The Roner

The Roner

If you have ever had a friend that was literally your best friend that you grew up with you’ll understand this story.

It was June 30, 1993; we had not been in the house three weeks yet. The main road into the subdivision, Pleasant Valley Drive was asphalt as was our road Bald Eagle Drive, but Grey Fox Drive was still unpaved. There were only two complete houses in the subdivision, and that was Andy and Mary who lived the third house in on the right on Pleasant Valley and us. I came home had the day off I think, and I know I was working outside cutting down trees with the mini chainsaw I’d bought thinking that it would be big enough for the job, boy was I wrong. Anyways, I had just stepped out of the garage when NanHee and the kids drove up. The kid’s jumped out all excited but, trying to maintain their composure.

NanHee got out of the drivers side and the kid’s came running around from the other side. They all stood in front of me grinning like Cheshire cats and said “Guess what?”{i/}, having all said it together made them all laugh together. NanHee said; “Close your eyes.”{i/} And Patti was right along with her: “Yeah Dad, close your eyes.”{i/} So I closed my eyes and I heard them open up one of the truck doors. When they told me to open my eyes I saw a beautiful black beagle. She had an all black body, a brown chest with a brown patch down the center of her face, and two brown eyebrows.

She bounded out of the truck, and David got hold of her. “Come here girl, come on!”{i/} There was really no need to say it, because I felt the attachment right away. She had bounded out of the back left seat of our 1985 Jeep Cherokee Chief, and started jumping all over me. She was absolutely beautiful, a black and tan half beagle and what seemed to be maybe a schnauzer, she had the markings of a Doberman or rottweiler and the body of a beagle, to say the least she was exactly what the family had hoped for. I was ecstatic with joy at her presence, I asked NanHee and the kid’s where they found her and they told me they had gone to the pound, and she was the only one that came to the fence and really stayed with them. She had been born to a family that had lived off of Walton Way but had to move. They had taken the litter of nine puppies to the Highland Animal Clinic on the corner of Highland Avenue and Gordon Highway for adoption and they in turn turned them over to the pound. She had been born on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1993 and was four months old.

It was a real surprise and I wasn’t quite ready for it. I didn’t have a pen built for her yet or, anything ready for a dog. We didn’t have a fence yet so we had to chain her to one of the trees which she never adapted to, she could never stand to be chained or penned up. Even once I built her a pen she dug out of it opting for sleeping on the back porch or in a hole she dug for herself. She was much of a night owl, roaming around at night protecting the property. Candy became a part of our family immediately, and was like another child to NanHee and I. When I would walk outside she would come to me wagging her tail a mile a minute smiling. She would look at me and say; “Scratch me Dad it’ll make you feel better.”{i/} And it would make me feel a hell of a lot better just patting her and scratching her. She would turn her rear end towards me and I would scratch her hindquarters or just above her tail and her back leg would shake.

She grew fast, and before we knew it she was 28 pounds of squirrel and cat chasing fun. She had a natural dislike for squirrels and an even lesser tolerance for cats. All we would have to say was; “Kitty Roner, kitty.” Her ears would rise up, and she’d whine, look around and look back at us saying; “Where, Where Dad!!!!”{i/} If she saw a cat or a squirrel you could not stop her, she would take off, and she would not stop until it was tree’d. She was a great hunter too, it seemed to be in her blood. And, the kid’s never had to tell her to come with them, she was always ready to trot off down the road beside David on his bike, or walking with Patti, or she’d just go off by herself. It wasn’t unusual for Candy or, Roner a nickname I gave to her, to be gone all day only to return at dusk coming home after a long day trotting through the woods, and the houses that were being built in the subdivision. We were the first to buy and the second family to actually move into their house. All of the work crews, carpenters, plumbers, painters, landscapers, etc knew her by name, and she gave her love to all of them too. They would tell me how she would come around sniffing everything like an old hound dog. They’d call her but, she wouldn’t come to anybody no matter if they had food or not until she had satisfied herself that she’d sniffed everything she wanted, only then would she go to somebody for some scratching or scraps from lunch.

