Stanley

In August of 1997, I bought a "Cocker Spaniel" puppy. We named him Stanley. He was the cutest little black ball of fur I had ever seen. He was taken from his mother too early and when we got him, we still had to bottle feed him and wipe his hiney. He slept between me and my husband every night and looked just like a child asleep between us. He would lay on his back (just like a human) with his little hands sticking out over the covers. As he grew, and we took him to the vet regularly for his baby shots, we found out that he was not a cocker at all, but some sort of dachshund/cocker mix. That was OK though. We loved him all the same. He never would be more than a couple of inches tall. As he grew older, I never saw him as anything but the puppy he was when I brought him home (because of his size, I think). No one told me that I would need to neuter him soon. I wish they had. We live near a busy road, but had a privacy fence surrounded by a chain-link fence. We thought we had nothing to fear. We were wrong.

My little Stanley dug his way out and on Sunday, October 11, 1998, was killed by a car. The vet told us that had Stanley been neutered, he would not have dug out of the fence. You see, he dug his way out, In Search Of, if you know what I mean. I had no idea. This has crushed my family. Even as I type this, the tears are streaming. It is as if we have lost a part of our family. My husband, myself and our two children cannot go without crying several times a day.

I am writing to you now in hopes that maybe our tragedy will help another family. I beg you all, if your dog has not been spayed or neutered and you have no plans for breeding it, please have it done as soon as possible. Maybe you won't lose your beloved friend the way we did.