About Oliver

Oliver was a smallish honey-colored terrier who came to me in the early 1990s through Caring For Creatures, a Living Sanctuary for animals in Fluvanna County, Virginia. Mary K. Birkholz, Founder and Director, my good friend and co-editor of laJoie, the quarterly journal honoring all beings, was speaking to another person next to me, about him, how he had been found dragging himself along the James River by two fishermen.

A subsequent veterinary visit revealed that this little dog had been seriously abused - he was covered in cigarette burns and had bits of wire stuck all in his tangled coat. He was very thin, and both his hips were shattered, probably by a car. Someone had apparently just thrown him by the river to die.

I heard myself say to Mary, "I'd like to adopt him!" With already a very large family of animals, I wasn't sure why I had felt suddenly so compelled to take him in. But I have learned always to trust my intuition, and with this particular dog, my intuition was very loud and insistent. A few days later, Mary handed me a very beautiful, but sad creature and I immediately fell in love.

  I had a good name picked out for him, I thought, but as so often happens, he told me his name - a persistent one that would not leave my head. And it was Oliver. I could hardly deny it was perfect for him.

The bones in his hips had already begun to mend on their own - surgery was not an option - and for all the time he was with me, about six years, he could run and jump and play as well as the other dogs here. Always, he was bright, alert, friendly, loving, my beloved companion. The broken bones in his hips pushed on the nerve in his spine that controlled his bladder, so he was incontinent. After much trial and error, I discovered that Gerber training pants for toddlers (size 2) with a hole cut for his tail, worked well, and from then on I changed and washed him several times a day and always at least once in the night.

Oliver loved everyone, despite being so badly abused…what a lesson for me in forgiveness and compassion! One way he had of showing his love was to offer a gift to anyone coming in the front door. We kept a dog bowl there, filled with tennis balls, old knotted-up socks, and other appropriate dog toys. This was Oliver's Gifting Bowl. When someone would come through the door, Oliver would run to his Gifting Bowl, select one or two gifts (he could hold a ball and a sock in his mouth at the same time) and then prance happily and proudly over to the fortunate person. Many times I had to quietly ask the visitor to "Please notice Oliver at your feet" and instruct them to accept the gift and say "Thank you." This pleased Oliver and his enthusiasm continued to increase.

Painting by Tim Reynolds, copyright 2002.