It was right around October or November 1994, I came home one night from work late, which in those days wasn’t unusual. I called her when I got out of the Jeep Cherokee, but she didn’t come. I called her a few times before I heard a whimpering coming from the direction of one of the deer paths that was almost directly behind her makeshift kennel. I called her but she wouldn’t come, and then David came outside. By now it’s after midnight, and I’m out in the backyard calling her to come but she just sits in the woods whimpering, then all of a sudden she started barking when David or I would call her name, but she still wouldn’t come.
So I got the jeep going and pulled up into the backyard with the high beams on. There she sat right in the middle of a deer path, great big gold eyes shining in the light barking. We couldn’t get her to come to us so we started walking towards her. I told David to stay back a bit because we didn’t know if she had been bit by something that was going to bite us too or, if she had gone mad from a bite. She was wagging her tail, crying, and barking when David and I finally got close enough to touch her, that’s when she tried to come to us but her hind end was paralyzed. She dragged herself about five feet to us. We picked her up and brought her into the garage and laid her on some blankets. It was a real shock to us the next morning when we woke up. We all got around her and when we opened the garage door she stood up on her front paws and walked out of the garage. We rushed her to the vet at Paradise Animal Clinic off of Bel-Air Road and he informed us that our baby was more than likely pregnant, and she was only temporarily paralyzed. She had probably been with another dog bigger than her which we found out later that the black lab out back, affectionately known as “Buckshot” was the culprit. When she had her first litter of puppies they came out black and tan just like her with the exception of one who was completely black.
She was a great mother to her puppies too. And unlike a lot of dogs she knew we were there to help her with her new babies and let us hold them while she cleaned them off or nursed them. After they were grown and getting around some she started taking her morning romps around the neighborhood again. It was as if she wanted to get herself back in shape again because she slimmed right down, “Nothing is gonna sag on this pup Dad”{i/} she once told me; “I’m a good looker Dad and I’ve got to stay that way.”{i/} We gave her puppies away gradually over a period of time which she didn’t seem to mind. They were getting big and she was through taking care of them.
Every Sunday was a treat to her because she knew she as going for a ride in the pickup truck. She knew she owned the shotgun seat in that truck too, because if NanHee or the kids tried to get in she wouldn’t move over until I told her to. But on Sunday mornings her and I would get in the truck, go up to Jerry’s for the paper and come back home the long way. We would come out of Jerry’s, take a right onto Windsor Spring Road, then right onto Mims Road. From here we would turn left onto Hephzibah-McBean Road and travel about three miles, turn right onto Henderson Road then hang a right onto Storey Mill Road and a left into the subdivision. Now all this time she’d either be in the back with her front paws on the side of the truck bed, head held high windsurfing or she’d be in the cab with me hanging out the passenger side window. Whenever I was off and going someplace that I could take her all I had to say is; “Go for a ride Rone?”{i/} She’d beat me to the truck whining and barking, wagging her tail and shaking until I opened the door for her.
The kids had left home by 1995 when she was two years old and Candy, NanHee and I grew a whole lot closer than ever. NanHee would leave to go to the gym in the morning leaving The Roner outside in the backyard. When she got home there would be a message on the answering machine from Debbie and Richard five houses down the road; “Hey NanHee, this is Debbie, I just wanted to let you know that Candy’s down here playing with Sandy and Spirit.”{i/} They had two miniature collies and another house dog named Ginger that Candy loved to play with. She could dig her way out of Fort Knox, Kentucky, and she’d be quick about it too. When Nanhee would get home she’d walk down to Debbie’s house with the leash and pick her up. She put her tail between her legs and crawl low when she’d see NanHee, “What are you doing here, huh?”{i/} NanHee would say to her trying to be mad but she knew it was impossible for NanHee to get mad at her. She'd start wagging her tail and run back and forth between Spirit, Sandy, Debbie and NanHee as if she was saying;” Look guys my mom’s here.”{i/} She would make her last rounds, and start pulling NanHee towards the fence. She loved to walk, not on a leash mind you, but just roaming around, sniffing everything, and every inch of ground near her. She would come home and go out back to her favorite hole or shade tree. In the summer she would dig a hole in the shade somewhere just deep enough so all you’d see was from her eyes up.
She became my only friend after David went into the Marines in November 1995. Her and I would cut brush, small trees, and sometimes good size pines from the backyard and after a good hard days work, we would build a nice fire out back, and sit there admiring our work having a drink or two until all hours of the night, and into the wee hours of the morning. Over the years 1995 through 2000 her and I cleared the land back twenty-five yards, cutting, hacking, and burning our way to bliss at the fireside.
Sometime in 1997 Candy got lose again and this time it was old Pete from two houses down that fathered her pups. All seven puppies decided to come out on a September morning in 1997. I was on my way out of the garage door about 7:20 a.m. when I took one look at her laying up against the wall between the two garage windows. She was panting, and kept looking at her stomach. Her eyes were dilated, and she was looking at me with those big brown eyes. I immediately called in to work and told them I would be late. NanHee and I got her blankets and some cool water. Her first puppy came at 7:41 a.m., she turned towards her bottom and started licking herself, and then her water broke and they started coming out. One after the other they were all about three to five minutes apart except the last one. We were sure that six was the magic number because after about five minutes of waiting, there were no more to come when all of a sudden she turned real quick and out popped another. He looked just like her, blond eyebrows, blond chest, blonde paws, and the rest was jet black.
She was a great mother; right away she was licking and cleaning all of them, sniffing each individual for signs of abnormalities in their breathing, eyes, paws, etc. You could tell what she was doing with each one. After she had cleaned-up each individual one she stood to get settled in for a long day of nursing, she then lay down in a comfortable position, and looked at NanHee and me. She was looking at us as if she was saying; “Damn what an ordeal, I’m tired now.”{i/} And she was, because after some congratulations from us, and a wash down with some towels, and cool water she laid her head down and tried to go to sleep while the puppies nursed.
When I got home from work she was up walking around and running. And we had seven screaming puppies on our hands in the garage. They grew fast and got big, they were considered medium size dogs but they had the coat of a long haired Sheppard which made them seem as puppies like young German Sheppard puppies. She played with them, taught them to chase squirrels, how to wait in lay for an unsuspecting cat that would have the life scared out of it suddenly. She taught them how to get the marrow out of the big hindquarter bones that I would bring home from the restaurant.
We began to give them away one by one after they were nine weeks old. She knew what we were doing but, by this time she was growing tired of them, and some of the males were getting to be territorial, and she was having no part of this. It was her turf, all 250 acres of the land the subdivision was built on was her turf, and any animals entering were tolerated but, knew it belonged to The Roner.{i/}

