The picture above was sent to us by the folks at Houston Beagle & Hound Rescue. In it, Ringo (then called Grady) had just had surgery on his left eye, which was stitched shut. He was not yet two years old at the time.
My wife wrote to the organization to tell them about Ringo's passing, & even linked to my stories here. In turn, they responded with a fuller account of what happened to him before they adopted him. I don't want to quote personal correspondence, so here's a paraphrase:
A woman called the organization because of events that culminated after she heard dogs fighting - yelps, screeches, noises of animals being hurled against walls - next door. She looked over the fence to see poor Grady being set upon by a pit bull, with his left eye ripped out of the socket. The dog was still being aggressive, so she called 911, a Sheriff came, they took poor Grady & he was taken by the SPCA. The woman did this despite being afraid for herself, as I guess she didn't know how her neighbors would respond - & if they would do so, you know, in a manner in some ways equivalent to how their pit bull attacked their beagle.
It's crazy that this is all we know, by the way, about Ringo's beginnings. I always wonder with my animals what their parents & siblings were like. I do wish Ringo could have told us something about his early life. Anyway, to continue with the story:
This wonderful, caring neighbor called Houston Beagle & Hound Rescue to ask if they'd check up on poor Grady at the SPCA. The representative, a superhero named Sandra who has saved the lives of countless hounds, checked on him & was relieved that they didn't put him down but had performed surgery on him. That picture above is among the first photos Sandra took of Grady. They released my poor boy into her custody, & she tells how he was in great pain after the surgery, even on pain meds, although he proved as resilient as his breed & in a week of so became the beagle whose picture would make my wife Magda fall in love with him. I wish I could live life the way he did - we had no idea he'd been through such trauma & the truth is, he never acted in any way that would suggest he was scarred by it, except, you know, his eye.
& that eye, oh how I loved his poor unworking eye! But the truth is, I loved everything about him.
So much so that today, on Self Help Radio, I'll be playing nothing but songs about someone named "Ringo" in his honor. Sure, some of those songs will be about a famous outlaw, & many of those songs will be about a famous drummer, but there's something about hearing his name that makes me very happy. It's a poor tribute to such a magnificent hound but I hope it's at least interesting & the music is good.
It's on 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington & online at Lexington Community Radio online. From 9-11pm eastern, 8-10pm central.
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