I would like to submit a story about this wonderful dog of mine. That I was blessed to have had for 2 wks short of 16 years. He was a Boston Terrier, who came from show stock, but did not conform to "Breed" standards, therefore he was just a loving pet. Treasured and dearly loved He went every where we went. After my Husband died, I had him for myself for almost 10 years. He was my guard dog, my watch dog, but more than that he took care of me. He actually saved my life 3 times while I was up in the mountains of Idaho picking huckleberries. I got lost 2 times and the 3rd incident could have been worse than just lost, I dropped my car keys out of my pocket along a trail and I never knew it. I could have wandered up in the mountains for days searching for them and would have never found the trail I had been on. But this wonderful dog after hours of picking berrys forced me to follow him back down a path I didn't reconize but I was pretty sure it was towards where i had parked my car.. after trudging for awhile and then running after him to keep up and then jumping down a steep little hill ..there on the ground were my keys. I was so over come with such a sense of graditude that I could not help but to fall on my knees and give God thanks and praise. That little man of mine just sat there and waited till I was done. I was never so grateful as I was then, and this little dog of mine had saved my life again for the then 3rd time. But the real story about Chief was when he was 14. I went up into the mountains of Clarkia, on my summer Huckleberry camping trip. Chief by now had cataracts pretty bad, his eyes were so blue from them and he was going deaf., he had also began to develope a shaking in his hind quarters as if he was cold or scared or nervous. It would only seem to stop when he sat or layed down. No one seemed to know what was wrong or what was causing it. Getting to my base camp really too late in the afternoon of 5 p.m. made me have to put my camp up in the dark and it was getting cold, but I had secured my sleeping area enough so that I could put chief in the back of the car. So I un hooked his leash from his collar and told him to get in the car, he went instead to the front of the car and started barking, and barking like I had never heard him before, so stopping what I was doing I went to see what was his problem. He was puffed up like a porkypine every hair on his little body was standing up and I could not see what it was he was having a fit over, when I heard this awful hugh growl:I looked back at Chief thinking it came from him at first, when that horrible noise came again now closer, then I knew it must have been a wolf just across the dirt road in the bushes, without thinking I ripped my 38 pistol out of the holster and turning I fired into the bushes before I realized I should have hung onto Chief. So as the story goes I never finished my camp. I was up all nite with my lantern walking up and down the roads yelling and screaming my head off for Chief, who at the moment the gun fired, it scared him so bad he took off out into the bushes behind my camp and where he ran I never knew. I forgot he was going deaf and probably never heard me calling, at about 5 in the morning I heard the most god awful big Dogs Fighting way down in the cannon. I just knew that they were tearing my baby apart. I cried , and I cried and then it started raining and thundering with lightening and my dear God if he was even alive now he was more than terrified. A little 19 lb. house dog.. I stayed up in the mountains for 5 days. I never gave up my search and I never gave up yelling and calling . I stopped every car,every truck, every huckleberry picker, every any body. to ask if they had seen my little dog. The Forest Service came, the Sheriff came, I posted a $1000. reward sign at my camp site on a big board written in lipstick for the return even for his collar. I needed to know something, I just couldn't leave him up there and I would have stayed for however long it took. My friends got worried when I didn't come back after I had gone past my return home date. So they sent the possee after me and I was forced to break camp and come back to Lewiston. Every body up there and everybody down here told me there was no way Chief could have lived up there in his condition, among the cyotoes and the wolves.. But I had prayed, I had really prayed, down on my face kind of praying. The kind of praying that the bible talks about when you get serious, and I asked God for a miracle. I asked him to give me Chief back, this little dog who had saved my life, who every nite barked me to go to bed, who stayed by my side thru the many hours of sick migraine headaches, who stayed in bed as long as I did, who cuddled up to me every night in my bed , in my sleeping bag and on my lap when I went on long car trips. He wouldn't let anyone come near me if he didn't know them. The happiest little person in the whole world when I came home from work. I begged God to spare him, to keep him safe and bring him home to me. I wanted him to die in my arms and him knowing at the end that I loved him so much. So then when I came back to Lewiston I began to tell everyone that God was going to give me a miracle! I believed it, I confessed it, I spoke it, I lived it!! now almost two weeks were going by, and I hadn't stopped crying and I hadn't stopped pestering God either!! I wanted that Miracle so bad. In the mean time I saw an ad in the Money Saver, a lady in Orofino had a lone little boston puppy left over from the litter her bitch had had, Six of them and this little boy was the only one left . she had been running the ad for several weeks and couldn't sell him. So I called her and we talked and I told her my sad story. She invited me up to just to look at him. I didn't plan on getting another dog after Chief, not at my age, I didn't want to start over again with the training and because I was still working a little. So I asked a girl friend to go with me for moral support so that I wouldn't cave in and buy him. But I took all the money that I had at the time with me anyway. $300.00, she was asking 600.00. We drove up and when we opened her office door she let this little black and white little cutie out of the carry kennel he ran right over to me not to any one else in the room and laid his little head down on my shoe. I picked him up and named him Major. She had named him some really dumb name and told me the best part he was almost potty trained totally. I told her I couldn't afford him and then she asked me if $300.00 would be something I could afford.?Because she and her husband had decided to make me a deal : they one needed the cash, didn't want the dog anymore as they had lots and or they felt sorry for me!.My girl friend looked at me and said I think we're going home with a dog. So I thinking maybe this new little man would help me get over losing Chief, I took him home. I didn't have him quite a week... When my Vetranary called me and said there were some people in his office who wanted to meet me. I told Dr. Ard who was my Vet at that time that
