Barley
I got Barley just the day before Thanksgiving. I had turned in my notice to the company I was working for and wasn't sure what I was going to do next. I was headed to my Mom's for Thanksgiving and just decided that I wanted a companion for Elbert. Elbert was just a year old at that point.
So on my way home from work I bought Barley. He was really little and they gave me a small box for him. Before we got in the car, I let him out of the box. He promptly wandered off under the car. I should have known then that he was "special".
Barley is hard to describe. He seemed to be very lazy - he wanted everything done for him. (He would even beg for the monkey's baby bottles!) But he is the one who always got into mischief. More than once I had to rig up a video camera to find out how he was doing things. I think he was just 'deceptively bright'.
If something bad happens, it usually happened to him. Once I was on travel and he got a very bad hot spot on his face. I got home and he had basically scratched all the skin off his face. The emergency vet was gone so I had to wait until the next morning to take him in to the vet. It was a long night and he ended up with one of those space collars to prevent him from scratching.
Barley had other ailments - several of which were expected would kill him. Surprisingly, he managed to recover each time and maintained his full intelligence, love, and personality even as his little body failed him. Frequent brain seizures finally were more than he could take.
Getting married was a blessing for Barley. When Bobbie came into the picture he became the 'mommy' that Barley was missing. From that point on, Barley always wanted her attention and her lap. If most pets do best in the first half of their life, Barley was the exception: his eight years with Bobbie were certainly his favorite.
We miss Barley a lot, but we are grateful that he worked so hard to be with us as for long as he did. If God has a special place for puppy dogs, Barley earned his way.