If you have never had a family pet a lot of the following will not make much sense. But if you have, you will understand. On Friday the 13 of January, under a full moon, Sara and I were forced to put down our two traveling companions, Ollie and Rudy. Both were miniature German schnauzers, eleven and thirteen respectively. That is old for schnauzers but they were Sara’s babies and her loving care surely extended their years. They were walked three times a day, everyday, regardless of the weather. Their teeth were brushed every day and each was cuddled every night before bed.

They have been our traveling companions ever since we have been RVing. They have seen every state in the lower 48, some many times, and there probably are not many dogs that have had an opportunity to swim in the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico all in the same year. Their biggest fear was that they would be left at home, and the minute we started to pack, we would have to put them in the truck just to calm them down.

Rudy was the older and but not the wiser. We have had seven schnauzers over the past 37 years and Rudy was not the brightest. But what he lacked in dog smarts was more than made up for by his gentle nature. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Oh, he knew how to bark but what he always wanted the most was to have his ears scratched and his tummy rubbed. He had slowed in the past year and his eyesight was failing. Rudy would take short cuts on the daily walks but never refused the opportunity, even up to the last day. He was our “gentle trooper”.

Ollie on the other hand was anything but gentle. He was our “church dog”. I was at the Catholic church in Oregon about eleven years ago to pick up the priest’s vestments for my annual Gregory Mendel reenactment at West High School for my biology classes. Father Schumacher called me into the rectory where a tiny “schnauzer looking” puppy had just pooped and peed on his carpet. He asked me if all dogs do that and started to get sick as I picked up the dry poop with my hand to discard. He informed me that someone had left the dog on his door step as a gift, with a note and said he would do anything if I would remove it from his presence. I knew the minute I picked the dog up that it would end up at the Schultz house on a permanent basis. Sara is a pushover for every puppy she has ever seen. Our older daughter Amy got one look at the pup and thanked us over and over for finally getting her a puppy. Of course she forgot to mention the no pet rule at her apartment and the puppy came back to us after two weeks. He was named Ollie after an uncle of Sara’s and proceeded to get so sick he almost died. He had parvo virus and after $400 in vet bills, we were called to the clinic to say good bye. Sara cried all the way home only to get a call from the vet that night that he had rallied and pulled out the IV with his teeth. Ollie was a fighter and he never stopped fighting right to the end. He was an “in your face” dog. Yet as hard as it would be to believe, Ollie had to be touching some part of Sara’s body before he would sleep, and any attempt to change that routine was met by him sneaking back on the bed after we were both asleep. We never did know Ollie’s true heritage, but when he walked, he had a lope about him that you would swear made him part coyote. When we camped in the desert on this trip and the coyotes would howl in the evening, Ollie would join in almost as if to say hello to a long lost relative.

Ollie suffered from kidney stones which are common to the breed and had several stones surgically removed a few years ago. We think the stones had reoccurred and we knew he was in pain again.
They were “Sara’s Dogs” and I knew that she would know when it was time. The time came and they are now gone. We buried them in the desert together, under a huge Saguaro cactus between the tiny towns of Salome and Hope, Arizona west of Phoenix. The RV seems so much larger now and a lot quieter. And lonely.

We will know if the time is ever right to share our travels with four paw again, but until then we have decided no pets for a while.