When I would come home from work she would be waiting for me when I pulled up with my Chevy S-10 pickup. She would whine and cry, wagging her tail, always taking the time to greet me with a kiss and a jump up to me she wanted to see what was in the cellophane wrapped up. I would let her sniff the wrapped up treats she would take it gently in her mouth and go over to her blanket to begin the long tedious process of chewing, and licking the bone until every last drop of marrow had been extracted from the bone and it was pure white. When David graduated from high school in 1995 we gave him the 1985 Jeep Cherokee for his graduation present and off he went to work at night for Baskin and Robins Ice Cream Shop on Peach Orchard Road. Again, she would be elated when David came home from work, usually between 11:30 and midnight. He would show up with frozen ice cream frappacino’s for NanHee and I and a small taste for Candy. She always showed her appreciation first and, after she had devoured every last morsel of the sweet frozen cream she would lick you or put her paws in your lap to get you to bend over so she could kiss you.

Sometime during the summer of 1995 David decided he was going into the U.S. Marines and announced to us one night that he would be leaving in November. Thanksgiving Day came too awfully quick that year and the next morning we had to take David to the Marine recruiting office at Southgate Mall. My friend met us there, and we all wished David off as he climbed into the white van that would drive him to Mepps (Military Examination, Personnel Processing Station) in Columbia, South Carolina and further onto the infamous boot camp training center at Parris Island, South Carolina for eleven weeks of hell.
After the van departed my friend, NanHee, and I went out for a bite to eat and parted company at the restaurant. NanHee and I drove home and I reassured her all the way home that he would be okay. He was doing what he thought was the right thing for himself and his course in life. I realized quite some time later that it kept me from losing my composure in front of her. When we arrived home around four o’clock, Candy was waiting and realized immediately that David wasn’t with us. She sniffed everywhere for him and when she couldn’t find him she sat down in front of me, looking up saying; “Okay Dad, what’d you do with the kid?”{i/} NanHee went into the house and sat in her loneliness and despair, I decided to grab a beer and went out back. I was okay until I went towards the woods and realized that he would not be there to tease me or scare me when I got home late. I hadn’t walked ten yards into the backyard when it hit me and opened the flood gates in my eyes. As usual, Candy was right there with me, beside my leg looking up. “Hey Dad, come on, don’t feel so sad, you still have me.” {i/} The look was on her face that she was still my best friend even though David and Patti were no longer there she was and, she would take care of me.

