Pumpkin's Story

Pumpkin’s Story

         Pumpkin was a female Akita that entered our lives on October 7, 2017. This is the story of her life with us, and how we became her owners.

         A breeder in Virginia had a litter of puppies, and like most breeders, she sold most of them. She is not a puppy mill, she’s a responsible breeder. One of the puppies was a red brindle with a coat that some would say resembled a Tiger’s coat. That puppy ended up being our Pumpkin eight years later.

         A woman in Virginia purchased Pumpkin (with her coat being mostly orange, a little red, and black, plus being born on Halloween, Pumpkin seemed an obvious choice for her name). This breeder (Faith) always kept in touch with her puppy’s owners, just to see how things were going for them. A few years later she moved to Florida with Pumpkin and settled there. All was well, for now.

         In September 2017, Pumpkin’s home was destroyed by a Hurricane. Before the hurricane hit the woman moved into a hurricane shelter, but left Pumpkin behind in the house. Since Pumpkin was tagged, the shelter called Faith. In turn, Faith called Pumpkin’s owner. I can only imagine the conversation between the two of them, but I do know the outcome.

         Fictional conversation. “Molly, I’m so glad you are safe and sound. I’m sorry about your house, but when will you be rescuing Pumpkin from the shelter?”

         “Faith, I can’t rescue Pumpkin any time soon, if at all. I’m struggling just to find a place for me, let alone Pumpkin.”

         “Molly, you know our contract states that if you can’t keep Pumpkin at home with you, she is to be returned to me.”

         “I know. I just don’t see how I can get her.”

         “Then I will arrange to have her returned to me.”

         This is where Pumpkin’s story becomes a little bit odd, and amazing. Faith had (and still has) a lot of contacts in the Akita Community and asked in several forums if anyone could help her get Pumpkin back to Virginia Beach. Faith would have gone to get Pumpkin if needed, but her first thought was to see if a volunteer(s) could help her. This is how the Akita (and most dog owner communities) are. They work like a big family, just like we do here on WDC.

         Faith could have driven to Miami to get Pumpkin herself, but she owns a grooming business and needed to be there. A couple of people responded to Faith’s plea and agreed to transport Pumpkin to Virginia Beach. Keep in mind, Faith didn’t know these people, she only knew they were people who loved dogs, especially Akita’s, and were willing to help.

         A man living near Miami went to the shelter to get Pumpkin. Pumpkin willingly went to the man and got in his car. He drove Pumpkin from Miami to a rest stop in Georgia where he transferred Pumpkin to another person. This person then drove Pumpkin to Faith in Virginia Beach.

         Now Faith had a problem though. She already had five dogs in her house, she and her husband were working full time, plus she was caring for her mother who lived with them. No matter how much she loved Pumpkin, she couldn’t keep her for very long.

         Once again Faith asked if anyone would like to adopt one of her dogs who had lost her home due to a Hurricane. I love Akita’s, they are a special breed if you ask me. Kathy saw Faith’s post on Facebook and asked “There’s a beautiful Brindle Akita in Virginia that needs a home. Can we afford to keep her?”

         I knew we could, we definitely had the room, even if our house is right about 1000 sq ft in size. My (our) only concern was how well Pumpkin and Suzi, our Schipperke, (a small Belgian Barge dog that weighed about 13 lbs) would get along. Pumpkin would be about 3-4 times her size, if we got Pumpkin, we would have to ensure that Pumpkin would not be aggressive towards Suzi, our Schipperke.

         Kathy responded to Faith’s post, but so did about 40 other people! Faith did her due diligence in checking each person’s ‘dog’ background and settled on a couple. She didn’t inform them at that time because there was something nagging at her about them. Kathy was about the tenth person to contact Faith about Pumpkin, and eventually Faith contacted her and said she wanted us to adopt Pumpkin. We had never met Faith before this, our only communication with her was through Facebook posts and messages sent back and forth on Messenger.

         Faith had a couple of dogs entered in the Akita National Dog Show in Wilmington, Ohio. She told Kathy that if we could meet her there, we could meet Pumpkin, walk her and Suzi together to see how they reacted around each other. If all went well, Pumpkin was ours to take home. On Thursday October 5, 2017, we drove to Wilmington and met Faith and Pumpkin for the first time. Faith is an incredible person who loves dogs, and especially Akita’s.

         I have to say, it was an interesting meeting. First, we were meeting a person for the first time. Second of course, we were meeting Pumpkin. After talking a bit in the hotel lobby, the three of us took Pumpkin and Suzi for a short walk. This whole thing was very anticlimactic really. Pumpkin and Suzi ignored each other! We decided we really wanted Pumpkin and told Faith we would take her. Faith kept Pumpkin that night, and the next morning we loaded both dogs into our small car. Since we didn’t really know Pumpkin at all, we put her in a crate and allowed Suzi to roam free. Well, I use roam rather loosely here. Suzi lay down and slept the entire trip, as did Pumpkin.

         Now we had a problem. Once we were settled in at our house, things were fine. Until the next day. We had completed a quick check of Pumpkin, but that was more to make sure she didn’t have any obvious problems. She didn’t have obvious ones, but she had a big one. Her coat was scruffy (I think that word will work here) at best. Her skin was covered in small sores that had scabbed over. To this day I’m not sure what the sores were from, though I know I heard Sand Fleas mentioned at least once. We undertook the arduous task of returning her to health. The first thing we did was to have her examined by two local veterinarians. They prescribed a couple of meds for her, and we also put her on a couple of holistic medicines and oils. We also took her to a doggy bath at least twice a week. Sometimes we took her three times a week!

