Beth Bradley - Suzy's Second Chance

 

So Susie was not a perfect dog, but she was our dog, and we loved her. My mom first laid eyes on her at the animal shelter, and she just fell in love with Susie's cute little foxy face, and she had this curly tail and thick black fur. So, my whole family, my dad, my mom, and my two sisters and I, headed over there to see if we had a good vibe with Susie. And I do remember that the animal shelter lady pointed out she was worried that my dad and Susie might not be bonding that well, and that was probably true. My dad is not that much of animal person and kind of thinks of pets as just like another hassle to deal with. But as usual, the rest of us overruled my dad, and we got to bring Susie home, and she became our first family dog. 

 

So, to be fair, Susie really could be kind of a hassle. Her favorite hobby was barking at anyone that dared to walk by her house. And the other thing she liked to try to do was escape. So one time, she actually combined those hobbies, and she launched herself through the front window of our house, through the screen in pursuit of some strangers. So we had to go lure her back into our house. But on the other hand, she could be very sweet. 

So, like, one time, I remember in high school, I had broken up with a boyfriend, and I was crying, and Susie came and just, like, leaned up against me, and I could tell she was like, you know, “I got your back.” But over the years, my dad's feelings towards Susie didn't really warm up. He kind of just tolerated her, generally thought of her, that's pretty annoying. But honestly, my dad can make-- my sisters and I feel that way, too sometimes. [audience laughter] Like, it was hard to ask him for help, and he could kind of respond to us in the same way that he was annoyed with Susie the dog. 

 

But one night, we were all sitting down to dinner, we were going to get to watch TV and eat dinner at the same time in the TV room, which was a big deal. So we're all getting set up, and we notice Susie's nowhere. And so one other thing about Susie is, like, she might not have been as into us as we were into her. So she really just mainly liked waiting at the window for people to bark at. But dinner time was one time she would deign to be with us because she liked to eat the crumbs off the floor. So it was very suspicious that she wasn't around. So we're calling for her. We're like, “Susie? Susie?” She's not coming. So we figure she must be outside. So my two sisters and I go outside to look for her. We're calling for some more, we don't see her, but we do see this little shape toward the back of the yard. 

 

So we're running toward it. As we get closer, we hear this kind of weird low wheezing sound. And we get there, we see that it's Susie and it's her little limp body. She's laying there, and she's actually gotten her head stuck in a drain from the house, and she's suffocating. So we are panicking. We're screaming for my parents. They run outside, and it's kind of a blur. Like, my mom finds the kitchen scissors to actually, like, cut her out of this tube, and we free her. But by that time, she's not breathing, and we're just panicking. So my dad scoops her up, and I just remember her little head just kind of lolls to the side, and her eyes had kind of glossed over. 

So we run inside the house, and just like, total pandemonium, crying, trying to find the vet's number. My dad's just sitting there on the couch holding her. And we're kind of looking at him. He's looking up at us, and without saying anything, he cups his hand around Susie's snout, and he puts his mouth on her mouth, and he blows. [blows] And then he does it again. [blows] And we're just in, like, total stunned silence. And another thing to know about Susie is we had seen her eat, like, a lot of disgusting crap in her life. [audience laughter] Like, she literally would eat crap and dead birds and that kind of thing. So I really would like to know the animal shelter's lady's opinion of their bond in that moment. 

 

So he does it a few more times. He blows a few more times. And then it was like a spell lifted. Susie's eyes pop open. I see the life just flood into them, just like Sleeping Beauty or something. And she's kind of blinking. And my dad sets her down. We're all just in complete shock. Susie's looking up at us like, “What?” [audience laughter] And we have the vet on the phone by that time, and we're explaining what happened. And he's like, “Well, is she walking around and everything?” And we're like, “Yeah.” And he's like, “I think she's okay.” [audience laughter] So she was. She was okay. And she actually lived a very long time after that. She lived a very happy life. She became old enough to become incontinent, actually. [audience laughter] So that was one more thing my dad got to deal with, was changing Susie's dog diapers. 

But I thought a lot about that moment in the years since, like, my dad looking up at us and us looking at him. And I don't think that he realized his love for her and that's what made him kiss our dog on the mouth. I think that he really just couldn't stand to see our hearts broken, and he did it because he loved us. So I think dogs are not perfect, dads are not perfect, but love itself is perfect. And sometimes it even gives you magic powers.