NanHee and I were alright the first few days after he left then on a Thursday morning while she was driving me to work in our 1994 Ford Taurus, while we were traveling down Peach Orchard Road, all of a sudden we looked at each other, and without saying a word we both started to silently sob. We later understood this to be the moment that we realized we were now alone, the kid’s had flown the coop. It was a sad weekend to say the least even with David’s calls from the military processing station assuring us that he was alright. But that Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny and as usual, when I went outhe back door with my coffee in hand there she was waiting for me. "Good morning Dad, sleep well? I slept like a log. What're gonna do today Dad? Cut down some trees, mow the lawn maybe? Either way will you build me a fire?"{i/} She ran to the pit where we usually made a fire, sniffed around then looked up at me, ran back to me as I walked to the back fence and shed and began her jumping routine to get my attention. When I finally looked at her she ran to th pit and back letting me know she wanted a fire built.
After a hard day's work of cutting, pruning, raking, tilling, and digging, we were ready for a nice cold beer and ice water. Around four or five o'clock I would start gathering the makings for the fire, some dried pine needles, then some good, dry sticks and braches. Candy would be right there with me sniffing and rooting around picking up branches and carrying them to the pit for me. Then she would come around and sniff the dead fall logs or stumps saying;"This one looks good Dad.{i/}
I would bring the logs to the fire and light the bed. After it was going good, I'd lay a couple of small logs on it to get it going. Soon it would be blazing bright and hot, at this point I would get the sweet potatoes or baking potatoes I'd wrapped earlier in the day in aluminum foil and dig a small hole on the edge of the fire that I would fill with hot coals. I'd drop the potatoes in and cover them up letting them cook for a long time very slowly.
Candy would run to the back door and scratch it letting Nanhee know that the fire was going and it was time to come and get the cooked potatoes. When Nanhee came out to the fire she sat down and began opening up a potato. Candy would sit there and whine until Nanhee broke a small piece off and gave it to her. The darker it got the more settled she'd become, getting up occasionally to wander off into the dark towards the fence and do a check like a soldier checking the perimeter at night. She'd come back and dig a little more dirt from her hole and settle in again, soaking up the warmth of the hot fire.
As the night wore on towards midnight and the fire had burned to hot embers, I would get up and turn on the water to the hose dousing the edge of the fire first then slowly work my way into the hot core of the pit. Candy would sit up and watch me extinguish the embers then we would both head for the back porch where I would tuck her into her blankets inside the large plastic house on the porch. She would stick her head out and say "Goodnight Dad, thanks for the fire, see you in the morning. Don't forget, we gotta go get the Sunday paper.{i/}
Sunday morning was a treat for her when we would go up to the store for the Sunday paper. When I would open up the back door and step outside onto the porch, she'd come out of her house and stretch. Once she had done this her tail would start wagging and she'd say; "Good morning Dad. ready to go get the paper?"{i/} When I opened the drivers side door to the truck in she would bound and sit in the passengers seat as if she was meant to be there, which she was. One Sunday we decided to let Nanhee ride with us. We all went out of the back gate and headed for the truck. Nanhee got into the passengers side of the truck, Candy jumped in through the drivers side, walked over Nanhee's lap and pushed her into the middle of the seat so she could sit by the window! Once I got into the truck, she looked around Nanhee at me and said; "Hey Dad, I think you better tell her she's in the way. I may want to go out into the truck bed through the window there and she's gonna be in my way."{i/} Then she gave Nanhee a dirty look!
