Strummer Berrigan Jones

199? to June 7, 2007

We don’t know when Strummer was born. We estimate that he was eight-years-old when we adopted him in 2001. His eyes were already cloudy, and he had trouble jumping up on furniture. For the purposes of comparison, Bridget has not had any problems jumping yet at the age of nine. He therefore may have been even older. Bridget, however, did not face the challenges that confronted Strummer before we met him.

One year after we adopted Bridget, our Bichon Apso, Rachel suggested that we get another dog to keep her company while we were out. Granted, we also had four cats. Bridget did not get along too well with them, though.

During Bridget’s annual exam in May 2001, Rachel mentioned that we were considering a second dog. The vet suggested we look at a “funny little white dog” in back. They were calling him Barclay. A client had found him abandoned outside of his carrier on the Grand Central Parkway. He was actually pink at this point—the vet had to shave off all of his fur because it he was so matted and infested with insects. He also had several hotspots, including a huge one on his neck. He was also overweight, having gained the sympathy of everyone at the clinic. Given the lack of fur, we could only guess his breed(s). Needless to say, we had never seen a hairless Bichon Frise before! We introduced him to Bridget, and he gave her a kiss.

He remained at the vet while he continued to recuperate. They were very generous and did not charge us for these costs. Rachel suggested calling him Brian because she liked Celtic names. We did not realize it at the time, but this would have brought a lot of Family-Guy jokes. Larry wanted to name him after Joe Strummer or Mick Jones from The Clash. Rachel decided to add Berrigan for the social-activist priests who were mentioned on a recent Dar Williams Album. Given that all of our pets have three names, we settled on Strummer Berrigan Jones.

We brought Strummer home to our apartment in Astoria on June 1st. Officially, it was a “trial” weekend. Despite the early evidence of his housebreaking issues, we decided that we wanted to keep the little guy. Partially, we felt sorry for him because of all he had been through. He was also a sweet dog, though not as expressive (hyper) as Bridget!

He was, however, very expressive about his desire to eat! He would spin around in circles and bark, “Ubber! Ubber!” while we got the dog food ready. (Poo Poo of Pooch Café once remarked, “Life for a male Bichon Frise is one pie in the face after another.” I could imagine Strummer responding, “Hey! Where’s my pie?!?!?!?!”

We had to make a few changes. Bridget had never been a problem with the garbage or the cat litter. We needed to put up child gates, however, to keep Strummer out of trouble. We also started using “puppy pads” to deal with his housebreaking problems, with varying success.

We almost lost Strummer a few days after the attack on the World Trade Center. A neighbor’s large dog attacked Strummer while I was bringing him and Bridget up the stairs in our apartment building. She lifted him up and began to shake him, trying to snap his neck. Luckily, she did not manage to do so. He had some nasty puncture wounds though, and would always be aggressive toward larger dogs from then on.

Strummer, Bridget, and the cats kept me company while I continued working on my dissertation. I submitted the final revisions in July of 2002. We then moved down to Virginia so I could take a visiting position at the University of Richmond. Rachel was already several months pregnant with Aidan. Even though we were in the state capital, the house we rented was in a very suburban area. We therefore had more opportunities to take the dogs places, including the nearby parks along James River. (Unfortunately, our yard wasn’t fenced.)

Aidan was born in December of 2002. Given that Strummer was always a “Mama’s boy,” he adapted well to having a baby around. Generally, he did not have a mean bone in his body—as long as you did not try to take anything remotely edible away from him, that is! When Aidan started talking, he referred to Stummer as “Strummin.” We have some great pictures of the dogs with Aidan, including a JC Penny shoot.

We moved to New Jersey in August 2004, after I completed a second year-long visiting position at Richmond. Strummer was getting older, but he was still going well. For a while, he would wake me up in the middle of the night—sometimes repeatedly. Luckily, that did not last.

We noticed Strummer limping and the vet said he had bad arthritis in a rear knee. Unfortunately, we had to discontinue the arthritis medicine after it disagreed with him. From then on, however, I would carry him up and down the steps. About a year before his death, we became worried because he had trouble balancing and was not interested in eating. It turned out to be a middle-ear disorder that went away. He also had some coughing and brought up phlegm every once in a while.

Even though Strummer could no longer handle the stairs, I tried to give him plenty of exercise to keep his muscles strong enough to counter the arthritis. About a month or so before his death, he stopped wanting to go on long walks. Then he began to slow down and trip during walks. One day, he fell down the stairs to our apartment while I was unlocking the door.

We had a vet appointment scheduled for both dogs on Saturday June 9th. Both Rachel and I were afraid to hear what the vet would say about Strummer. We knew he was not doing well. Around 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday the 6th, however, Strummer fell down in the kitchen and began having a seizure. His legs flailed and he chewed on a lump of phlegm in his mouth. He was unable to stand himself up after he came out of it. I tried helping him up several times, but he would fall again after a few steps. We called the vet, but it was too late to take him in. He did say, however, that it could be a brain tumor.

Strummer had managed to open our bedroom door and come in sometime before we woke up the next morning. He seemed to be walking much better, so our hopes went up. I fed the dogs and began taking them down the stairs. Just as I reached the landing, however, I felt Strummer twitching. This seizure seemed worse than the previous one. I also noticed that one of his rear legs was not moving as wildly as the others. After he came to, he was unable to walk even if we stood him up. It was very hard to see him dragging himself around in circles trying to stand. I also thought that it looked like he might be scraping his skin.

Rachel dropped him at the vet before taking Aidan to daycare. The news was not good. The doctor said we could do a lot of tests, but they would probably have no impact on the treatment options. His arthritis was very severe, and medication for it and the seizures would cause digestive problems. Around 1:00, the vet called Rachel to tell her Strummer had had another seizure. We decided to leave work and head to the vet’s office to say goodbye. It turns out he had another seizure while we were on the way, but we did get to see him. Strummer died at about 4:00 on June 7, 2007. It was just over six years since we brought him home.

We didn’t want to tell Aidan until the following evening because Rachel had to go out Thursday night. Nonetheless, he told us that he lost his dog. When we asked what he meant (Rachel was on the phone), he said, “The old dog. Strummin. We have to get him back.”

Strummer was at least fourteen when he died. Unfortunately, he had a pretty rough life for more than half of it. We tried our best, however, to make it up to the little guy. We all miss him greatly.

Strummer (center) with Bridget, Rachel, Larry, & Aidan