{"id":94,"date":"2023-11-28T21:12:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T21:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/?p=94"},"modified":"2023-11-28T21:12:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T21:12:14","slug":"kennedys-thirteenth-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/kennedys-thirteenth-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy’s Thirteenth Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the moment I opened my eyes as a newborn, I\u2019ve had a loving family.  This family, while a mix of dogs, humans, and a cat, was no doubt the best I could have asked God to bless upon me. My mom and dad brought me home from the hospital, and I almost instantly was introduced to the rest of my family, my fur family. In the basement of our old, dingy brick house with carpet that could have passed for concrete, my parents brought my new best friends over one by one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The first dog, a lab named Wally, was big, black, and wagging his tail so hard, his whole body wagged with it. The second, a Weimaraner they called Kennedy, had grey short hair and was more cautious, taking his time to warm up to me and determine if I was safe or not. The last was a kitty named Koke with fuzzy white and black fur, not immediately taking any particular interest in me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Throughout the years, these animals became less like pets and more like my best friends. I was blessed with a sister, then two years later, a brother who also formed an irreplaceable bond with our animals. When I was around five years old, I would take Kennedy\u2019s and Wally\u2019s old, crusted leather leashes and tether them to the beams of my tree house so I could play house without them running out of my reach. I would terrorize Koke, chasing him around the house, not once understanding why he didn\u2019t want to play with me like Kennedy and Wally did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            When I was around 6, I started to play catch in the yard with my dad. Actually, at first it was quite the opposite of catch, but I was trying. Kennedy and Wally always helped retrieve the countless balls I missed, competing to see which could get to it first. Eventually, Koke and I even became friends. We would sit together and watch tv on the couch, although I think I still enjoyed his company more than he enjoyed mine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Time went by, and that time took the lively puppies I once knew and turned them into frailer versions of themselves. Koke didn\u2019t change much, he remained the proper cat I had always known, unconcerned with most things unless it involved him being picked up. However, no matter how much my furry friends changed on the outside, I knew they would always remain the same on the inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This is universally true except for one. As Kennedy got older, he got more and more anxious. Everything scared him, and with him being an outside dog with nothing but an underground electric fence keeping him at home, he often broke it when he was scared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This is precisely what happened Labor Day weekend, Saturday August 31, 2013. I had been at a pool party at my friend\u2019s house most of the day. My family and I got back home late that night, just as we had anticipated, so we had fed Kennedy and Wally before we left. As we pulled into the garage that night, I looked out my window expecting to see Kennedy and Wally in the yard greeting us, but I only saw Wally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cHe\u2019s probably just asleep in the garage, Kallie,\u201d my mom reassured me. I calmed down after that. After all, he was getting to be an old man and probably just didn\u2019t hear our car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Not thinking much of it after that, I fell asleep after a long day of swimming. The next morning, I walked out into the kitchen in my pajamas, looked out the back glass sliding door, and still saw only Wally standing there, barking at the house. I quickly slid on whatever shoes I could find and hurried outside. Knowing where my dogs sleeping spots typically were, I first went to the most likely place Kennedy would be — the back garage. I swung open the door and a sense of panic quickened my heart rate. He was not in there. His bed lay there empty, with a dent left behind of where he always laid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I was really panicking at this point. People usually light off fireworks around our house during Labor Day, and I knew that was a prime condition for Kennedy to get spooked and break his electric fence. After doing another quick sweep of the garage to be certain he\u00a0wasn\u2019t in there, I ran towards the side of the house, now calling out his name, \u201cKennedy, Kennedy!\u201d\u00a0What started out as a sweet call trying to coax my dog out of his hiding spot eventually transformed into a panicked plea, each bringing me a step closer to the inevitable sob that had been sitting in the back of my throat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I made my way over to the side of the house with Wally trailing behind me. This spot was my last hope; the last place he could possibly be. I pulled back the leaves of a bush that sat up right against the house. The grass underneath was worn away from Kennedy sleeping there so often, leaving behind a subtle hole in the dirt he dug for his body to curve into. <\/a>My heart immediately sank when I saw he was not snuggled into it, looking back at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Tears streaming down my face, I ran inside as fast as my legs could carry me and broke the news to my parents that there very first baby, Kennedy, was nowhere to be found and had probably been gone all night. My mom immediately contacted everyone she knew through every platform she had to