Peaches Portman came into our lives in early December of 1999. We believe she was about nine months to a year old at the time.
Keith's mother, Susie, always had a dream of breeding poodles. An acquaintance of ours had a poodle that he wanted to find a home for, so on a cold night, I drove Susie over to his trailer to pick up this dog.
When the man came out with Peaches (the name was given to her prior to her joining our family), she was small, frightened and shaking. Susie took her and immediately nestled this scared little dog in the inside of her coat. When we got her home, we were able to examine the shape she was in - and it broke our hearts. Her nails were long and her hair was horribly matted in knots. She had huge brown eyes that showed genuine fear. We knew immediately that this was not a dog who had been treated well.
We made the appointment and took her to the groomers. Actually, it took about three appointments to get her cleaned up, groomed properly with her hair and nails looking good.
She took to Susie right away. Even during the process of grooming all the extreme knots from her fur, Susie kept her close by - petting her, talking to her, and giving her the attention that I believe Peaches had never before experienced from any human.
But with men, Peaches did not like them. If they were in the same room, she steered far away from them. If they came too close, she growled. I seem to recall that it took Keith about 3 weeks for Peaches to trust him - but she still wanted nothing to do with any other male human.
Through time, we discovered some of her history before she arrived in our household. Peaches was born in a puppy mill, cages stacked 4 and 5 high where waste and dropped food and spilled water rained down on the cages below the top ones. She was given to our "former" acquaintance who treated her so badly that when he came to visit our home shortly after giving her to us, Peaches stood between him and Susie and bared her teeth and growled like we've never seen her do in the time that we had her. We suspected that this was the reason she disliked men.
We lived in the mountains of Northern California at the time, with plenty of space for Peaches to run and explore in her newly found happy home. She also had the run of the house, but while inside, she stayed close to Susie's side. Sometimes, just a little too close.
Susie had a penchant for chocolate covered cherries. One day, she had an opened box in her room. Her bedside table had no room to set the box on, so Susie set them on the floor next to her bed. We walked in to find Peaches plowing down, as fast as she could, a box of chocolate covered cherries. Oh, was she going to town on them! We snatched them up, but not before she had eaten enough to make her sick to her stomach.
When Peaches came to live with us, Keith was a few months into driving professionally, on a regional route of the Western States. We found ourselves having to move from the house. Keith had made a run through Las Vegas, Nevada and thought the warm climate and multitude of activities the city had to offer would be good for us. But until we could get settled, Susie flew to Texas to stay, temporarily, with her niece; and Peaches and I became ride-alongs in the truck with Keith. It was also during this time that the company Keith worked for sold out to another trucking company. This had Keith driving further than the Western States.
At first, Peaches didn't mind riding in the truck. We would stop at rest areas in varying States and Keith would give Peachy time to run and play. Their favorite game was for Keith to make sudden, surprise moves toward Peachy and she would run in various directions all around him, circling here and there. Then she would stop and freeze, not making a move until he did it again, and she would run around again. She absolutely loved that game!
There were a few humorous moments, also, on our travels through the various States. In Washington, in the snow, she left a "steamer" - and I do mean a steamer. It really did steam. In California, she left a "missile", standing straight up! Keith and I laughed over her creative ways of relieving herself.
We finally did manage to get an apartment in Las Vegas; and Susie, Peaches and I settled in while Keith went back to driving by his lonesome. But we weren't there very long before Susie's health declined and her daughter moved her into a care home in California. Peaches and I were back in the truck again.
Eventually, I obtained my Commercial Driver's License, and Keith and I drove team coast to coast. Peaches was right there with us, visiting every State in the U.S (except Hawaii and Alaska, of course). She loved being with us, and guarded the truck diligently. Not one soul could get with ten feet of that truck where she did not hear them and start barking. We always knew when someone was out around the truck.
But, after a time, Peachy grew weary of being in that truck. We discovered this one day when she began to "put on the brakes" when getting back into the truck. What I mean by that is, we'd walk her right up to the door of the truck and she'd stiffen up her front legs and back her body up and resist getting back in the rig. She began to hate riding in that truck.
While visiting my parents, who lived in the same area we had lived in the mountains of California, my Dad took a liking to Peaches. He had just lost his Keeshond, and he asked us if we would consider letting Peaches stay with him. We made an agreement that he would act as owner to Peaches, take care of her teeth (which were in the early stages of going bad), but if there came a time that something happened where he could no longer take care of her, or did not want her, she was to come back to us. So, Peaches found a new home with Mom and Dad.
Now, this was one of the amazing things about Peachy. Most dogs connect to one owner, and that is the one person they fiercely protect for the rest of their lives. Peachy had five owners (Susie, Keith and I, and Dad and Mom) - and she was protective, loving and loyal to all of us. She was with Dad until he passed in 2006, and stayed with Mom until she passed in 2009 (Susie had passed in 2003). Shortly after Mom passed, she came back to us again.
We were still driving long haul, but now we lived on a sailboat in Texas. Peachy wasn't thrilled to be back in the truck again, but she took to the boat quite well. And it was only a year in the truck before we retired from driving and Peachy no longer had to ride in "that big noisy contraption".
However, after we retired from long haul, we acquired a cat combo. Brother and sister tuxedo kittens, who had been abandoned on the side of a highway in San Antonio, came to live with us - and Peachy wanted nothing to do with them. No matter what Face and Elvis (later renamed Ziva) did to try to play and make friends with Peaches, she would not have anything to do with them. As time passed, she went from warning them away to just tolerating them, but she was not all that excited to have them around.
After a time, we left our home port in Texas, and traveled the Inter-coastal Waterway to Florida, straight down the west coast of Florida to the Keys. Peaches never got seasick, and her regular spot was in the cockpit, sleeping next to Keith or I as we traveled. By this time, Peaches was about 14 years old, and she did not have the energy she had once had. She had been diagnosed with arthritis in her back legs and her lower spine, and her eyesight and hearing wasn't what it once was either. She was not in pain at the time, and seemed to be content staying indoors for the most part and sleeping. Keith would take her out for exercise and potty breaks, but had to keep a close eye on her as she had a tendency to walk right off the dock. Many times we just carried her, as she had difficulty walking due to the arthritis.
But a more loving dog you could not find. Throughout the years, she would sit on Susie's lap.....or Dad's lap....or Mom's lap....or Keith's....or mine, and lay her head against us, looking up with the biggest brown eyes ever seen on a dog, and those eyes expressed the deepest love she had for us. She was gentle, kind, compassionate, loving, and protective. And she had the most amazing life - from puppy mill, to abuse, to a caring home in the mountains, in the city, on the water. She traveled the country and sailed the coast. She was a companion, and a comfort, to three people during their last days....and I believe she loved every minute of her life.......
I sat in a room, at the vets, that created a peaceful and serene atmosphere - oriental decor, the sound of a gentle flow of trickling water, in a chair designed for comfort. Peaches had already been given her sedative to calm her into a peaceful state, and she was wrapped in a large, soft blanket. She was not feeling any pain. The doctor had told me that, along with arthritis, blindness and deafness, she had also developed diabetes. I talked to her even though I knew she couldn't hear me. I walked down memory lane with her - from the time she came to us until the time we sailed away on the water. I told her how much she meant to me...to Keith...to Susie....to Mom and Dad.....and I thanked her for all the joy and happiness she had given us. I held her close, and I kissed her forehead as she took her last breath. It was the most difficult, heartbreaking, precious thing in my life.