Yorkshire Terrier - Our Yorkie's day at the pool

Yorkshire Terrier - Our Yorkie's day at the pool

By: Kenneth Clark - Washington, Illinois

My wife Dona and I are childless and although we have had several large breed outdoor dogs, my wife has always wanted a small housedog for a companion. She and her friend Charlotte came home one day with a very small male Yorkie pup that she named Corky. I had always been against this and was sitting on the den couch when they got home. It was like Corky knew I had to be won over and he ran straight across the room and up my outstretched legs getting right in my face to make friends. At that time Corky would fit in my shirt pocket and went with us everywhere.

Corky was not a yapper and people only occasionally noticed him riding in my pocket. It was nearly a year before he outgrew my pocket and that severely limited the places he could accompany us. We had to start leaving him at home alone. We bought him a multitude of toys. The first was a small (about the size of a ping-pong ball) soccer ball, white with black. This was always his favorite and he became very proficient in playing with it. It just fit in his mouth and he would toss it in the air and catch it again. He would run and bounce it from front paw to front paw while running. He was a gambler and liked to put it under the edge of furniture and try to fish it back out again. If he accidentally bumped it too far under he would come begging for help in retrieving it.

That’s been a long time ago and we have since lost Corky. Corky left us with many stories before he died, but enough about Corky. This story is about Corky's dog, Cody.
When Corky was about five years old, he was being left home alone more often. He was showing signs of loneliness and depression (we had become acquainted enough to notice). I decided Corky needed a companion. We had heard about a good breeder near Lacon, Illinois. We took Corky there and he helped pick out Cody. Cody was too young to bring home, so it was a few weeks before we got him. Although they were the same breed and size, they were distinctly different, both in personality and appearance.

Corky had the long flowing hair and loved to play, while Cody's fur would tangle and he had to be groomed with a puppy cut. Cody also was very serious in his demeanor and never liked to play, or so we thought. We have since found out that Corky owned all the toys in the house. When we first brought Cody home, he was confined to our sunroom for training. He sat in the middle of the floor and cried. Nothing we could do seemed to console him. Corky was so distraught that he went to his toy box and began carrying one toy at a time over dropping it in front of Cody trying to appease him.

Finally in frustration Corky put his head down against Cody, who was sitting on the ceramic tile floor spraddle legged like a small bear, and pushed him as fast as he could, bouncing on every grout line, towards the backdoor. When Corky stopped and the puppy slid to a stop, so had the crying. Cody got up and began investigating his new surroundings, thus Cody became a member of our household. For the next seven years Corky and Cody shared in many adventures hardly ever separated. It wasn't until after Corky died from a reaction to heartworm medicine, that we realized Cody (although we feed him) had been raised by Corky. After Corky was gone, Cody became much more loving. His personality became much more like Corky's. He even started to play with toys. He was especially fond of toys bought after Corky was gone because, I think, he knew they were his.
About three years ago, my wife, I and the two dogs visited friends in Mesa, Arizona. We liked it so well, that we bought a winter home there. At the time I didn't know it, but found out from my mother, that I had a cousin living in Mesa. The first winter we were there she was in a nursing home. Last winter she was at home. She is now 91 years old and lives alone. She still drives and can just about outwalk my wife or I. Her mind is sharp. She was paying to have her swimming pool serviced, but it was in horrible shape. We fired the company servicing it, and I rebuilt the pump and filter, soon getting it back in good shape. Her and Cody became good friends (he loves peeled baby carrots and she keeps them for him). One day last winter, while watching Cody chase a couple of birds off the dividing wall between the hot tub and pool, I had a terrible thought. What if Cody fell in? I knew he could probably instinctively swim, but he would not be able to get out. He would soon tire and eventually drown if no one were there to assist him. Soon after I saw a life vest for small dogs in a Pet shop. My cousin Agnes, my wife and I put the vest on Cody, while we were sitting by the pool. Soon we were all laughing, because Cody was frozen in position. He would not move with the vest on. He was like a statue, you could move him here or there and he stayed. Then it hit me. This was a totally new experience for him and Corky was not there to show him how he was supposed to react.

Kenneth Clark - Washington, Illinois