Found By The Hound

Kato Snuggling Under a Blanket

He must have had a talent for stealing hearts. He melted my dad’s heart when he spotted him at his friend’s pet store. He sealed the deal when he untied my dad’s shoes.

I was living with my parent’s back in 1993 when he came to live with us. My mom was vacuuming, rather vigorously, when I came back from a job interview. I asked how she was doing and she said she was OK..and then there was a ‘yap’.

“What was that?” My mom said nothing.

“Yap! ” More definite this time.

“What was that noise?” I asked again. Without looking up from her vacuuming, my mom said without any celebratory grandeur,

“Your father bought a dog.”

My dad left this little puppy in the room that was my “paint room” (ie the room I made creative messes in). It was the best place for him at the time, since the vacuum scared him to death. Here he was, a little black and tan bundle with the fattest feet I had ever seen on a dachshund puppy. That was it, I was gone. He walked all over me with those aforementioned chubby feet.

Sleeping on a Cloud...of Pillow Stuffing!

We named him Kato.This was because my dad wanted a Chinese name, but we all argued we had to be able to pronounce it. My dad liked Bruce Lee movies, and the actor played a character called Kato in the Green Hornet. So it seemed fitting.

Kato proceeded to win over the hearts of all of us who lived at 417 Sherbrooke Street. The next victim, he knew was the most important…my mom. Then my older brother, then my grandmother,my great grandmother and my aunts. Like hypnotized victims they fell under the irresistable spell of this waddling little wiener. My brother, and dad took him for walks. Mom and I also walked and fed him. He was trained in Chinese and English. You could say he had a bilingual obedience school. When my dad’s mom came to visit,she only talked to him in Chinese, and he even stayed with her when she watched the Chinese soap operas. It’s strange to think that that dog knew more Chinese than both my brother and I combined.

He came to sleep with me when my bedroom relocated to the attic. It was a common sound to hear his toenails clicking around on the 5th floor. Even if he was supposed to be sleeping in the living room,I could hear him nose open the bi-fold door,and make his way up the stairs (in the dark) to get to the side of the bed.

I was more allergic to him than my previous dog…but I didn’t care. Even when the doctor suggested getting rid of the dog,I just looked at her as if she came from Mars. Why the heck would I do that?

Anywhere there was sun,there was Kato. He loved to keep warm,so one would find him buried under clothes,folded jackets, even inside bookcases if it was located over a heater. One time, my soon to be husband found him inside his jacket. We even saw him climb the back of the couch to get a higher vantage point to reach the sun when it was on the wall behind.

Kato often taught us never to underestimate a wiener dog. We thought we were diligent at wiener-proofing our house. But there was the odd thing we missed. The digging instinct is still very prevalent even after years of domestication. A plastic tub of dog biscuits, five feet off the ground, inside a box, at the very bottom, was not safe from this determined hound. And to this day…we don’t know how he got to it. He ended up investigating a bag of pillow stuffing when we went down for dinner, and we came up to find him asleep in the middle of a cotton cloud,with the rest of the stuffing pulled out and around for good measure.

Snow isn’t a wiener dog’s best friend. My aunts and grandma made sure Kato was well taken care of though. He had his own pathway out to the yard (thanks to one of my aunts), so he wouldn’t get buried. My grandmother brought little sweaters home from the hospital gift shop for him. My other aunt even made a shelter for him out of her garden stakes and a tarp. Our friend and neighbour always told us, if she ever came back as anything she would come back as Kato:

“To get carried around as he does, and treated like that…that is living!”

My great grandmother didn’t speak English, and she always fed Kato the Chinese staple of life (rice) ,with a few choice bits of meat thrown in to boot. She just couldn’t understand the “dry” food concept. This was what she always fed our previous dogs,and they did fine on it, so why does he have to get those funny dried up nuggets? While he never got fat, Kato was always well fed thanks to her. He always loved her knitted slippers too,they made for good targets for hide and seek.

Even though my brother and I weren’t kids when Kato arrived, he saw his share. Exchange teachers from Australia often visited with their little ones. They had fun chasing a long dog through the halls, often surprised at how well he took corners. He saw many an out of town guest;dear friends that were as close to us as  family grew to love our newest family member as well.

At Christmas time, Kato was given a gift of apple to unwrap. To the delight of everyone around the tree he chased, chewed and tore the gift open. And then he would examine everything else. But we had to discourage this…as one time the tree fell over due to it drying out, and we didn’t want him under it if that ever happened again. A fake tree was soon procured.

He saw tears as well as happiness. He was the stabilizing factor at home through breakups, the death of my dad’s mom and dad, my great grandmother and dear family friends, business hiccups, losing friends,and life happenings in general. He always greeted everyone with a wag of his tail, a bark, a lick on the hand and if you allowed him a lap, there he would be.

Before I left for my wedding back in 2003, I had the photographer take our picture. Kato somehow knew I wasn’t going to be home ever again, but he seemed alright with it. Maybe because he knew I would never really be that far away. Or he knew I was being well taken care of. He didn’t fret, and neither did I.

My studio where I run my business is right next door to my parent’s place. So every time I went to work I saw my little hound. He was still our puppy (and he knew it) even as he began to grow more grey along the muzzle. He became surrounded by children again when my brother married in 2007. More family additions, but he took it all in stride. It was more people to have pats from, to get a cookie from.

Eventually, Kato’s health began to decline and he was diagnosed with an enlarged heart. This effected his breathing. He knew, in his own way, that there would be limited time to spend with his family. We spent our last night together, on the couch, side by side. Like the old days. He stopped eating by the next day, and by the afternoon, we had to put him to sleep.

My friend had a wonderful life full of love and laughter. He was the inspiration behind Hound and Handbag Gift Company;the store’s mascot.

He is sorely missed. But I know he’s up there, with my grandmother and great grandmother, running around, and getting well fed. He wouldn’t have it any other way.