13 minute read
Dogs: Great times with great pets
Dogs:
Sharing great times with great pets Sharing great times with great pets
Sister Mary with Buddy, 1977
Dunkin and Fred, off for another superwalk, 2019
After a shaky start, Marley, right, and Dunkin became best friends. Here the two labs enjoy a day at deer camp, watching the members split wood. Marley would pass away in 2018.
BY FRED STABBERT III
Family life can be wonderful. Growing up in Small Town, America with my four sisters, four cousins and plenty of friends close by, there was always great adventure – and peril –around every corner.
We were a close-knit crew that has stayed fairly close through the years and have enjoyed many new adventures along the way.
Some of my best memories growing up though, was with my dog, Buddy.
Buddy would be the first of four labs I would own but he was by far the smartest, biggest and most well known.
We lived on a hill above the hamlet of Callicoon and Buddy would lay on our front lawn all day, soaking up the sun, seemingly unaware of all the cars flying by on Route 97. Everybody in town knew Buddy.
Buddy Buddy was a Black Labrador Retriever, who was named after his father, Buddy. I am not sure if he was Buddy the third (like me) or Buddy the 15th, but one thing is for sure – Buddy is a popular name for dogs (more on that later).
We got Buddy from our friend, Bill Bruns, who lived next door to the Delaware Hunting Club in Westbrookville and was one of the club’s charter members.
Bill’s Buddy was a tremendous dog. All of 120 lbs., Buddy came from a noted breeder named Jasper Briggs of Montgomery who, legend has it, owned a 150-lb. black lab, who was Buddy’s father.
My Buddy was born on October 15, 1971 in Westbrookville. Bill’s Buddy was the sire, so he got the pick of the litter.
Of course, wouldn’t you know it, we picked the largest, strongest male of the 12-pup litter.
In mid-December of ‘71 we drove down to Westbrookville to pick up my Buddy from the Cerkonovic family. Dad and I stopped at the Westbrookville Diner on our way home, which was located across Route 209 from Pine Kill Rd. I can still remember taking this small pup into the diner and hiding him under my coat as we ate dinner.
That would be the first and last time Budd y ever hid.
A purebred, Buddy was jet black with a large, square head, big paws and yellow eyes. He would grow to nearly 90 lbs., not quite as big as his dad or grandpa.
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When we went to register my dog with the AKC, we found out there were already too man y ‘Buddys’ on the AKC Registry. My Buddy was registered as Freddy’s Pal for that reason.
Buddy soon became a favorite around the house with friends, cousins and grandkids. His gentle demeanor and beautiful appearance belied his size and strength and you could tu g on his ear or pull his tail without ever a growl. One thing you could never do, though, was flip Buddy on his back. Try as I might, Buddy would never let me – or anyone else – roll him over. This game went on for years but never once did Buddy roll over.
There is something about a Black Lab that I fell in love with from the second I saw one. I guess the first thing was the amount of energy the y have. Every time I went outside to play, Buddy came with me and made sure I returned home, safe and sound. Only one time did I lead Budd y astray, accidentally walking him through the “tar pits” of downtown Callicoon that were located next door to the railroad tracks behind the coal chutes. I had taken Buddy for a lon g walk and sure enough we both walked through about three inches of tar.
Luckily for me, he was also black so the stick y Continued on page 46
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What Labrador Retriever doesn’t like to swim? Here Dunkin keeps an eye on the pond at deer camp, waiting for another stick to be thrown in so he can go for a dive. One of his favorite tricks is jumping off the dock to retrieve a duck decoy.
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mess didn’t show up too much.
Buddy loved the outdoors as much as I did and our hikes through the St. Joe’s Seminary woods provided endless fun. We would go for miles up into the woods, and I would often race Buddy to see if I could beat him home. Never did. But back to the smart dog. Buddy somehow figured out that he had to look both ways before he crossed NYS Route 97 in front of our house before he went to downtown Callicoon to visit his girlfriends.
I don’t know how, but he lived with us for 13- plus years and fortunately he never had a problem crossing the road.
Another trick of Buddy’s was his ability to find me. When I got to be 14 I would race home from school in the fall, grab my .22 rifle and run up into the woods to hunt for a trophy squirrel, partridge or rabbit. Without a watch, I never knew what time it was. But my mother, Shirley, would let Buddy out the back door when it was time for supper and Buddy would race up in the woods and find me sitting on a stump, letting me know that supper would soon be on the table. In the fall of ‘79 I went off to college and Buddy, now 8 years old, stayed back with mom and dad to keep track of things in Callicoon. One night, in the fall of ‘82, my mother had a stroke and lay paralyzed on the bathroom floor of our house.
