Reese's Story

Caroline and I had the itch to get a play-partner for Whistle back in 1999. We'd had Whistle for about 2 yrs, and we kept her inside now while we were gone at work. We just thought she could do with a partner, so we looked around the local SPCA's website. We had also gone down there twice to look at dogs, and found it VERY difficult to leave empty handed. Finally we locked down on a golden-lab colored "hound dog" mix that we'd seen pictures of. Turns out when we got down there our "choice" had already been taken (he was still there, but already purchased).

Luckily Reese was still left. He was 1 of 2 black-n-tan's in the litter, the rest were all golden. Why was he the last one to go? We don't know, but we wanted to check him out before buying. So they let him come out and play in the SPCA's back yard. We threw tennis ball and he loved it. He pounced all around and everything in his eyesight was a game. The grass, the ball, our fingers. Needless to say, he came home with us.

We stopped off at Petsmart on the way back to get him a collar that was way too big, but we knew he'd grow into it. He was all legs and no body, so we knew he was going to grow, and fast. Got him home and he pounced into the back yard. Whistle was trying to smell him down, but he was all over the place, running, playing, biting everything. He was small enough to walk clean under Whistle's legs. By the time he was full grown, he was large enough to step clean over her. Play, sleep, play, sleep. That was Reese. He had a fun, high-pitched bark.

Reese's first Vet picture.

and the first picture we took of him. All legs and ears.

So Reese kept growing, and growing. Caroline and I would take him and Whistle for a walk every morning before work along a path that led through Harrington Grove. We'd pass a neighbor walking his dogs a couple times a week, and he'd comment every time on how "that dog just keeps growing and growing". Reese had this cool, careless strut. It just seemed that he was all legs, with this little body strapped on to keep the legs together. He was awesome. He was beautiful. He was just such a damned good looking hound. He only wanted to hang out with us. If went into another room, he had to come check it out. If we were just lounging around, he'd have to come sit in the middle of the room and make sure he knew where we were. Reese was a social dog. He slept on the bed with us and started taking up half the bed. We didn't really care, in fact we loved it.

It was May 2002 we think. At around 5am, he was sleeping on the bed...and along came the monster. It was the 1st seizure we'd seen him or anyone have. It lasted about 2 minutes, that seems like 2 hours. We both freaked out hard. We had no idea what was going on. We thought he was dying or something. Neither of us had seen a seizure before. It was terrible. He'd actually fallen off the 3' high bed while it was happening. In fact, I have to stop writing now as the thought of it is choking me all up. Come back Reese...