I don’t actually consciously remember Buddy, myself, but I grew up hearing her story, and she was such a great dog, that I have to include her here.
We had a picture of Buddy, so I know what she looked like: a white dog with speckles and large black patches. I don’t know what breed, or breeds, she was… she was a mix, but from the picture, she was probably about 40 lbs., her hair was short, and her ears hung down, like a retriever’s ears. I don’t know how she came by her name either, but if I had to guess, one of my brothers named her. It was a good name though, since she was a good “buddy” to all of us.
Buddy was extremely smart and protective. I was the youngest, and my brothers were supposed to watch me to keep me safe… but of course, since they were just kids too, their watchfulness lapsed at times. Not Buddy’s though. If I tried to go out the screen door, Buddy, on the outside, would lean against it to keep it closed. She would not let me get outside. If I was outside already, and trying to go into the street, she would grip my diaper in her teeth and pull me back. She kept me safe, always.
When I was very young, maybe around 2-years-old, I got Rheumatic Fever. I was pretty sick for a time, and Buddy was charged with sleeping in my room to watch over me. One night, my dad fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand and caught the mattress on fire. Well, it wasn’t flaming, yet, it was smoldering… but it was just a matter of time before it would have flamed up. Buddy went into my mom and dad’s room and woke my mom up… but she wasn’t fully awake, so she told Buddy to “go back to the baby’s room”. Buddy kept trying though, and finally got my mom awake enough to realize that the mattress was smoldering… and she woke my dad up and they got it put out. So, Buddy was a hero that night… and a hero later on as well.
At some point, Buddy got pregnant, and she was close to being due to deliver. Across the street from us, our neighbor had an old Cocker Spaniel that was mostly deaf and blind. One day, the Cocker Spaniel was crossing the street, but there was a car coming that it didn’t hear or see. But Buddy did. Buddy ran out and knocked the Cocker Spaniel out of the way, and the car hit her instead. It didn’t kill her, but she was badly injured… and of course, there was the pregnancy. She crawled up into our yard, and then she started having the puppies. She hung on until every last one was born… I think there were 6 or 8 pups, it’s hard to know for sure, but they were all stillborn since they were born too soon. After the last one was born though, Buddy died.
The man who hit her had stopped and gotten out, and tried to help. My mom said he apologized profusely; he said he hadn’t seen her, and it happened too quickly for him to stop. I believe him, because I don’t think he would have stopped and tried to help otherwise. It was a truly sad thing, and I cannot tell the story without tearing up, even though I don’t actually remember Buddy… but she was a truly great dog, and a truly great hero.