Hannah
Updates: 09/02/00, 10/12/01
Story Last Edited September 2000
Hannah's Story ~ Somehow through the years, my family and I have become known as "the animal people." We have had up to sixteen pets at one time. In San Antonio, we had cats, dogs, guinea pigs, dwarf rabbits, a chinchilla, and a horse. We have also owned many other different types of pets from fish to hamsters to hermit crabs. In Washington, in the home of my mom and younger brother, there are 4 cats and 1 dog; a greyhound. The fact that we all were and still are the designated "animal people" is what brought our little Hannah home to us.
We used to have friends that lived just outside our neighborhood. They own apartment buildings that are
located down the street from them. It was a midsummer afternoon when we got a phone call
from our friends. We were informed that the tenants had found a stray dog. They said they knew
how much we loved animals, and asked if we would be interested in taking the dog or helping to
find a good home for it. We said we would go ahead and take it for a little while, until we could
find a good person who wanted it. Mom said to me after the phone call, "Now, you know we're
not going to be able to keep it, don't you?"
My mom, little brother, and I drove over to the apartment building, where we were greeted by a
woman and her little girl holding a six week old ball of yellow fluff. The woman finally
convinced her daughter to hand me the puppy. The story was this ..... The woman's husband had
gone to the car wash station, where he saw the little puppy all by herself. He picked her up, and
she was covered in fire ants. He guessed that she must have been there awhile for all of those
ants to get in her fur. He asked people around if she belonged to them, or if they knew who
owned her. No one knew where she had come from. He wrapped her up in a towel and drove her
home, where he and his family could give her a bath. Then he called the landlords, who in
return, called us. Then, there we were, standing on the porch of these people as a child
reluctantly handed me a puppy. The woman said to me before we left, "Will you be keeping her?"
I said to her, "Maybe. I don't know." I'm not sure why I said that. Part of it was the hopefulness
in her voice, and part of it was the fact that I had never actually had a dog of my very own. Even
if she weren't going to stay my dog, I wanted to pretend for a little while that she was mine.
The woman looked at me kindly and said, "Oh, I sure hope so."
We brought the scared little fur-ball inside and decided to give her a bath in the sink. The other
people had rinsed the fire ants away, but she was still a bit dirty. The warm water would also
calm her. She clung to my hand the entire time Mom and I bathed her. She slept so soundly in my
arms as she dried off in a towel. We put her in our downstairs bathroom on a very large blanket,
and I sat on the blanket with her to keep her from crying. I also wanted to spend time with her
in case we would have to give her up soon. I was already very tired of calling her "the puppy"
and "it." I was watching her nap when I thought of the name Hannah. I looked at the sleeping
beauty, and decided it was very fitting to her. I told everyone the name I had thought up, and
they all said, "Oh no, she's named it already!" and "Looks like you're keeping that puppy." Mom
said, "No, we're not keeping her. We really can't." I promised myself then that she would only go
to the very best home possible.
I asked one girl right away at the veterinarian's office if she wanted Hannah, because I knew
her, and I would have given her the puppy since she was so nice. She was always my favourite
secretary there. She said she had a small house full of cats, and she wouldn't be able to keep a
dog. Another thing to consider was Hannah's adult size. It was very hard to tell what kind of dog
she was as a baby. We all thought she must be a Golden Retriever. She was all yellow with
small, floppy ears. Another secretary was also interested in taking Hannah. She said she'd have
to ask her landlord about taking her. At this point, I had already had Hannah for three days. We
had all made a very honest attempt at finding the true owners. We noticed a large, yellow, male
dog that lived in a house near the car wash. He doesn't always stay at the house, and we
discovered Hannah must not have belonged to anyone. Nevertheless, we searched for the original
owners and found no one. We were all trying to say our good-bye's that night, because that
woman was pretty sure she could take her. I was okay until my brother started crying. Then I
started crying, and soon, we were all crying. Then Mom said those magical words, "Do you want
to keep her?" I was so happy when she said that! I was finally having my very first puppy. As it
turns out, the woman was told by her landlord that she could not have a Golden Retriever.
Things worked out well in the end.
Taking care of a puppy is a very difficult task. If you attempt to raise one by yourself, you are
very brave indeed. I had the help of my mom, and it was still insanely difficult. I was keeping
Hannah in my bed with me at night, because she howled when we tried to keep her downstairs
by herself. I got up early to take her out. Mom and I took turns taking her outside, and cleaning
up after her. At night, she curled up in a ball against my foot, and breathed her little puppy
breath on my ankle. That was my favourite time. The whole day would be over and exhausting,
and little Hannah would be breathing on my foot. We went through newspapers and house
training, and I read every piece of dog training literature I could get my hands on. The books I
really enjoyed were by a Los Angeles dog trainer named Matthew Margolis. He wrote such books
as:
As Hannah grew, we began to realise she was not a Golden Retriever. She looked a lot like a
Labrador, except for the fact that her ears were now standing up. She has a purple tongue and a
curled tail as well. Even as a baby, her eyes had reminded us of Pit Bulls. With the help of our
vet, we finally decided that she is a Labrador/Chow/Pit Bull mix. She's my little mutt, and
she's as sweet as can be.
She has always had a lot of energy, and got more rambunctious as she got older. She knows how to be very docile, too, though. She always got along
very well with our Samoyed, so they stayed outside together, much of the time. We never left
them out during the summer, though. The temperatures in San Antonio are too extreme for that.
I love my little
Hannah, and I'm very glad I was able to have such a great friendship with her and that I still do. I'll always remember that first day we got her, and how I
fell in love with her. I had promised myself she would go to a good home. I kept that promise.
She came to my home, and she stayed there, to be forever loved and spoiled. She is a very sweet
and wonderful dog. And now, even though she doesn't live with me anymore, I know she is safe. My dad is taking care of her back in Texas. I miss her a lot sometimes, but I'm glad to know she's in good hands. I'll always love my Hannah...
I got to visit Hannah at Christmas time of 1999!! It was SO great!
I hadn't seen her in what felt like forever. I visited my dad's new house for the first time.
My younger brother was there, too. When I walked in and saw Hannah, we both were so excited we
could hardly contain ourselves!! She makes this really high pitched whining sound when she
gets that excited and she was jumping all over me and licking me as much and as frantically
as she could. It was awesome.
Eventually, she calmed down. Over my week long visit, we shared so many great moments together.
Her fur feels so nice. I took as many pictures as possible, including the one at the top
of this page. I'll be adding more soon. I'll always love Hannah, the feeling of running my fingers through her fur, the way
her soft ears feel againt my lips when I hug her, the way her body warms my feet as she sits or
sleeps on top of them, and the way those sweet, dark eyes look into mine, and I know we share
a bond that can never be broken, not even when we're thousands of miles apart.
Hannah dug out of my dad's backyard in Texas on September 2, 2000. I put out ads on Hotmail and Yahoo classifieds. My dad and his friends put out ads and searched all the shelters. Hannah was never found. She was so beautiful and friendly, I'm sure someone with good intentions picked her up and is giving her a happy life right now. That's how I have to think of things. It's the only possibility in my mind. I'll always love you, Hannah... top