be on the lookout for a grey Weimaraner loose in the Bertinetti\/Taylorville area. My dad got all his friends together and promised me he\u2019d drive and drive until Kennedy was found and returned home to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Meanwhile, my parents did not want me to help look for him, probably so I would not be scared and heartbroken if his story did not end in a happy homecoming. I was upset I couldn\u2019t help more, but to be useful, I was allowed to walk a few neighborhoods over in both directions to call for him and ask neighbors if they had seen him. I persisted for hours, but as it got dark, my mom forced me to retire, and I prayed my dad was having better luck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            After dinner that night, my sister, brother, mom, and I sat around the living room watching some tv to distract us. All of the sudden, my mom jumped up and ran to a different room. I immediately sprang up with her to follow. Question after question I fired at her was ignored and shrugged off as she made phone calls and studied something on her phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Finally, she simply ordered us, \u201cGet in the car. I\u2019ll be there in a second.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My siblings and I were all in our pajamas, but that was the last thing on our minds as we loaded up flashlights and towels into the car. We were waiting for quite a while until we heard the trunk of the silver minivan pop open, and saw Wally jump in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cHe\u2019s going to help us look for his friend,\u201d I remember my mom explaining to us. She further told us that a grey dog was spotted before the curve on Lincoln Trail just past the house he always ran to when he would get spooked. These kind people would let him in and give us a call that Kennedy made a stop by. The difference this time was we never got a phone call from them, and Kennedy had never been gone this long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just to be sure, as we drove by this house, we pulled into their driveway and looked around for any signs of Kennedy. No one was home, so we couldn\u2019t look as thoroughly as we would have liked, but we did notice one thing. There were dirty pawprints and scratches on their garage door right at Kennedy\u2019s height.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We kept driving, praying nothing terrible had happened to Kennedy. We drove until we were about a mile away from the curve of Lincoln Tt<\/del><\/s>rail and parked in the grass on the side of the road. Shortly later<\/del><\/s>after, my dad showed up alone, his friends searching in different cars. My dad helped Wally out of the car and held his leash as all five of us walked up the road. There was a timber to our left and the road to our right, so as we were yelling for him, our heads were on a swivel hoping to see him along the line of trees and not in the road as it was a very busy night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Suddenly, Wally pulled the leash tight and jerked my dad forward. With his nose to the ground, his pace quickened to a run. We chased after him and my dad, hoping he was leading us to Kennedy. We followed him all the way to the curve in the road where they jolted to a stop. Before I knew it, the excitement I felt in hopes of finding Kennedy turned into horror as I took in the horrific scene Wally had led us to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Before my eyes, there were three cars that had collided, resulting in the front of each car smashed in by the back of the car in front, forming a circle. One of the cars had smoke pouring out of it; however, every single one of them was most definitely totaled. We had come up on it just a few minutes after it had happened. My parents wanted us away so the cops and families could have their space to figure everything out. I followed them and backed away from the accident until I heard someone say, \u201cThe dog\u2026 it, it just ran right in front of us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I dropped to my knees sobbing as I came to the realization that Kennedy had been hit by a car. My dad must have heard the exact same thing I had because before I knew it, he rushed towards the accident with Wally trotting right beside him the whole way. They circled the accident a few times. I had lost all hope when Wally led my dad to a figure in the center of all the cars. My dad knelt down towards the figure. I stood and saw my mom shielding my siblings from the accident. She reached out towards me and pulled my head to her chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smoke fogged the accident so heavily; we couldn\u2019t see anything anymore even if we tried. Starting to get concerned for my dad and Wally, I turned back around, squinting into the smoke. Finally, I saw my dad\u2019s shadow through the haze, then came Wally\u2019s. As he emerged further out of the smoke, I saw he was carrying something. I could not stand to see Kennedy\u2019s limp body in my dad\u2019s arms, so I fell to the ground trying to hide the tears streaming down my face with my cupped hands. My mom\u2019s arms were still wrapped around my siblings, protecting them from the terrible truth. I felt Wally come up to my right side, licking the tears from my face. I heard my dad next to me fall to his knees from what I could have only guessed was physical and emotional exhaustion. Something then touched my left hand. It was wet in the same way Wally\u2019s licks were. I pulled my hands down from my face and found myself staring into the eyes of an old friend. Before I could register what my eyes had just seen, my whole family piled in with kisses and hugs and tears. My family was whole once again; our missing piece finally returned to us by some miracle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            My dad later explained how this miracle came to be. In the accident, the