Soon after Almond joined my family, Mom and I realized that I had the ABCs, in that my 3 dogs were Almond, Bastian and Captain! So naturally when I think of the letter C, I think of Captain.
Captain is my doggie soulmate.
I met him early on in my volunteering with the rescue. I don’t remember exactly when I started but my earliest photo of Captain is dated April 9th. This might have been the day that I first met him. 
I was helping out by doing whatever she asked me to do and she decided that the dogs needed baths. So Ryan and I started our first time (and by far not the last) washing dogs! It was a little nerve wracking at first but we got a system going where I would hold the dogs up in the huge sink and he would soap & rinse them.
At one point Kimi pointed to a cage and said “Wash that one if he’ll let you, but I don’t know if he’ll bite, he just came in yesterday.” I looked and saw a very dirty caramel colored chihuahua with black rimmed eyes and big ears. He sat at the back of his cage shivering slightly with nervousness.
It’d only been a couple weeks but I’d confirmed for myself the best way to deal with dogs that might be aggressive is to act if everything is fine and that there’s nothing to worry about. So as we worked through the row, taking the dogs into the kitchen one by one, I took a few minutes each time to stand in front of his cage and talk to him. Held my fingers out for him to sniff. After the first couple of times went well, I started opening the door a little and holding my hand at the front of the cage. He of course was still too nervous and stayed at the back. Again, after a couple of times, he became more relaxed and ventured forth to sniff. At which point, I started to pet him each time.
Then I decided that he was ok enough that it was his turn. Of all the dogs we washed, he was the most docile one. He only squirmed when the water changed temperature (it kept switching from hot to cold on its own). He’d been so dirty that I came to think later that he knew what baths were all about and was just so grateful to be clean again. He was so well behaved that when it came to blowing him dry the rest of the way, he sat on my lap willingly. I didn’t have to hold him like I did the others.
The reason he was so filthy is because he’d been living on the streets. A nice woman who worked at Disney, found him on her way to work and came right over and dropped him off on her way to work. Along with a $100 donation. It was obvious that he’d been on the streets for a while because of the condition of his coat. While drying him off, I found at least two ticks!
The photo of him above, might be from after his bath that day. I almost don’t recognize him in the photo. The worry and anxiety in his eyes is so marked. He hasn’t had that look since those very early days.
His gentle behavior really made me notice him and he quickly became my favorite dog there. And the feeling was mutual because just as quickly it became very clear that he was just as fond of me. Anytime I walked into his area, he watched me like a hawk until I got him or left again. If I just looked at him, he would do the eager front feet shuffle of excitement and beg me with his eyes to take him out and let him be with me.
He was in the adoptable row so as my favorite, he became my mission dog to get adopted. Saturday after Saturday, I would take him out and keep him out on a lead most of the day so that he’d be relaxed and more “attractive” to prospective adopters. I talked him up to everyone who’d listen. And I had many people who went aww and really LOOK at him to consider if he was the one they wanted to adopt.
But inevitably, they’d ask “How old is he?” “6 years.” And their eyes would glass over and they’d find a way to move onto the next dog. I quickly learned that ageism was seriously working against him which was really unfair because Chihuahuas are a very long lived breed. To adopt a 6 yr old chihuahua, you’d have him for about as long as 3 month old larger breed puppy. I started pointing that out to people when they asked the age question but to no avail. Over and over and over again, they passed him by.
At one point, another dog arrived from Texas that actually bore a very similar resemblance to him (we named him Tex). It seemed like I was the only one who could tell them apart even though there were distinctive differences between them. I grew fond of Tex as well so I was pimping them both out. Tex was half Captain’s age so I figured if they passed on Captain perhaps they’d go for Tex instead. This is Tex. See the resemblance?
However, Tex wasn’t quite as handsome as Captain. Even though they looked a lot alike, Tex’s face was a little longer and he was also very scrawny from being kept in a state of near starvation. If you look closely, you can see what I’m talking about.
Anyways, it was an adoption fair in early June where I finally threw in the towel. Tex did get a home that weekend but I still could not get ANYONE to look past a few extra years and adopt Captain. And by then I’d gotten really attached to him.
