I remember the day as though it were yesterday. It’s been almost 17 years since that fall day I rescued Polo affectionately nicknamed the Cookie Monster by his groomer! It was 1985 and I was living in Walnut Creek CA. I got a call from the local Cocker Spaniel rescue. Since I volunteered once a week at the local shelter most rescue groups had my name and number. They asked if I would pick up a year old Cocker there as they had a lady in San Jose who was ready to adopt him.
I was happy to.
I went in and found him just wagging that little tail and shaking all over with anticipation of ‘being selected’ to come out of the kennel. As I approached him he looked into my eyes as no other dog there ever had. I remember thinking this one is special.
Someone in San Jose is going
to be very lucky.
This particular rescue group charged the new owners the cost of whatever the shelter charged to get the dogs released. I think it was $17.00 but I really can’t remember. I first took him to the groomers as I didn’t want fleas at my house. This didn’t go well. He bit the groomer. I apologized and told the groomer I had no idea but the problem would
definitely be worked on.
The next stop was the vet who was also a close friend. I warned of the incident at the groomers but no one there seemed concerned. He proceeded to bite the vet and the vet tech and when he was given a shot you would have thought a semi had run over him. Stoic he was not. Once again I apologized and everyone laughed and said he didn’t do much damage and was glad it wasn’t a Rottie or a GSD. I made a mental note to inform the lady in San Jose that she had to work on his little problem.
At the time I only had one other dog Natausha a yo GSD. When I walked into the house Polo promptly grabbed one of Taushie’s toys and jumped up on the sofa in the living room as if he had lived there since birth. I remember thinking “How cute”. Taushie came running over and it was love at first sight. I was thankful it was not Love at First Bite!!!!
I called the lady in San Jose (I cannot remember her name) to make arrangements for pick up. She said she was going on vacation and would I keep him for a week. Sure I said thinking he would be no problem and obviously loved Taushie. She mailed me a check for the $17.00
(or whatever it was).
The week past quickly and the lady phoned to make arrangements to come up and get him. Although I had not thought about it much that week I remember the first words I spoke were “Gee I’m sorry but he has stolen my heart and I’m going to keep him. I’ll mail you a check and find you another Cocker.” She was very understanding and we did find her one
a couple weeks later.
I wasn’t sure if he had a tough life before going to the shelter or not. I never saw signs of abuse and he was groomed. We suspected someone lost him and just didn’t know enough to check all the shelters in the area. He was a happy camper with no apparent baggage. However I thought he should have a special name and one that reflected his traveling that he surely did prior to being ‘caught’ by animal control. So I named him Marco Polo. Over the years he’s been called Marco Markie and then mostly Polo. My nickname for him was Ragga-muffin. He was always looking like a rag mop before needing to be groomed. His coat seemed to grow overnight and I wasn’t use to this breed. All I knew was GSDs who just dropped their coat in globs as they walked across the floor.
My breeder advised me not to get another dog until Taushie’s bad habits were improved or she would just teach the new dog all of them. She was wrong! Taushie instantly improved her attention-seeking behaviors the day Polo walked through the door. This was the first time I had more than one dog and vowed I would always subscribe to the Noah theory and have at least two of everything. What a difference it made in my house.
I was fairly new at obedience training 18 yo and Taushie was my first obedience trained dog. Although I used traditional type training methods back then common sense told me that if I had a dog who would eat anything that wasn’t bolted down feeding should work to counter condition this biting behavior at the groomers and vets. It was 5 weeks later when Polo was to be groomed again that I tested this theory out. I went to a new groomer (just to be fair to the dog) armed with a bag of cookies and left the instructions that they were to feed a cookie clip a nail feed a cookie clip a nail etc. Apparently his feet were the only problem the original groomer said she had with him. It worked like a charm. He never bit anyone again.
I was very proud of him.
Taushie died in 1993 and Polo missed her for what seemed forever. He never did bond with any of the others in the pack as much as he did her. There was just the two of them for three years before I added Kiki
to the pack.
I have many years of memories from California to Virginia especially the Therapy work he did. He just loved attention. My fondest memory of Polo was how he loved his Boomer balls. He was the only one who would play with them by himself. The small ones he managed to get enough grooves in them to be able to pick them up and carry them around. And when they would get into a corner by the fence he would bark at it as if to say “Move! I can’t play with you when you’re in the corner.” He was the only one I ever had that grabbed a toy and greeted me at the door with
the toy in his mouth.
I struggled with the decision to let him go but dignity prevailed over my heart that kept saying just one more day. He lost his battle with controlling both his bladder and bowel movement even when being held or laying on my lap and he would frequently collapse and couldn’t get up on his own. His hearing was just about gone and all communication with him was by hand signals. Although I don’t think he was in pain he certainly was uncomfortable with arthritis and his whole back end not working mobility-wise. I had to keep him separated when I wasn’t there so Danca or Sonny wouldn’t mow him down. He also couldn’t hear if Danca growled at him because he may have chosen to sleep a little too close to Danca’s face. His quality of life was diminishing with each day. Although it wasn’t “my” time I believe it was “his”.
I thought many times of the picture of him and Taushie running once again together – free of pain and the joyous look when they would meet at the Bridge after being separated for almost 9 years. That picture became stronger than the one of him lying in my lap.
Polo died peacefully in my arms
on Tuesday June 11th
doing his two favorite things…
eating (baby food from a jar)
and being held by Mommy!!!
God Speed Polo……
You will always be in my heart.
Cher
| Marco Polo |
| 11, June 2002 |
| Cher |