first car swerved to miss Kennedy and was successful, but in turn caused the following cars to collide with each other. The passengers involved in the crash thankfully made it out of their vehicles without a scratch. Kennedy was trapped in the center of all the cars, completely unharmed but completely terrified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We took Kennedy home that night safe and sound. The very next day, we were lucky enough to celebrate his thirteenth birthday with him. After that, we sheltered both Kennedy and Wally in the heated garage at night, during fireworks, gun shots, and anything else that might have scared either of them. We installed one of the highest quality electric fences in hopes of always keeping our fur family safe, happy, and healthy for as long as we were blessed to have them in our lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the moment I opened my eyes as a newborn, I\u2019ve had a loving family.  This family, while a mix of dogs, humans, and a cat, was no doubt the best I could have asked God to bless upon me. My mom and dad brought me home from the hospital, and I almost instantly was introduced to the rest of my family, my fur family. In the basement of our old, dingy brick house with carpet that could have passed for concrete, my parents brought my new best friends over one by one.              The first dog, a lab named Wally, was big, black, and wagging his tail so hard, his whole body wagged with it. The second, a Weimaraner they called Kennedy, had grey short hair and was more cautious, taking his time to warm up to me and determine if I was safe or not. The last was a kitty named Koke with fuzzy white and black fur, not immediately taking any particular interest in me.              Throughout the years, these animals became less like pets and more like my best friends. I was blessed with a sister, then two years later, a brother who also formed an irreplaceable bond with our animals. When I was around five years old, I would take Kennedy\u2019s and Wally\u2019s old, crusted leather leashes and tether them to the beams of my tree house so I could play house without them running out of my reach. I would terrorize Koke, chasing him around the house, not once understanding why he didn\u2019t want to play with me like Kennedy and Wally did.             When I was around 6, I started to play catch in the yard with my dad. Actually, at first it was quite the opposite of catch, but I was trying. Kennedy and Wally always helped retrieve the countless balls I missed, competing to see which could get to it first. Eventually, Koke and I even became friends. We would sit together and watch tv on the couch, although I think I still enjoyed his company more than he enjoyed mine.              Time went by, and that time took the lively puppies I once knew and turned them into frailer versions of themselves. Koke didn\u2019t change much, he remained the proper cat I had always known, unconcerned with most things unless it involved him being picked up. However, no matter how much my furry friends changed on the outside, I knew they would always remain the same on the inside.             This is universally true except for one. As Kennedy got older, he got more and more anxious. Everything scared him, and with him being an outside dog with nothing but an underground electric fence keeping him at home, he often broke it when he was scared.              This is precisely what happened Labor Day weekend, Saturday August 31, 2013. I had been at a pool party at my friend\u2019s house most of the day. My family and I got back home late that night, just as we had anticipated, so we had fed Kennedy and Wally before we left. As we pulled into the garage that night, I looked out my window expecting to see Kennedy and Wally in the yard greeting us, but I only saw Wally.              \u201cHe\u2019s probably just asleep in the garage, Kallie,\u201d my mom reassured me. I calmed down after that. After all, he was getting to be an old man and probably just didn\u2019t hear our car.              Not thinking much of it after that, I fell asleep after a long day of swimming. The next morning, I walked out into the kitchen in my pajamas, looked out the back glass sliding door, and still saw only Wally standing there, barking at the house. I quickly slid on whatever shoes I could find and hurried outside. Knowing where my dogs sleeping spots typically were, I first went to the most likely place Kennedy would be — the back garage. I swung open the door and a sense of panic quickened my heart rate. He was not in there. His bed lay there empty, with a dent left behind of where he always laid.  \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I was really panicking at this point. People usually light off fireworks around our house during Labor Day, and I knew that was a prime condition for Kennedy to get spooked and break his electric fence. After doing another quick sweep of the garage to be certain he\u00a0wasn\u2019t in there, I ran towards the side of the house, now calling out his name, \u201cKennedy, Kennedy!\u201d\u00a0What started out as a sweet call trying to coax my dog out of his hiding spot eventually transformed into a panicked plea, each bringing me a step closer to the inevitable sob that had been sitting in the back of my throat. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I made my way over to the side of the house with Wally trailing behind me. This spot was my last hope; the last place he could possibly be. I pulled back the leaves of a bush that sat up right against the house. The grass underneath was worn away from Kennedy sleeping there so often, leaving behind a subtle hole in the dirt he dug for his body to curve into. My heart immediately sank when I saw he was not snuggled into it, looking back at me.             