Sunday, June 6th, 2004, I decided that to hell with everyone. Captain was MINE. As we packed up to go home, I told Kimi that if it was ok with her, I wanted to lay claim to Captain even though he’d have to wait til I got my own place since I was still staying at Dad’s place. She thought that was wonderful and of course he would be mine. Then she pointed out that it was meant to be because earlier that day, she’d bought a dog food bowl for me from one of the vendors at the fair because even though I didn’t have a dog yet, it had lions on it and therefore perfect for me because clearly one day I would have one.
That night I took him home for our first sleepover. Because Dad would not allow Captain to live there permanently, the next few months were a series of overnight visits and I also started to sleep over at the rescue as well to be with him.
But then my Grandma got very sick and I flew to PA to be with her and ended up staying. Oh I missed Captain sooo badly during that time. My plans for the future ended up changing several times but they all included saying the hell with it and signing Captain’s adoption contract the minute I got back to California.
My return to CA turned out to be Oct 2nd, and the next day, I went and got Captain and signed the contract and took him home (to my mother’s where I ended up living for the next 2 years). 
This coming Wednesday is the 4th anniversary of that photo is which very likely the first day I met him. Since I know nothing about his past history, that is his birthday. He will be 10.
He has changed so much in the past 4 years. Now he feels free to be annoyed with me and go sulk in a snit somewhere if I am not paying enough attention to him. He’s not as slavishly devoted to being by my side every second. I saw that change come when he had lived with me for a couple of months in Ventura. He clearly came to understand that his home was with me and that he wasn’t going to lose me.
But he is still a Mama’s boy through and through. If someone else helps leash the dogs and take them out, if they try to take him out first while I’m still leashing the others, he will hang on his collar trying to stay with me. When Angus goes into my apt to take them over to his place for a while when I’m at work all day, Captain hides from him in the closet. Not because he doesn’t like or is afraid of Angus, but because he doesn’t want to not be home when I get home.
If the boys and I go over to Angus’s and I leave even for a minute to get something from my Apt, Captain will notice and either try to leave and come find me (we learned that he could squeeze underneath Angus’s fence) or will park himself at the door and cry til someone lets him out to run home.
Basically, Captain does not want to be away from me or kept from me at all. But if he knows that I’m there and not going anywhere, then he’s fine and will go do his own thing.
He’s become the loudest barker of the family when I’m not home or am coming in the door. He yells and yells til I cross the room and open the gate (or now the bathroom door) and free him to come jump jump jump jump on me in happy happy greeting! That’s another change because he’s usually the quietest one. Or used to be.
A funny thing about him… he’s a morning dog. Nicole reminded me of this yesterday. After she woke me up, she took the dogs out to pee while I got dressed and threw my things together. She thought it was very funny that Weston & Bastian went and peed and immediately wanted to go back in but Captain was prancing around sniffing with boisterous puppy energy. It’s been a while since I really noticed that because I’ve gotten used to it and don’t really notice it anymore but I remember realizing that about him those first months in Ventura. He’d jump on me in the mornings greeting me with the new day. And it wasn’t because he had to go out, then he could go out himself through the dog door.
It’s a funny combo because I’m very much not a morning person. I’m a night person and many a times he’ll sleepily glare at me for not going to bed already.
Another odd habit of his. He will NOT sleep with me unless he is sleeping the opposite direction of me. His head towards my feet and his butt towards my face. If I go get him and lay him down in my arms, he’ll get up and turn around. Every time.
The correct thing is not to have “favorites”. However, I’d be lying if I said that Captain wasn’t mine. I can’t explain it but from the beginning, I’ve bonded with Captain on a level that I haven’t with the other dogs (either adopted or from the rescue). And he knows it.
All three of my current crew, were found on the road so were all similarly abandoned/lost from their home for an indeterminate period of time. Bastian & Weston definitely exhibit signs of insecurity (Bastian occasionally, and Weston most of the time) and come in my lap asking to be reassured of my love. Captain doesn’t ever do it. He’ll march right up into my face and demand attention but I never see it in his eyes that he is feeling insecure.
