A tribute to Jack

April 2005-January 2015

Jack chocolate lab

We got Jack when he was 4 yrs old. We have a home video of when we first got him. Josiah was 3 1/2 and Titus was 18mths old. It was love at first sight with Josiah, but Titus was terrified of him in the beginning. 

http://youtu.be/5ph_gDj2UCk

Here's another video of Josiah playing with Jack just a few days after we got him. Josiah was playing with him and I noticed that Jack had chalk all over him. If you listen close enough to the video you can hear Josiah say, "That dog is bad. He needs to straighten up."

I asked him if he colored on his dog with chalk and he said, "Yep, because he's a Chalkolate dog."

http://youtu.be/l_jiwDUS_6U

The bond between them just continued to grow. 

When Titus was a baby and would walk around in the yard, Jack would follow him to protect him. Once Titus fell down and Jack tried to pick him up by nudging him with his nose. 

Also, the boys were never allowed to go back behind the house when they were smaller. They had to stay in the front yard where I could see them. If they did go to the back, Jack would come to the front door and start barking. He was such a tattle tale, but he was just protecting them. 

He was so gentle with the kids and put up with a lot of tough love. He was a horse to the kids more than he was a dog. 

Amelia was born almost a year later and Jack was responsible for another baby to watch and love. 

She became pretty bossy, but he learned to deal with it. 

He was just part of their outside play. I know they are gonna miss him awful this spring. 

Jack was all doctored up by Titus in this picture with toilet paper and duct tape. Nothing was wrong with Jack, but he was happy to be Titus' first aide patient. 

He loved going on walks with me. He recognized my tennis shoes. If he seen me wearing these shoes then he would head to the road and wag his tail happily. He actually made me feel safe when he walked with me. Sometimes dogs would come at us and he would run them off. 

There's only 2 things I can think of that he was afraid of. 

1) Fed Ex or Ups trucks terrified him. I have no idea why. He literally would growl and bark so loud that the drivers were terrified themselves to even get out of the truck. Maynard drove his Fed Ex truck home one evening and Jack did not appreciate that one bit!!!

2) Fireworks!!!!  Jack was terrified of fireworks. I guess you could say the 4th of July was not his favorite holiday. 

Mom was over one day and I guess the neighbors were letting of fireworks and Jack jumped in her lap. Even though he is a huge dog and definetly not a lap dog. It was hilarious. By the time I got their picture he had moved behind her. I guess he knew she was a Mamaw and Mamaw's are made to protect. 

He also hated taking baths. 

Here he is right after he got a bath. As soon as we turned him loose he ran straight to the weeds and tall grass and rolled and rolled. He finally came back and laid in the yard, but was all pouted up. You can tell by looking at him in this picture he was sulking. 

He loved it when it snowed. He couldn't wait for the kids to come out and play when it snowed. We also have videos of us sledding down the hill and he would run down after us. 

Here he is coming to tell on the kids for being in the neighbors tree house. 

Jack was also a hunter. We always found lots of dead critters in our yard. 

I'm guessing this leg used to belong to a deer. Jack must have thoroughly enjoyed his snack because he was licking his lips. 

Probably one of my most favorite memories of Jack was that he was the neighborhood theif. He brought home the bacon so to speak. 

He would bring home bags of dog food all the time. Sometimes half opened bags, sometimes brand new bags, little bags, or huge bags. That's not all though!  He even brought home bowls for us to pour the food in. It was hilarious. Well to us anyways. I'm sure the other dog owners didn't appreciate the disappearing dog food and bowls. 

He knew what time we ate supper. It never failed that when I opened the back door he would be sitting patiently waiting for leftovers. I caught myself today throwing out chicken bones. There was no Jack to eat chicken bones tonight. Josiah offered to throw scraps out Sunday and realized Jack was not there to eat scraps anymore and he started bawling. It was so sad. 

His favorite thing in the world to eat was BBQ rib bones from Sonny's. Of course he didn't get them often, but oh how he loved them. We brought leftovers home once. They were laying in the floor behind the driver's seat. When the kids opened the door to get out Jack grabbed the whole box and took off with them. We had a dinner catered by Sonny's last year and we brought tons of rib bones home for him to eat. He ate so many that he was miserable. For weeks I would fine rib bones laying in the yard and he wouldn't go near them. He was so full and miserable he could barely move. 

I know I'm rambling on, but y'all just don't understand how good a dog he was and how much my family loved him. This post doesn't even come close to telling y'all how good a dog he was. 

He loved us and protected us. He actually was our whole street's neighborhood watch dog. If someone pulled into their house and he didn't recognize them, then he raised cane until he knew the coast was clear. We always felt safe here because Jack would always let us know if someone was out there that wasn't supposed to be. 

Once Titus was riding his bike at the end of our road and driveway. We live on a deadend road. Anyway, a UPS truck was backing up out of a driveway and was coming awful close to Titus riding his bike. Jack went crazy. He ran from Titus to the front of the truck barking and then would run back to Titus to make sure he was ok then run back to the front. Me and Maynard both watched in awe at how Jack was trying to protect Titus. 

We will also never forget the time Jack protected Amelia from the stray dog in our yard. I will put the link here:

http://itsbeginningtolookalotlikechaos.blogspot.com/2013/08/dog-gone.html?m=0

He fought and fought that dog to get it away from the kids. Amelia ended up with 3 bites, but she was ok. I am thankful it wasn't any worse. 

I've racked my brain and that's really all I can think of to write about him for now. 

Maynard and the kids think Jack will be back any day. He has been known to wander around and had many neighborhood girlfriends. He's never stayed gone this long though. I noticed he was acting funny and he refused his food for 3 days. He only wanted water. We left to go out of town overnight and when we got back he was no where to be found. We have searched the woods and the neighborhood. No one has seen him. I read online that dogs know when they are dying and sometimes go off to hide in order not to hurt their loved ones. I don't know if that's true or not, but it makes me even sadder to know we didn't get to say our goodbyes or give him a last hug. Maybe it was easier on the kids this way though. I can't even imagine how traumatic it would be for them to have found him dead in our yard. So I guess it's better this way. 

If he does decide to come home y'all will be the first to know and then I'll save this post in my draft file for when he really does die. Lol. A bit of humor there, but my instincts tell me he's gone now. So I guess this is my closure I need to accept it. The kids want another dog.  But I believe we will wait until spring time so they can enjoy one better. 

Hope y'all enjoyed reading my tribute to Jack. Everyone deserves a good pet in their lifetime and he was definitely ours!!