Tears streaming down my face, I ran inside as fast as my legs could carry me and broke the news to my parents that there very first baby, Kennedy, was nowhere to be found and had probably been gone all night. My mom immediately contacted everyone she knew through every platform she had to be on the lookout for a grey Weimaraner loose in the Bertinetti\/Taylorville area. My dad got all his friends together and promised me he\u2019d drive and drive until Kennedy was found and returned home to us.              Meanwhile, my parents did not want me to help look for him, probably so I would not be scared and heartbroken if his story did not end in a happy homecoming. I was upset I couldn\u2019t help more, but to be useful, I was allowed to walk a few neighborhoods over in both directions to call for him and ask neighbors if they had seen him. I persisted for hours, but as it got dark, my mom forced me to retire, and I prayed my dad was having better luck.              After dinner that night, my sister, brother, mom, and I sat around the living room watching some tv to distract us. All of the sudden, my mom jumped up and ran to a different room. I immediately sprang up with her to follow. Question after question I fired at her was ignored and shrugged off as she made phone calls and studied something on her phone.             Finally, she simply ordered us, \u201cGet in the car. I\u2019ll be there in a second.\u201d My siblings and I were all in our pajamas, but that was the last thing on our minds as we loaded up flashlights and towels into the car. We were waiting for quite a while until we heard the trunk of the silver minivan pop open, and saw Wally jump in.              \u201cHe\u2019s going to help us look for his friend,\u201d I remember my mom explaining to us. She further told us that a grey dog was spotted before the curve on Lincoln Trail just past the house he always ran to when he would get spooked. These kind people would let him in and give us a call that Kennedy made a stop by. The difference this time was we never got a phone call from them, and Kennedy had never been gone this long. Just to be sure, as we drove by this house, we pulled into their driveway and looked around for any signs of Kennedy. No one was home, so we couldn\u2019t look as thoroughly as we would have liked, but we did notice one thing. There were dirty pawprints and scratches on their garage door right at Kennedy\u2019s height. We kept driving, praying nothing terrible had happened to Kennedy. We drove until we were about a mile away from the curve of Lincoln Ttrail and parked in the grass on the side of the road. Shortly laterafter, my dad showed up alone, his friends searching in different cars. My dad helped Wally out of the car and held his leash as all five of us walked up the road. There was a timber to our left and the road to our right, so as we were yelling for him, our heads were on a swivel hoping to see him along the line of trees and not in the road as it was a very busy night.              Suddenly, Wally pulled the leash tight and jerked my dad forward. With his nose to the ground, his pace quickened to a run. We chased after him and my dad, hoping he was leading us to Kennedy. We followed him all the way to the curve in the road where they jolted to a stop. Before I knew it, the excitement I felt in hopes of finding Kennedy turned into horror as I took in the horrific scene Wally had led us to.              Before my eyes, there were three cars that had collided, resulting in the front of each car smashed in by the back of the car in front, forming a circle. One of the cars had smoke pouring out of it; however, every single one of them was most definitely totaled. We had come up on it just a few minutes after it had happened. My parents wanted us away so the cops and families could have their space to figure everything out. I followed them and backed away from the accident until I heard someone say, \u201cThe dog\u2026 it, it just ran right in front of us.\u201d  I dropped to my knees sobbing as I came to the realization that Kennedy had been hit by a car. My dad must have heard the exact same thing I had because before I knew it, he rushed towards the accident with Wally trotting right beside him the whole way. They circled the accident a few times. I had lost all hope when Wally led my dad to a figure in the center of all the cars. My dad knelt down towards the figure. I stood and saw my mom shielding my siblings from the accident. She reached out towards me and pulled my head to her chest. Smoke fogged the accident so heavily; we couldn\u2019t see anything anymore even if we tried. Starting to get concerned for my dad and Wally, I turned back around, squinting into the smoke. Finally, I saw my dad\u2019s shadow through the haze, then came Wally\u2019s. As he emerged further out of the smoke, I saw he was carrying something. I could not stand to see Kennedy\u2019s limp body in my dad\u2019s arms, so I fell to the ground trying to hide the tears streaming down my face with my cupped hands. My mom\u2019s arms were still wrapped around my siblings, protecting them from the terrible truth. I felt Wally come up to my right side, licking the tears from my face. I heard my dad next to me fall to his knees from what I could have only guessed was physical and emotional exhaustion. Something then touched my left hand. It was wet in the same way Wally\u2019s licks were. I pulled my hands down from my face and found myself staring into the eyes of an old friend. Before I could register what my eyes had just seen, my whole family piled in with kisses and hugs and tears. My family was whole once again; our missing piece finally returned to us by some miracle.              My dad later explained how this miracle came to be. In the accident, the first car swerved to miss Kennedy and was successful, but in turn caused the following cars to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":546,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sb_is_suggestion_mode":false,"_sb_show_suggestion_boards":false,"_sb_show_comment_boards":false,"_sb_suggestion_history":"","_sb_update_block_changes":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/546"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}