That bond I speak of, it’s manifested itself in weird ways that leave me convinced that dogs have some kind of 6th sense that is way more developed then ours. I usually don’t talk about it because it’s the kind of thing that people discount. The night before I flew out to PA to see my Grandma, I had Captain with me that night and I was very upset because I was very worried about my grandmother and very upset about leaving Captain because I had a very good feeling that I wouldn’t be coming back soon. I’d tried to arrange to take Captain with me but couldn’t. It was one of those nights where you’re so upset that you can’t sleep but eventually you pass out anyways.
I had a dream that was very clear. I was at the rescue and then I left it and walked down the street to corner and sat at the bus stop. I was upset and sad. Then Tom Hanks came and sat down with me and talked to me. He put his arm around me and basically told me “Everything will be ok”. And with that I calmed down and found a deep peace because he’d convinced me that it was true. I woke up to find Captain laying spine to spine with me, right side up which I said before is extremely rare. I still had the deep calm as well as the overwhelming sense that Captain had put himself into my dream and used Tom as his “Voice” to tell me it would be ok. Considering that I’d grown up on Tom Hanks movies and adored him like a favorite uncle (as opposed to Guttenberg who I crushed on), it made sense that Captain picked Tom from my brain to speak to me with.
Huh… now that I think about it. Aside from my Dad, I can’t think of any other big positive male “influence/presence” in my childhood. I was not really close to any of my uncles. My Grandpap loved me but was a very gruff man. My mother’s 2nd husband was most decidedly NOT a positive presence. Tom Hanks really was the next best thing to a male presence in my childhood given how much I watched his movies over and over and over again. There was nothing more exciting to me than a new Tom Hanks or John Candy or Steve Guttenberg movie.
Which makes this all even stranger because there was one more part to that dream that I remember. Sitting on the bench together, I look up and see a billboard with John Candy on it. I turn to Tom to tell him how much I miss John Candy but before I can say a word, Tom leans his head on mine and says to me “Yes I miss him too”.
Very bizarre. But that night, I am convinced that Captain touched my senses somehow to reassure me that things would be ok.
A year or so later, I read this book: Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals. From the summary: “Applying this hypothesis to the animal kingdom, he [the author] maintains that cats, dogs, horses, rabbits and other animals can communicate telepathically with people (or with other animals) with whom they have emotional bonds“.
It’s hard not to believe that he may be right with all the accounts he’s gathered together in that book. I am convinced that there is another “sense” of some kind of psychic nature that mammals have, us included, that involves telepathy but we human beings are very undeveloped in it.
But Captain’s reached through to me. I notice that I feel a warm buzz when he is near but empty silence from Bastian and Weston. Hmmm… no I feel it sometimes from Weston too…. and it accompanies the rare moments when Weston looks as though he feels secure that I love him.
I need to pay more attention to this.
In any case, Captain is getting older. I see it as the white creeps across his face. His whole muzzle is white now and it’s moving up his cheeks and around his eyes. I have to not ever think about the fact that he will die one day because it’s too horrible to think about.
Captain’s the one who showed me that the “having a dog one day” time was now. And because of him, I’ve adopted 4 other dogs. I’ve since lost two of them and it hurt deeply but it’s going to be very different when Captain goes.
Ok enough about that.
Some final things about Captain. No one knows how he got his name. I know I asked soon after he came in who named him, but everyone including Kimi said that someone else told them that his name was Captain. I have to wonder if he “told” someone what it was and made it seem like someone else did. I don’t remember how long it took before he responded to his name. Perhaps because he always did?
He’s been in a book. I put some of his pictures on stock.xchg and someone from Barnes & Noble contacted me asking permission to use them in a novelty book featuring Personal Ads as placed by dogs called “Hot Dog”. I agreed on the condition that they include a statement that this is just for entertainment and that people should spay & neuter. The woman thanked me for it because it hadn’t occurred to them. It was a good idea and sure enough, at the beginning of the book, it’s there.
Captain HATES it when I do the “captain cAAAAVEEEMAN!!” from the old cartoon in the 80s. But he loves it when I sing “Hey Mickey” but switching Mickey for Captain.