of the play pen to
 pick him back up and I kept doing it until I finally just told the manager of the store to hold this beagle for me. These puppies came from a litter on a Montana Ranch and he said he'd let the breeder know.
NO DOGS ALLOWED
I now had one major problem. No pets allowed in the apartment complex I lived in and most other rentals wouldn't allow pets either. The heck with them, I'll buy my own place. This is no easy task for a waitress. I had a friend who was a realtor and in two days I bought a trailer in a trailer court that allowed pets. I then got another friend who helped me to buy the necessary supplies to build a fence. This friend and I built the fence the next
day. By the end of the week, Odie was with me in our own house.
NAME
When Odie came home with me, his name wasn't Odie yet. I had to pick just that perfect name for the beagle I had already fallen so madly in love with. I bought a baby name book with descriptions of each name. Otis and Jasper were the final two. Otis meant loving, loyal, independent but still attentive and full of personality. That was definitely this puppy. Jasper had a lot of the same description but instead of loving, it had happy go
lucky. Odie was purebred not that that mattered. I decided to register him so his formal name became MASTER OTIS SEELIGMAN, Odie for short. He was also named in honor of my Dad.
CENTER OF MY LIFE
Odie quickly became the child I never had. He was also my best friend. No decision was made unless I knew it would be in Odie's best interest and if he approved. He was with me through numerous moves, bad relationships, good relationships, joyous moments, bad moods, sickness, and health and even was the one who decided on the man I married.
Odie went where ever I went. I would not go on vacations unless he could go and I would not fly because I wouldn't even think about letting him be put in cargo. My way of thinking was if I can stand to listen to noisy children of the two legged kind, I should be allowed to let a quite dog lay on my lap in the 3rd class passenger cabin. Vacations were taken by car for his 14 years of life. Lots of vacations were based on whether Odie would have a good time.
My husband and I adopted another female dog for Odie to play with while we were at work. That was kind of a flob because Babers wasn't the playing type. She was two and never did learn how to enjoy playing. Odie really didn't care, he annoyed her instead. To him that was just as much fun. I was his favorite playmate. It didn't matter what we were doing as long as he was with me. If he knew I was home and I disappeared from sight, his
number one priority was to find me. My job hours became based on Odie. I cut down my hours just to be with Odie. All my activities and hobbies became ones I could do at home or if he could be included. We didn't necessarily have to be doing anything as long as we were together. Odie did n't ever hold back how much he loved me no matter what. When he didn't get his way, he pouted for about two seconds and then I became his universe again. If I was sick he
wouldn't leave my side and was very watchful about anyone getting close to me. If I was laying down, no one was allowed to approach, not even my husband. We loved our walks together. Our favorite game was keep away. Even when Odie wasn't feeling good, he wanted to be near me.
ODIE IN A BETTER PLACE
I still can't believe he is not here anymore. His last day with me, he tried to tell me that he was tired and it was time to go ahead of me to that better world. I didn't see it real clearly at first but at the vet office I knew deep inside I was going to have to let go but I still wanted to do anything to keep him with me a little longer. The vet did exploratory surgery and even let me be in the surgical room. I was hoping that they would find something
that could be fixed. What they found was a liver covered with cancer. I let my Odie go.
COPING WITH THE PAIN AND GRIEF OF HIS LOSS
At first, I my life came to a complete halt. I couldn't do any of my crafts or hobbies. I couldn't even clean my house. (Odie loved attacking the vacuum cleaner). All I did was watch TV and I never watched much
 television. Finally I went back to work full time to a job I absolutely deplored. One of Odie's vets called one day and said a two year old beagle walked in and
asked if I wanted to adopt it. I was not ready for this but Tommy and I
decided it was something Odie would want us to do; give a homeless dog a home. We then went to the shelter and adopted an Australian Shepherd in Odie's honor. I started making photo memory albums of just my Odie pictures. So far I have one for vacations, Christmas and general life. I have pictures on all my walls of Odie. His ashes are next to my bed with a sleeping picture of him on the urn. I planted a garden for him. His picture is in this garden
too. All this helped with some of the grief but that hole in my heart was just not healing. I then discovered the internet. Through the internet I found friends that have holes in their hearts too from a very special dog. Having a place to go to where others  understand and not look at you like it's only a dog or get another one or have no idea what the love of a dog is, helps to live with this hole.
THE ODIEDOG WEB PAGE IS BORN
The understanding of friends I've met on the internet is how the makings of this web page came to be. There are many of us who know the pain of loosing a beloved dog and sometimes have no where to turn.
This is also a page where dog lovers can tell stories and just talk about their dogs to other dog lovers. We are all interested and love this dog talk. I know where I work and most of the people I know aren't interested in listening to me go on about my dogs. I can come here.
DEDICATED TO MY ODIEDOG
I LOVE YOU
Last Updated
01/31/02
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