Shana - our third pooch

Several months after Vanessa moved to her fancy new digs, Pam and I moved into our first house. Our home was a small, Cape Cod style house in the “suburbs” of Williamsport. It had a fenced-in backyard and a postage sized lawn in front. Since I had previously owned a German Shepherd and a Doberman Pincher, this time we decided on a Weimaraner. They say that, “The third time is the charm” and this was true for us. Shana, who I often called Shana Bana, (I like rhymes) was perfect for us and she became a significant part of our family throughout her life. “Shana” is a Yiddish word for “pretty” and is often combined with the word “punum” meaning “face” and is used in relating to the pretty face of a baby. When we saw our pup for the first time, she had such a pretty face that “Shana punum” came immediately to mind and Shana became Shana!

               Even though Shana is older than a young pup in this picture,                    you can see that she has a "Shana punum"

Two sleeping beauties! One of them is only 10 weeks old!

Awake at last

It was early in 1977 when Shana joined our family and the training style and techniques in vogue at that time were choke chain collar and leash. Over the months, Shana and I became an obedience team, and she was integrating into a loving member of our family. 

One of my favorite Shana Bana puppy pictures

10 weeks old

12 weeks old

6 1/2 months old

One weekend, Pam, Shana, and I attended a seminar at Winifred Strickland’s facility in Delaware. At the time, Winifred Strickland was acknowledged to be one of the premier dog obedience trainers in the country. The weekend was a great experience. Shana (and all the other dogs in attendance) learned to swim in the Strickland’s large pond. At one point, the Strickland’s house doors were opened and a pack of German Shepherd dogs came joyously bounding out. These were magnificent creatures. One way the Stricklands exercised their dogs was to throw retrieving dummies, which looked like boat docking bumpers, into the pond and the dogs would race to get them. I noticed that as the dogs were swimming, as soon as it was evident that one dog was in the lead and would be the “winner” the other dogs would turn back to shore terminating any further competition. Glorious!

There was also a wooden dock that went out, into the pond, and at the far end was a high dive platform with a hand over hand vertical ladder. One of the Strickland’s dogs would climb the ladder and leap off the platform. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have thought it possible for a dog to climb a vertical ladder. And when it come to jumping off a high platform, I wouldn’t do that, but then again, I’m not a dog!

A year later we purchased a 169 acre farm (70 acres in fields and the balance in timber) and Shana was in doggie bliss. I became a Gentleman Farmer and Pam said that her city boy was becoming “countrified”. To some degree I think that she was right. Shana had the run of the place – the nearest road – a country road, was more than half mile from the house. I doubt that Shana ever left the property, staying mostly close to the house except for those times when she got skunked or came back smelling of putrid death. 

Shana sporting a Christmas bow

We did put in a vegetable garden, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, green beans, zucchinis and the like. One day Shana was in the garden and I noticed that all of my green peppers were gone. I never knew dogs liked vegetables. Maybe the actual perpetrator was a groundhog, ha, ha. More work for “farmer” Dave. Metal stakes and wire fencing solved that problem.

After five years on the farm, Pam and I received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Too long a story to tell here, but He changed our hearts and minds regarding having children and Pam conceived within six weeks. Nine months later the first of our four children was born. Shana accepted Jennifer totally and we did not have a single glitch, not even two years later when Allison came along. 

What a wonderful friend

At this point, Shana was more than 8 years old. One day, as Shana and I walked out of the house, she walked smack into the side of Pam’s parked car. I noticed that the car had been parked several feet back of its typical location and I suspected that Shana’s vision was compromised. A quick trip to the vet revealed that Shana had suddenly gone blind. The vet reassured me that blind dogs could do just fine with just a bit of help from their owners. So we proceeded on that basis. Several weeks later, while Allison was crawling on the carpet in the family room, Shana squatted and peed on the carpet, something she hadn’t ever done since puppy-hood. Our choices were limited. We couldn’t co-mingle a crawling infant and an incontinent dog. Since Shana had always been an inside dog, I felt it was totally inappropriate to relegate her to become an outside dog. Those circumstances and being blind became too high a mountain to climb. With great reluctance and sorrow, I brought her to the vet’s to be put to sleep. He asked me if I wanted to drop her off, and I said no, that I would hold her until the end. As the killing injection circulated, I could feel her muscles loose tone and her life force quickly ebb away. It was an awful experience. There is no “good” way to say “Good bye” to such a wonderful friend, but emotional trauma is still evident as I write these words. I do not know for sure what caused Shana’s sudden blindness and lack of urinary control, but I suspect that Shana may have been “poisoned” from the application of a lawn chemical by our landscaper. There is a lighthearted followup to this story, but it must wait until the next post. 

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