A Tribute to One of Man's Best Friends

Our beloved dog Pitch died today from secondary complications of an infection.  He leaves behind our family, his doggie "wife" Trudy, and his good doggie friends Lucy and Bandit.  He was a good and faithful friend to us and will be missed tremendously. 

The photo Joe took to put on the "lost dog" flyer

His Story

We know Pitch was an old fellow, but we were not sure how old. You see, Pitch adopted our family in 2007. Yes, he adopted us, not vice versa. 

Sara and I came home one day to see this bear-like creature sitting by the front door. I approached it cautiously, fearing it may attack us. It looked very capable of doing great harm. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t a bear after all. Whew! It was a very furry, large male black dog. My husband informed me that the dog had shown up out of nowhere. Later on, our neighbor Lisa said she saw him walking around her front yard, peering into her fence at her dogs and then saw him head for our house to do the same. Apparently, he preferred to take up residence at our house. He chose wisely because I have a very soft heart when it comes to taking in animals.

As Joe began creating a flyer to put up in the area – we don’t live in a neighborhood – Jeneva drove up into the yard. I thought, “Oh no, she is going to be really scared when she sees this big black dog.” Not so. She came through the door and the first thing she said was, “Who does that big dog with the sweet brown eyes belong to?” To her credit, she recognized his goodness right away.

Sara followed in her big sister's footsteps, going even further. “Can we keep him Mommy? Can we keep him?" was repeated over and over. Joe and I explained that we needed to locate his rightful owner. Not only did we put up flyers, we also posted his picture on Internet sites that were for that purpose.  

In the meantime…

Joe instructed me not to give him food and water in the hopes that our new friend would go home. I followed his advice that afternoon, but we decided not to withhold water the next day when we found him still sitting by our door. It was fairly clear by the third day that this dog was not leaving. We then decided we could not withhold food any longer. Over these same days, Sara began to “take ownership” of him. She even wanted to name him. She decided to name him “Pitch” because he was pitch black. Naming him created an even deeper bond between us all. 

One of the things that first touched our hearts about Pitch, other than those sweet brown eyes, was how he would escort us to and from our cars. When we went out the door, he got up and walked us to our car and then returned to his spot by the door. When we would come home, he would greet us at the car and escort us to the front door. He was such a gentleman. Surely someone had to be missing this fellow, but who?

As each day passed, Pitch would venture a little further from the door. First he sat under a nearby tree and then he eventually began to explore the yard. We live by a fairly busy road and I began to worry that Pitch was going to get hit by a car. I asked Joe if I could put him in the backyard, which was fenced. At first he hesitated, not being sure how Pitch would get along with our other dogs, Trudy and Lucy, but quickly changed his mind when I told him, “Okay, then you can be the one to tell Sara when he gets killed by a car.” Pitch made it into the backyard and indeed stayed with us. We were never able to find his true owner.

Pitch playing basketball

We discovered many things about Pitch. He was so polite and well mannered. It appeared that he only liked to eat when someone was near by. It was like he was trained to wait. He obeyed commands and, believe it or not, he could play basketball! When Sara and Joe would shoot hoops, Pitch would get the ball on the rebound and put it between his front legs and press down on it with his very strong chest. It was almost impossible to get the ball back. Sara wrestled with him over that ball many times.

Things we loved about Pitch:

He liked to howl when the train went by

He also howled when Sara practiced piano

He could play basketball like a champ

His gentle and sweet in nature

His big brown eyes

His extraordinary fuzziness

We were heartbroken when he became ill. We nursed him night and day. In the beginning, we thought there was no hope, but he rallied from his original infection and appeared to be doing well. Then, just as quickly, he began to decline again. This time no matter how much we cared for him, it wasn’t enough. We did have some very good time together as we administered comforting care, being thankful that he did not appear to be in any pain. We assured him of our love and told him it was okay to let go. Today he let go. He is gone, but we have our memories of him. I am sure one day we will be telling tales about him to the next generation of our family. He was that kind of dog.

Sara and her friend Sarah just after performing the "marriage ceremony" of Pitch and Trudy.
 The white cloth is Trudy's veil. Aren't they a cute couple?

Farewell Pitch. Again, thank you for choosing us.

P.S. We recently acquired another sweet boy, Bandit, from friends. Was that God’s plan? I would like to think so. He doesn’t replace Pitch, he just moved into the queue of love.