Greetings

Brad OKeefe

Member
Messages
27
Location
Houston, TX
Hello All :)

I'm Brad OKeefe and wanted to say hi and introduce myself. About 5 years ago, my wife and I were out on a date on a rainy and stormy evening and spotted a dog standing in the middle of the highway looking very confused and scared. I pulled over and coaxed him over to the side of the road and got him into our vehicle.

He was wet, flea infested, half starved and looked about 12 years old (back teeth were already worn to the gums). We took him home and got him cleaned up the best we could and made a bed for him in our garage. My brother commented that he had the "smell of death" about him and probably wouldn't last much longer. We couldn't locate his owner, so we decided to make him as comfortable as possible in what we thought were his "last days."

Initially, I felt so sorry for the old fart, that I started spending time in the garage every evening reading a book while he ate and slept. He seemed much more content when I was with him. As the days rolled on, Storm (appropriately named), begin to recover and gain some strength but still seemed very happy when I visited him in the garage. So, tiring of reading, I decided to try my hand at building a small book shelf for my wife. I've always been a hands on type of person and quickly caught the woodworking bug.

Well, four years later, after building that book shelf, a router table, laundry center, table and chairs for my daughter, RV console, and a 490 DVD capacity drawer style cabinet, Storm finally succumbed to cancer and I had to put him down.

Storm and I had become very close, he was my woodworking buddy and was always content to sleep his time away while I sawed and sanded away in that garage. And he always looked forward to our evening walks after I finished cleaning up my area.

Storm is gone now, but he gave me a great gift in learning about woodworking and I have enjoyed it greatly.

My current project is a low profile entertainment center that will be placed under a wall mounted flat screen TV. Have been using Sketch Up to design it and begin my first cuts last weekend.

Oh, and I'm 47, married for 19 years, 3 kids (25,21,17), served in the Marine Corp, software developer by trade, and woodwork for fun :)

Brad
 
Welcome to the clubhouse, Brad. That's a great story, and I'll definitely be sharing it with LOML.

We've got three rescued dogs, although the last one found us instead of us finding him. He was a stray that had curled up under a bush in our front yard to die. He was so weak he could barely stand, missing about half his hair, lots of open sores, and very underweight. Well, LOML was having none of that. 6 months later, he's much healthier (although still on meds for a chronic skin condition), very happy and loving, and a joy to be with.
 
Now I've done a lot with dogs but reading to them is a new one. I'll have to give it a try. I do buy them hamburgers from time to time and talk to them as if they are another person.


Great story and what a name for a dog..Storm...

Garry
 
Wellcome Brad, nice story about that dog, I'm a dog lover too, but unfortunately for me not my LOML
 
Hey Brad. Welcome to the forum! Glad Storm found you and sent you down the woodworking path! That was a great story. You'll find there are many animal lovers here. Do you have another dog (or other pet)? We'd love to see him or her!
 
Do you have another dog (or other pet)? We'd love to see him or her!

Right now we have 3 toy dogs (two Yorkies and one Pomeranian), more my wife’s babies than they are pets. Also a couple of stray cats I feed from the garage/shop when they show up and are hungry. In turn they bring me a dead rat every once in a while as payment I guess.

And of course if the Yorkies spot the cats then the race is on. For such a little dog they are vicious when it comes to other animals. In fact, a Rottweiler was walking down the street once and one of the Yorkies spotted it and actually took off after it. You wouldn’t believe the expression on that Rottweiler (what the hey??). Needless to say the Rottweiler wasn’t afraid and stood its ground. Luckily I grabbed the Yorkie in time. I would of hated to see the damage she would of done to that poor Rottweiler ;)

Brad
 
Heheheh...

I had a Peke like that years ago. Fear was a word not in his vocabulary. I once rescued a Dobie that he had pinned in the corner of the yard! Little twerp never considered that he was LUNCH if the Dobie desired.

Knucklehead. But I miss him and that's been 30 years ago. Lost him to leukemia.
 
Top