My Forever Friend Barkley

My dog Barkley was a basset hound that would howl at the moon and sat on top of his crate like Snoopy from Charlie Brown. My dad brought him home in a gift box one afternoon to surprise us! He’d howl and I sang. We had a little duet, and neither of us were very good when we were young pups, but we formed our own wolf pack and became pretty good.

I used to lock myself out of the house all of the time, but Barkley was always right there waiting for me. The only problem was he used to crawl through the fence to the golf course and I always had an adventure hopping fences to chase after him. I was always happier though hanging out with Barkley. Whether I was happy, mad, or sad Barkley always made me smile. Teenagers used to break into our backyard and Barkley would scare them off. His howl used to break the silence, and alarmed my dad. My dad had to chase people out of our yard all of the time, so thank goodness for Barkley. He didn’t even have to attack because his bark was enough to bite.

He was the real snoop dog.

The little snoopy dog would climb on top of a patio chair and make his way on top of his crate. We eventually just moved his bedding on top of the steel wired crate because he didn’t want to sleep inside the cage let alone be locked in it.

He was a rowdy puppy constantly biting my heels and wrists and chasing me around the treehouse. After boot camp, he became the most loving dog we’d ever had.

His ears were so long he used to trip over them. When I was a little girl I used to sit and sing outside. It was my favorite pastime. I thought I’d grow up to be a famous singer, but I wasn’t very good. I just liked to play the air guitar. One of my favorite songs was “do your ears hang low, do they wobble too and fro, can you tie ‘em in a knot can you tie ‘em in a bow, can you throw ‘em over your shoulder like a continental soldier, do your ears hang low?” Barkley loved it too.

Barkley was long and stout when he got older, he could no longer climb on top of his crate like snoopy.

Luckily he never ate my beta fish, most of the time they jumped out of the bowl anyways.

He used to watch my hamster run around in an exercise ball as it would roll down the stairs.

I’d sing every day to Barkley, and he was there for me as a child. He had to go to boot camp and became the smartest dog that would sit, heel, and stay. We almost had to give him away if he didn’t shape up, but he graduated camp top of his class. We buried him in our backyard when he died and I’ll always remember the basset that howled at the moon, sang duets with me, and protected us from trespassers.

Barkley and I grew up with each other, he loved my family and brought us so much joy. There’s nothing like protection from a well-trained Bassett who likes to howl.

He would howl at the Owl, the bats, and the birds that used to fly in the house through the chimney. He was a good guard dog and no intruder man or animal ever got passed, Barkley.

A dog is a forever friend and will always be my forever singing partner in memory. His howl lives on forever.