All My Friends Have Four Legs

By ROBERT FETNER

Memories of all my canine friends. The good times, the bad times and the sad times, but I wouldn't have traded it for nothing. If you are a dog lover you will enjoy this short read with great stories, information and photos.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ROBERT FETNER
• Release date: Jul 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393198628

ROBERT FETNER

Robert Fetner is a former Investigator with the City of Miami Police Department.He holds a black belt in Taekwondo and was a self defense instructor for the police department. He is also a certified acupuncturist. He has written several books. His books include An American Gaucho, John Shane Wolf Bounty Hunter, John Shane Wolf Buck's Revenge

Book preview

By Robert .H.Fetner

Chapters

1)  Hanzy

2)  Heidi

3)  Cricket

4)  Chiquita

5)  Tasha

6)  Ninja and Gordi

7)  Cede

8)  Max

9)  Sheppy

10)  Rocky

11)  Pepper

12)  Rocky II

13)  Kaiya

14)  Kenji the cat yes I said cat

15)  Sushi

16)  Australian Shepherd

17)  Australian Cattle Dog

18)  Border Collie

19)  Jack Russell

20)  German Shepherd

21)  Schnauzer

22)  Cairn Terrier

23)  English Bulldog

24)  Bully

25)  Airedale

26)  Malinois

27)  Siberian Husky

28)  Nessie

29)  Dog Stuff

30)  Reflections

Forward

Throughout the years and there have been many, my best friends have been my dogs. Not to say I didn’t have any human friends, but how many of your human friends have stood at your side for their lifetime? Needless to say very few. In this day and age everyone is too busy to maintain a close friendship. People move, go to college, get married or simply just drift apart. However, your dog will always be at your side, through thick and thin.

There is no finer example of true love than the relationship between a dog and its owner. There is nothing like coming home tired and in a bad mood opening the door to your house and being greeted like you are the most important thing on this earth. Smothered in kisses and hugs a show of uncontrollable affection, not even a spouse can stand up to this type of display. In fact there is an old joke, one of my favorites.

You get home and lock your wife in the trunk of the car for an hour then lock your dog in the trunk of your second car for an hour. When you open the trunks which one is going to be happy to see you? Your wife will be screaming mad! Your dog wagging it’s tail and smothering you in kisses! Case closed.

A dog will fearlessly protect you even to the point of giving up their life. There just isn’t a better friend to be found period!

The hours spent with my dogs were priceless, a bond that just can’t be compared. Many years after losing one of these treasured friends a tear or smile still comes out when I think of them. There will definitely be some things that will be hard to write in the following chapters, but I feel each one’s life story deserves to be told. It's the least I can do in return for all they have given me. 

Dedicated to all those Canine buddies that stood at my side and to my Mom who was a dog lover and introduced me to Dogs.

Chapter 1 Hanzy

Hanzy was my first dog. A miniature schnauzer that my mom picked out. My grandfather had a pair of schnauzers so that was what probably influenced her decision. Hanzy was a pup when we got him although I don’t remember much when he was a pup. I was probably around five or six  when I got him. He was large for a miniature Schnauzer. He was what they called salt and pepper grey

. I remember chasing him through the house and maybe because of that we never bonded like I did with my other dogs. I was probably too immature at the time Hanzy and me never truly bonded.

That’s where I go back to you really need to choose your dog. You know in your heart what you want and you will see it in the dog you choose. You want a German Shepard and your mom brings you a poodle; it's just not the same.

My mom decided she wanted to try her hand at breeding so we got Hanzy a mate. Heidi a sweet silver miniature schnauzer who became my mom’s true love. Hanzy and Heidi hit it off and we were soon in the puppy business. I think they had three litters together, each litter yielding four puppies. Great beautiful puppies which as a kid were a blast. The hard thing was seeing each one go off to a new family.

We were living in St. Croix at this time in the Virgin Islands. Our house was  incredible. Two stories, kind of octagonal with a balcony that went completely around the house. It had stone walls and a winding staircase that looked like something out of a castle. Beside the house was an old sugar mill that was our laundry room. The sugar mills were scattered throughout the island from the time the Danish inhabited the island. They basically looked like the windmills in Holland except made from stone. They were  just shells having been abandoned for hundreds of years, but they did make awesome places to play.  St.Croix was a great place to grow up. Surrounded by the ocean, hardly a place you could go and not see the water. My father worked for Chase Manhattan bank at the time and they would transfer us around. First Puerto Rico, then St.Croix, then Panama and finally Venezuela before we  returned to the United States. Thus the cool house which actually belonged to the bank courtesy of the Rockefellers.

That was one of the perks of living overseas. The bank provided our housing and paid for our schooling. We lived a lifestyle far above what we would have if we stayed in the United States. There was just my brother and I who was six years younger.

When we weren’t in school we were at the beach or the pool. For us it was like living in Tropical Paradise, but things toward the end of our time there took a turn for the worst. Racial tensions at that time had gotten bad thanks to the Black Panthers infiltrating the community. They took advantage of the island being 80% black. Several homicides occured and shortly after we left there was a mass shooting at the golf course that we used to go to. Several people were killed, but no one we knew personally.

From St.Croix we transferred to Panama. My mom gave Hanzy away to a friend in St. Croix and Heidi came with us. I guess my mom knew I was not that attached to Hanzy so he went to a good home. The friend kept in touch with my mom and Hanzy lived a full happy life on St.Croix.

Chapter 2 Heidi

Even though Heidi was not officially my dog She was loved by the whole family. She was this light white and silver, with a soft coat that made her perfect for cuddling. She didn’t bark, not like Hanzy and she was a great mother to all her pups. She was smart and really never did anything wrong.

I can’t remember her ever making a mess in the house. She was the

perfect dog for my mom. My mom