In 1999 we got her a playmate in the form of a nine week old chihuahua puppy. When we brought him home she went crazy smelling him, and licking him. She picked him up in her mouth gently and took him inside her house where she wrapped him up and layed down next to him. I reached into the house and took him out and she went crazy, jumping up on me and whining. It was like I took her baby away from her. And from this point on she took control of him. She taught him when to bark, and what to bark at and for how long. She taught him to scratch himself on the thistle growing in the back yard, and how to dig into the cool earth during the hot summer.
One day I came home from work and she ran up to me in her usual manner. "Hi Dad, how was work? You wanna play with Cisco and me for a while after you change?"{i/} And then he came running to me; "Yo esai, you're home. Come over here and look what I did today. You should see this hole I dug."{i/} I went to the fence where he ran back to but Roner just sat there with her head down. I looked at the bottom of the fence where a hole big enough for her and him had been dug ruining in the process the blueberry bushes Nanhee and I had been cultivating for two years. I turned around and looked at Candy, and raising my voice I said; " Who dug this hole?{i/} She put her head down and I chastised her more, raising my voice and walking towards her shaking my finger at her. Cisco sat there as innocent looking as he could which wasn't a very good show, because even today he looks guilty even when he's not.
There were many more holes dug over the next few years and the majority of the time it was her finishing off what Cisco started. He became a little instigator by starting something he knew would get her going and then she'd finish it and they would both run off into the woods or down the street.
During 2005 The Roner grew weak and tired and I had to keep watching her as she wasn't her normal jovial self. I had her tested and found that she had severe last stage diabetes. She went blind and then became extremely ill constantly. We gave her insulin shots to try to get it under control but, after a few times of seeing her fall into the pool and try to get out, and walking into the walls in the back yard we knew it was time for an intervention.
On June 5, 2005 I drove her to the vets with the intention of putting her down. When she got into the car she was like a different dog. She was young again trying to lean out the window to do some wind surfing while we rode to the vets office.
When we got to the vets office I couldn't go through with it and brought her back home. As I look back on it I realize now that she was really very relaxed that day both on the ride there and back. She knew it wasn't the day for it. But two weeks later she had been growing more and more afraid of moving. Once up she would walk a few feet and stop to sniff the air. She began having trouble smelling and figuring our where she was which would send her in a circle and eventually into a wall or tree. She whined a little but when she heard our voice she would perk right up. I realized that living in the dark as she was now was very cruel for her and was killing her slowly. It was a matter of time before she drowned in the pool or feel into one of the small holes in the yard from the removed tree stumps and small sink holes that formed.
It was a Wednesday afternoon. I got home around three o'clock and we sat together in the breakfast nook looking out the window at The Roner laying in the backyard. Occasionally she sat up and looked around, but she never moved from her spot and would just lay back down. I put her in the car at 4:00 p.m. and my sister followed me to the vets office. It is still too hard for me to explain but suffice it to say that she knew she wasn't coming back and I can still see her riding there in the front seat trying to guess where she was.
When I brought her back to the house I placed her on the ground in the back yard and cleaned her up, brushing her and wrapping her in a double set of blankets. I buried her in an unmarked grave in the backyard, just on the other side of the fence where she could see the fire at night and keep the wild animals out of the yard.
Although we left there a year ago and the homestead is empty and up for sale now Roner' spirit lives on there and I still miss her dearly. The subdivision residents still tell stories of her escapades.
On any given night when you're sitting out back and it's fairly quite you can hear her collar bell clinking as she trots around the fence checking the perimeter with a smile on her snout as if to say; "Sleep well folks, I'm on duty tonight, and all is safe."