The Loss of (Wo)man's Best Friend

Snickers McCullough – Born Spring 2004, Died May 14, 2016. 

Also known as Snick, Snick-Man, Snickey Bear, and most often, The Big Fat Fella.

Amazingly to us, he was almost always a puppy.  Until recently when he got sick, he would still chase the squirrels, dance around like a lunatic for a treat or table scraps, and go upstairs and search for a sock or a stuffed animal to take outside and play keep-away with until you gave him a treat.  He always had a youthful exuberance and a constant smile, if a dog can really smile.  But I think he did smile, he had such a good life, and he deserved it, he was such a good dog.  He really didn’t deserve the way it all ended, so soon really for a dog, but that’s beyond our control.  It’s amazing how it all transpired, if you go way back to the beginning ….

I never thought we’d ever get a pet.  We had made it over twenty years through our marriage, through most of the growing years for Megan and Kelly and partway through the childhood of Patrick and Sean with no pets, and I never thought we’d ever get one.  Then, the boys, mainly Sean , decided they wanted a dog.  I figured if we’d wait them out, they would eventually move on to something else.  This one was different.  They didn’t give up, especially Sean, he would continually demand, we are getting a dog.  So we finally caved, we went looking at dogs, and Snickers won our hearts.

Then, reality set in, and I never thought Snickers would survive.  Everyone says dogs love their crates, but Snickers never did.  The first night we brought him home, he cried and cried in his crate, and we did what you’re supposed to do, we let him cry.  Finally we couldn’t take it any longer, and we went down, and found that he had pooped all over his crate.  There we were out in the backyard at 3 in the morning, cleaning him up and cleaning up his crate.  That was just the beginning.

He hated his crate, he was awful at night, and Laurel had to sleep in the living room every night with him.  At one point, Laurel said “It’s either him or me.”  I was really worried that our short-lived life as pet owners was coming to a close.  Then one night, we were sitting on the couch watching TV, the back door was open, and Snickers started barking outside.  For whatever reason, Laurel thought he was in danger, she came leaping off the couch, flew out the back door in her bare feet, screaming , “Snickers, Snickers, I’m coming!”  He had won her over and he was her baby.  And boy was he her baby.  It would be funny, Snickers would do something, and I’d be screaming at him, and he’d just look at me with this expression of “what the heck is your problem?”  If Laurel would ever yell at him, which wasn’t very often, he would lie on the floor and get as low as he possibly could, pouting because she was mad at him.

As a puppy, Snickers was very much a challenge.  He would dig and dig at the carpet until he could get a strand, and he would then grab it and pull it across the floor, leaving a bare spot across the carpet.  We eventually had to put duct tape throughout the living room to cover the various bare spots on our carpet.  He would teeth on our furniture ruining our couch, end tables, anything he could get to.  Our living room soon looked like something you would see at an off-campus college apartment.  The only thing missing was the smell of stale beer.

The biggest issue would be when he would escape.  We lived right next to Grant Park, a large wooded nature park, and he would make his way to Grant Park and search for anything his nose would take him to.  We would take off running through Grant Park, with a hot dog, screaming “hot dog, Snickers, hot dog!”  When we’d find him and get close, we would break off pieces of the hot dog and throw them to try to get his attention.  He would eventually smell the hot dog, and he would stop long enough for us to catch him and take him home. 

We finally took him to puppy training.  As usual, Snickers’ nose got him into trouble more often than not.  Each pet owner would bring treats for his/her dog for the training, and Snickers couldn’t resist seeking out each dog’s treats.  Snickers eventually graduated from puppy training, but we were convinced they passed him just so they wouldn’t have to deal with him again in class.

When we moved from Dayton, Ohio to Lawrenceville, Georgia, Laurel had the task of finding our next home.  Her first choice, and mine, was our current home.  Many people who knew Laurel accused her of buying this house for Snickers, but she denies it.  The backyard is completed wooded and has a wealth of squirrels moving from tree to tree.  There have been times where Snickers stays out back all day, going from tree to tree, constantly looking up and howling as the squirrels torment him.  He would come in periodically to get a drink of water, but head right back out to continue chasing the squirrels.  There was one time that Snickers came to the back door with a dead squirrel in his mouth.  We are convinced that somehow the squirrel fell from a tree and Snickers found him dead, because there was no way that Snickers could have ever caught one of the squirrels.  We often heard the squirrels laughing at Snickers as he diligently chased them up the many trees in the yard.

After we moved to Georgia, someone (no idea who) got the bright idea that Snickers needed a playmate.  We bought Minnie, another beagle, a female, for Snickers to play with.  We soon found that Minnie much preferred sleeping to anything else, and she failed miserably as a playmate.  Once in a while, Minnie would do the “Minnie fake” as we called it, and she would act like she wanted to play.  Snickers would get all excited and start running around like a nut, and then Minnie would go back and lie down, just kidding.  At times, Minnie, like most females, would lash out at Snickers and attack him.  Poor Snickers would have no idea what he did or why he was being attacked, but you’d see him going up to Minnie afterward, groveling, like most males, apologizing for whatever transgression he committed. 

While Snickers had to share the house with Minnie, and eventually Little Bit and Daisy, he really never had to share Laurel’s heart.  I used to joke that the ranking in Laurel’s heart was Snickers, Megan, Patrick, Sean, Kelly, Minnie and then me (Laurel always loved that).  While it was just a joke, there’s no doubt Snickers was always Laurel’s favorite, and she was always his favorite.  They had a special bond, and because of that, he had such a great life.  And so did we, you really couldn’t ask for a better dog.  Sure, he was a pain in the ass about food, his nose led him way too many places, but he was so good natured, and he always had that smile.  We’ll always remember him as that puppy who loved his treats, loved his backyard and loved chasing those squirrels.  We will miss him.