A Very Sad Day

This morning our precious Beagle, Shiloh was run over by a car. He was less than 2 years old and a very sweet dog. He had one very bad habit that we were trying to help him break...and that was chasing cars. He would run very close in FRONT of the front wheel and bark ..well today, he was not fast enough. He was killed. It was the mail lady who did it and she was very broken up about it. She really liked Shiloh, we had lots of conversations about him in the past. She trained Beagles! She was always cautious knowing Shiloh had this problem. When I got to him, he was gone. I saw not sign of breath or heart beat. I moved him to the side of the road and we accepted her many apologies and gave her a a hug. I declined her help and let her go. I went to the back field to tell Ben (and Elijah) balling at this point. Hailey had just missed me as she went into the house through the back door...so I had a few more minutes before I had to break it to her.

Loosing this dog really hit me hard. I have been grieving him all day. He had such a kind and soft demeanor and really was the perfect fit with our family. He was protective when it came to (passing cars!!) and every wild critter on the property. It was no good for the hunting...but that was OK with me. A fine compromise I thought. He started going with us to the park and in the car and was behaving himself enough to visit in the house too. He followed us around out side and was my companion in planting our orchard this week. He is missed already! He was always so pleasant and eager to please.

He liked to sit on my rocker on the front porch. He always greeted us when we arrived home and just last week when I was training Chazaq (my 1 yrd old) to come when called out side...out of no where, there was my beagle at my feet, all proud of himself because he heard my call (but did not realize it was for the baby!!) Of course I praised him, as did Hailey. We recalled how far he had come in his training and behavior since he first arrived on our farm. We always said, he chose us...since he was a stray.

We wrapped his lifeless body in one of mamma's wide pashmina scarves and put him in one of my old wooded wine boxes from San Francisco. Then we dug him a plot just on the out-skirts of the orchard, where just days earlier we were commenting on what a good job he would do to keep the deer out of our orchard....

Besides the loss of a good companion, watchdog and faithful friend...what made this extra hard for me is that it could have been prevented. We could have spent more intense time training him, but we didn't. We could have made it a point to keep him tied up or a on a leash to protect him at all times, knowing this was a problem he had, but we didn't. Ben and I feel like we failed him as His masters and protectors; For that we are very very very sorry!

We'll miss you Shiloh!

and the tribe