by Kent Lane
I rescued "Baby" from the Inland Valley Animal Shelter on August 23, 2001 at 9 months old.
The Saint Bernard was so thankful that she would no leave my side no matter where I went. I almost had a feeling she was my mother reincarnated.
When I went to bed at night, she would "tuck me in". She would wait until I was snuggled in my covers and come over and nudge her nose into the covers until they were all snug around my body.
She was also VERT smart. I would come home from work and find my computer turned on AND the internet browser up. At first I felt I must have forgotten to turn it off before going to work, but then I wrote down when I shut it down so I was sure it wasn't me. And sure enough, I'd come home and she'd have the computer on, the internet browser up, and staring at the screen.
Then on June 02,2002 at 12:30AM, four 9mm bullets came through my bedroom window. It scared me almost to death. This kind of thing doesn't happen in my neighborhood (so I thought). One of the bullets actually left a mark on one of the legs of the sweatpants I was wearing that night.
When I gathered my senses, I went out of the bedroom and into the livingroom. When I realized my "shadow" wasn't following me, I called her..... No response...
I went back in the bedroom to see what was taking her so long and she was in a puddle of blood. When the noise of the bullets went off, she stood up to investigate and one of them hit her in an artery in her neck.
There was nothing I could do except pet her and tell her how much she meant to me.
In about 60 to 90 seconds, she rolled her beautiful brown eyes at me as if to say, "Good bye, Dad" and took her last breath.
She wasn't even full grown and had so innocently given up her life. She probably stopped that bullet from hitting me. I salute you "Baby"! You will ALWAYS be in my heart!
Even though I now (through my own investigating-I live in a small town where word gets around) know who was responsible, the law enforcement cannot do anything since there were no eyewitnesses. I have since found out that he is in jail on another matter.
"Baby" got here vengeance anyway.