She had the saddest eyes I had ever seen. They had spay her and were training her to be a nursing home companion. She was gentle and submissive, ..... that is unless there was a squirrel in the yard. She would chase them and sit under the tree for hours.
She lived & traveled with us from Florida, to Mississippi. That is when she expanded her prey hunts from squirrels to racoons and successfully took on a whole family of them. .............. Annie won. She loved the wildlife that living on the bayou brought, but was never fond of water. She became friends with the cocker spaniel next door and watching them play was hysterical.
From Mississippi, we moved out of the country to Belize. She knew something big was happening and it was unsettling. Furniture was disappearing, things were being put in containers. She stayed very close, never letting us out of her sight. Then early one morning she got in the truck with us that was pulling a sailboat, packed to the brim and off we went. She settled quickly on her bed behind our seats and had not a care in the world. She knew she was ours and we were hers.
For days we traveled and on one occasion there was a matter of sneaking her into the hotel room as they didn't allow pets but we didn't know that until too late. Her quiet demeanor and well behaved nature, well lets just say, they never knew she was there. When we got to the border of US/Mexico they insisted we have an escort ride with us to assure customs we would not sell anything we were carrying, since we did not pay customs on it. His name was Jorge (Hor-hay). he looked at the dog in the cab of the truck and said, "I can ride in the boat". After 10-15 miles of bouncing around back there his green pallor said, "I think we better make room for him next to Annie" He and Annie became fast friends and somewhere there is a picture of them sleeping her head on his shoulder.
When we finally stopped traveling Annie got out of the truck into her own fenced yard and "all the stuff" entered the house. She knew she was home. For home was anywhere we were all together. Life in Belize was wonderful. we lived in town, then on the beach of the Caribbean Sea, then on the Corozal Bay and finally on the Chetumal Bay (same Bay just two different countries). In all those places on the beach of the Caribbean Sea was her favorite. There she befriended a woman named Reva and as time went on Reva would even babysit her when Charles or I had to go off for a weekend.
It was in Corozal that we discovered the actual breed Annie was. To think we had to go all te way to Belize to discover she was a Black mouthed Cur. Here's how that happened: We were renting a guest wing of a house on the bay owned by the Voris's. Every Friday afternoon they would host "Happy Hour". A chance to socialize with each other and new comers would be invited to meet new people. It was on one such occassion that a couple from Florida were in country "checking things out" to decide if living there was for them. When the gentleman saw Annie, he said, "Oh my you have a Black mouthed Cur". I said, "I WHAT??" He repeated himself and went on to say they are a breed originating in Florida, bred to hunt wild boar. I couldn't believe it, all this time I thought she was a boxer/pit bull mix. Of course I had to look that up and sure enough there she was. Black Mouth Cur . So the whole squirrel, raccoon & chicken thing made sense. The chicken thing, you say? Well yes and here's that story:
It was in Hopkins that we discovered there as a hunter spirit in Annie, as evident by her chasing down and killing a chicken. Now in this part pf the world, chickens are a high commodity. They supply the family with eggs and maybe eventually meat, but often they are money makers as the eggs can be sold. So if your dog kills a chicken it can cost you up to 50 US Dollars to compensate the loss of income for the lifetime of the chicken. Fortunately we only had to experience that once with Annie.
Annie was terrified of storms and loud "Bangs" such as fireworks as many dogs are, but I suspect the extreme fear in her stemmed from having lived through a hurricane while being a stray. Whether thats when she was abandoned or got lost, misplaced it led to a horrible existence for her. When we rescued her the vet said that she must have been "gang raped" by a pack of dogs as her backside was ripped and torn. Infected when she arrived they had to do surgery to fix it and remove a partially formed litter of puppies. There was no way to save them as she would never be able to deliver them. Although she was timid and shy she made for a great companion dog, still having capacity for love.
Her final home was in Calderitas, Mx. A small fishing village on the Chetumal Bay. When age had it's way and her body just wore out, we showed the last kindness we could and let her cross the rainbow bridge. It was so hard and I grieved for a long time but I kept my promise and the reward I received was a loyal and loving companion like no other before or after, ....... til Dixie, but I am not ready to write about Dixie.
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