         There was little improvement in her condition. Through all this, Pumpkin remained quiet. She never gave any indication that she was uncomfortable, she never whined at us, and never tried to shy away from the attention. She was loved by everyone who met her.

         Bathing her was a huge chore. Imagine washing your dog, rubbing the shampoo into their skin and coat, only to feel the rough edges of the scabs that covered her sores. As you scrub, the scabs flake off along with clumps of hair. There were times that she would bleed after her bath. On at least one occasion a lady stopped me as we were leaving and said, "Your dog is bleeding!" I looked at her and said something like, "I know, she's got a skin problem and a lot of sores on her body. The baths are slowly helping her heal."

         After almost a year of these doggy baths and medicines, and in an act of almost desperation, we took her to the Bloomington Vet again. We had been taking her to two vets during this time, usually once a month. They didn’t really offer much in the way of treatment though, until this important visit. On this visit, the vet recommended that they shave poor Pumpkin. The thought was that this would give her sores a chance to heal by exposing them to the fresh air. She wasn’t really shaved, but her coat was cut very short. Obviously, we agreed, even though neither of us was sure this would work. Surprise, surprise! Her sores slowly healed, and her coat returned to the beautiful coat you see in the photo at the beginning of this story. She never had another problem with her coat.

         During this time, I traveled on business frequently. On some trips, I was able to bring Kathy and the dogs with me. Pumpkin loved traveling, but mainly she just loved being with us. She was able to travel to numerous locations with us. The best trip by far though, was taking her back to Virginia to see Faith. Pumpkin was ecstatic to see Faith again, and we were afraid she would not want to be around us once she saw Faith. Our fears were unfounded though. She would go to Faith with her tail wagging and a big doggy smile on her face. But she always returned to us for the same attention. There were many tears shed that night, and on at least two other nights when we once again returned to Virginia with Pumpkin.

         We were a happy family the whole time we had Pumpkin in our lives. We even bought her nephew four years ago. One of Pumpkin’s (and Buddy’s) great uncles was one of the Akita’s used in filming the movie Hachiko, with Richard Gere. Time passes though, and slowly but surely Pumpkin aged. She was still beautiful, but she became somewhat deaf, and seemed to suffer from dog Dementia. Her demeanor never changed, she was always the loveable dog we’d known for four years now. The problem though, was that she took to poo’ing in the house. For most dogs/people, that would be the final straw in a way. Due to the natural diet the dogs are on (we feed them all natural food, consisting of bones and raw meat only), her poo was very dry and firm. As a result, it didn’t stain anything, nor was it moist. However, we bought doggy diapers for her to wear in the house so she wouldn’t drop her poo all over. We also set aside a small area that was plenty big for her to relax in. She wasn’t caged, she could get up and leave that area anytime really, she just chose not to. She had a memory foam bed in it with a soft cover over it, she was all set. Eventually though, it got to the point that she would eat, drink water, and sleep. This went on for about a year or more. But the future looked bleak at best.

         Our biggest fear in all this is that something would happen to Pumpkin while I was away on a trip. There is no way Kathy could have loaded her into her car. Heck, I had a tough time getting her into my van that last day! We talked things over many times, what we were going to do, and when. We did not want her quality of life to deteriorate much further than it had already. I was home for two weeks, and we decided it was time. I told Kathy, "Honey, I hate to say this, but I think that while I'm home these two weeks, we should take Pumpkin to Dr. Albright." Kathy has been through this far more times than I have, but I did see her head droop a little. She looked up at me and replied, "Let me check and make sure she's available today." I think both of us secretly hoped she would be out of town on one of her horse excursions. As luck would have it, she hadn't left yet due to a mix-up at the airport.

         We drove Pumpkin to Dr. Albright in Chenoa, Illinois. She loved Pumpkin and treated her and us as if we were family. Dr. Albright was supposed to be in Texas that day, but life intervened and caused her to take a much later flight. She came into her office just to see us and Pumpkin. We took her to a back room, and with the help of her assistant Barb, I lifted her to a low table. For the first time, Pumpkin showed signs of fear. She has seen Dr. Albright many times, had stayed in the kennel portion of the clinic on a couple of occasions. But she resisted being put on that table and couldn’t relax. I held her head in my arms and spoke to her in soft tones. She did relax some, but not completely. The vet shaved her leg and carefully inserted the needle in her vein. It was quick. One second she’s afraid and panting in my ear. The next the panting stopped and she slowly relaxed. We were left alone with Pumpkin for as long as we wanted, and sat looking at her, crying the whole time. After about 15 minutes or so we left the room, but not before stealing one last look at our lady.

         Now we have memories of our time with her, and how she affected our lives. It might seem strange to say this about a dog, but she was a lady. She was far more of a lady than many human females I’ve met in my day. I lost a piece of my heart that day, I don’t regret our time with her one bit.

         R.I.P. My Pumpkin, Daddy’s Pretty Girl. (That is what I said to her every morning when I brought them back in the house after eating breakfast.)

Jim Dorrell
10/9/23

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