I was a bawlly mess and that I had lost Chief. He said that's what he wanted to talk to me about. He had Chief there, These people had brought him in. I said he was dead wasn't he, and they had found my reward poster.? He said no, No to any of that, He was alive , he was well, he hadn't lost a pound, he had been bathed, and he didn't even have a deer tick on him. The folks were from Julieatte, went up this weekend and were taking pictures and camping up in Clarkia, when at 10 that nite their dogs started to make a commotion they then thought it was cyotoes come into camp to bother their Great Pryaneas Dogs. But found this little Dirty Black and White Dog sittting at the edge of the camp fire just shivering. They went and got him and took him in and then they took him home thinking somebody abandanded him but since he had on a collar with only a rabies tag on it they tried to call the vet's office and the vet office wouldn't tell them who owned the dog. but that they knew the lady who did, could they bring the dog in as they knew that lady was problbly dying over her dog being lost. So the phone call was the beginning of the Answer to the Prayer and my Miracle was happening. I took in my new little man to see the vet and to meet Chief. You would have never believed your eyes if you hadn't of been there...Chief looked at me and almost said Well that didn't take long , Mama, you didn't even wait for the prayer to be answered did you? I repented ! Because I had let doubt creep in and I lisstened to others who said that God doesn't do Dog miracles and that I better just get over it..
Well this story ends that I had Chief for 2 more years, his shakes got progressavily worse. He tried to be the best Boy for all of those two years trying to keep up with the young dog Major.. He tried to teach him how to bark and get me to go to bed, He tried to keep up when we went huckleberry picking, he tried to stand his ground on the sleeping places, the bones, his food dish, his place next to me. Everyday Major got stronger and more like a little bully, he took away Chief's toys, his bones, his lap, his sleeping place next to me, he wouldn;t let me hold Chief without trying to bite him. And I repented everyday that I didn't Wait on God's perfect timing for answer to prayer. I repented everyday that I got Major as every day that went by Chief got older, and more shakey and it seemed like he began to give up. He took to sleeping all of the time and refusing to go for rides, wouldn't take treats anymore, he'd run go out thru the doggy door to avoid getting caught to go for rides, hide under the bed. Until one Friday afternoon at about 12:30 I heard this thrashing noice coming out of my Painting room, I fearing the worst found my darling struggling to stand up and couldn't . He couldn't stand, he couldn't walk and his eyes so blue were filled with fear and unable to comprehend what was happening to him, But I knew, oh how I knew, the END had come and It was now my turn to save him. It was my turn to help him and it killed me to the heart, but still God answered my prayer and I heard that small voice inside of me saying Like you asked ...in your arms.... My girl friend took me to The Meyers Clinic because I couldn't drive and hold my Darling . When I got there Dr. Ponozzo very lovingly helped me as I held my little Boy to my heart, and I kept telling him I loved Him and that it was going to be alright and soon it will be over and he would be better again. Then with out any more struggling he quietly slipped away, in my arms, just like I had had asked God for. I had so wanted to know how his life ended softly not tore up from wild animals. Just two weeks short of Valentines Day which was his Birthday. He would have been 16, I guess that's a long life for a dog, a real miracle Dog. I couldn;t have asked for one better and I will probably never have one like him again. No not even Major, but He will make his own way and i will Love him some day as much as I Loved Chief.
Here is an Attatchment, a picture of My Beloved Chief, and here also is a beautiful poem. It's Called
IF IT SHOULD BE author - unknown
If it should be that I grow weak and pain should keep me
from my sleep. Then you must do what must be done
For this last battle cannot be won..

Take me where my needs they'll tend
And please stay with me 'til the end.
Hold me firm and speak to me
Until my eyes no longer see.

You will be sad, I understand
Don't let your grief then stay your hand,
For this day more than all the rest
Your love for me must stand the test.

We've had so many happy years
What is to come can hold no fears.
You'd not want me to suffer so
The time has come , please let me go.

I know in time that you will see
The Kindness that you did for me.
Although my tail it's last has waved
From pain and suffering I 've been saved.

Please do not grieve it must be you
Who had this painful thing to do
We've been so close, we two, these years
Don't let your heart hold back it' s tears.


Please feel free to use this poem to comfort others a dear friend sent it to me and a lovely note of love.

With many Thanks for your letter of comfort and for letting me know that My Vets cared for me and that they also cared for my Boys by giving a gift in Chiefs Memory.

With many thoughts for all of you in the Service that you provide to All of us who Love our Pets. It is Your God Job, that you do,,That each of you do , you do so well.

Arleen W.