Buddy knew something was wrong. He ran between the bedroom, where my father was sleeping, and the bathroom, where m y mother lay, until he woke my father up.
My father called for help and Buddy had literally saved my mother’s life.
It was a legendary story for our family and just reinforces how well our pets know us and kno w when we are in trouble, when we are sad or in a good mood.
We used to tease mom that Buddy ate stea k dinners from that day on, which is probably not too big of an exaggeration.
Luckily my mom recovered fully from the stroke and she and Buddy spent many great days together.
I graduated St. Bonaventure University in the spring of ‘83 and again was reunited full-time with Buddy, who would meet me every mornin g when I came downstairs to put on my shoes.
One morning, in March of ‘84, I came downstairs to go to work and Buddy didn’t come over to lick me.
I looked over and there he was, laying on the living room floor, having died of a heart attac k
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during the night. I will never forget stepping over him, as I often did, on my way up to bed the night before, and hearing him let out a big sigh.
I called my dad at work and we gave Buddy a proper burial. We lost a great friend that day and our tears were of sadness yet joy that we had such a wonderful dog for so many years.
Boomer
A new wife, three kids and a move to a new home would keep Regina and I from getting a dog for the first 14 years of our marriage – until we moved to Jeffersonville and decided it was time for our kids to enjoy a pet. At my insistence, we got a beautiful Black Lab mix from our friends, who again was the biggest male of the litter.
This time, however, ‘Boomer’ decided he wanted to be the king of the house. Unfortunately, Boomer did not play well with others, especially our son, Andrew, and we donated Boomer to the New York State Police where he trained to become a police dog. We later found out that Boomer had Lyme Disease, was retired from active duty and enjoying life in upstate New York.
Continued on page 48
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We were again dogless until that fateful day in 2008 when we went to Regina’s cousin’s house for a surprise birthday party.
Little did we know that the surprise would be a Black lab being handed out as party favors.
Well, Regina’s cousin, Frank DeMayo, had eight purebred Black Lab puppies who were just the right size for taking home.
After our children – Laura, Claire and Andrew –had held and played with the little pups all day we were surprised when they picked the sleepiest little girl to take home.
And that is how Marley Stabbert came into our family.
Marley was actually named after an ice cream parlor in Hilton Head, SC, not after the famous musician, Bob Marley.
Also, we named Marley years before the movie came out… wasn’t that a tear jerker.
But our Marley gave us nothing buy joy and happiness. Marley was a loving Labrador – is there any other?
She went over to our neighbor’s house one day to meet Rose and Rose, who had just moved in. It was love at first sight, especially since they
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were handing out liver pate and dog treats. Marley would spend many wonderful days visiting the Roses and all their friends and also was best friends with our three kids.
The unique thing about Marley was that you could leave her outside, drive away, and she would stay within 75 feet of the house.
When you got home, there she would be, laying on the lawn, waiting for your return.
Dunkin I still don’t know why, but as our youngest son, Andrew, got ready for college, my wife thought it would be a great time to get another dog.
I thought it would have been nice to see what “empty nesting” was all about but, sure enough, the week after Andrew left for college in the Fall of 2015, Dunkin Stabbert arrived in Callicoon.
Marley and Dunkin really didn’t see eye to eye when Dunkin came home. In fact, Marley did not come downstairs for nearly two weeks, trying to avoid Dunkin at all costs and hoping possibly that this new pet would find another home. But Dunkin was here to stay and soon the two became good friends and Marley showed Dunkin the ropes, which included meeting our neighbors – the Roses.
Forbidden to go on the furniture since he was a pup, Marley always laid on his bed or floor next
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Suddenly, Dunkin decided he liked couches, chairs and our bed better than the floor and he can be seen relaxing in a variety of our furniture on any given day.
Dunkin is a well-behaved dog, thanks to Regina, who took him to obedience school when he was just a pup. Today he enjoys our long walks, especially at camp, where he has free reign over the cabin and forest. Known for their good nature, Labradors are excellent family dogs. Here Dunkin and Marley enjoy a day on the ice with Jack Darder.
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My 30-plus years of owning dogs has been a great run and now they are in charge of keeping me moving, getting me out of the house for walks and brightening up my day.
The only thing that is rough is Dunkin’s 5:30 wake-up calls and his inability to climb outside stairs. But besides that, Dunkin and the rest o f our labs have been great members of the family and given us many days of friendship and great camaraderie.
We hope your pets have all been as memor - able.
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