News

Saying goodbye: Catholic High's faithful dog Zeke dies

Students, staff, alumni and owner Brother Richard Sanker mourn loyal companion

Published: May 26, 2016   

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Zeke, 13, lived his life at Catholic High School for Boys with owner Brother Richard Sanker caring for him.

Zeke, 13, lived his life at Catholic High School for Boys with owner Brother Richard Sanker caring for him.

Eulogy for Zeke

By Steve Straessle, Catholic High principal 

Boys, I have some sad news. Yesterday, an esteemed member of the Catholic High family passed away. Zeke, our school dog for 13 years, passed peacefully with Brother Richard at his side. He was an important aspect of Catholic High on so many levels.
Brother Richard picked him out of the litter 13 years ago when Zeke ran up to him and licked his hand. Brother knew that was the dog for Catholic High.
Years ago, when you boys were just toddlers, Zeke was chasing freshmen up and down the football field. We had to buy several new pairs of pants because kids would go home with Zeke tears in them. As Zeke aged, he became more than just a playful pup, he was a secret weapon. He was that factor that helped bring challenging boys back into the fold. 
Several years ago there was a boy here who came to us from a terrible home. He had been neglected and abused in awful ways and he was just a shell when he showed up. We couldn’t get him to talk, to interact. But the boy loved Zeke. He came in every day at lunch and brushed Zeke and told him over and over again, “It’s going to be all right. It’s going to be all right.” Slowly, Zeke brought that boy back into the light and within four years, that boy graduated from Catholic High, went to college on a large scholarship, and is gainfully employed now. 
Zeke had a way of finding the boys who needed him most. Maybe it was some innate ability. Maybe it’s true what they say – that dogs take on the characteristics of their master.
In Zeke’s golden years he was slower but still an intrinsic part of this school. We will dearly miss him. Your teachers and I would like to thank Brother Richard for caring for Zeke so well. It’s truly something to see a friar talk baby talk to a huge German Shepherd. Thank you, Brother Richard, for sharing the joy of Zeke with so many of us through the years.
And so you know boys, Zeke passed away quietly last night … and his last act was to lick Brother Richard’s hand.

Originally posted May 24 to Official Catholic High School Alumni Association Facebook page

To show the importance of what man’s best friend can mean in our lives, people often recite the phrase, “Dog spelled backwards is God.”

Ezekiel, “Zeke,” the German Shepherd who has been a part of the Catholic High School family for the past 13 years, was a gift from God not only to his owner, Brother Richard Sanker, but to the lives of all the students who found comfort in his presence. Zeke died May 23, 13 days after his 13th birthday.

“Zeke was a friend. Like all pets, he sensed when I needed a stare (a dog’s embrace) and when I needed him to get up and come to me, he’d put his head between my legs, kind of saying, ‘It’s all right,’” Brother Richard said. “Like all pets, he was a close friend who calmed the days when the days needed calming.”

It is tradition for Catholic High to have a dog roaming the halls, with Zeke being the fifth pup to provide comfort and companionship to the students. Brother Richard, the school’s counselor, said Zeke was an uncertified “therapy dog.”

“We’ve been blessed to have some good ones. Zeke was something special. He came just a couple of years after Father (George) Tribou’s death and just a couple of months after Father Tribou’s dog, Jonah, died,” said principal Steve Straessle. “We liked him because he was all boy -- full of life, brimming with energy and loving to the end.”

Though he slowed down with age, Zeke always had a loving spirit and devotion to his coveted Dingo brand treats. Brother Richard said because the treats were expensive, they were truly a “treat” -- all he’d have to say is “Dingo?” and Zeke “lit up.”

“Then I would say ‘Dingo on the deck (on the roof of the school)’ He would look at me like he was saying, ‘Really?’ Then he would tear out of my room, down the hall, and head for the deck and anxiously waited until I arrived,” he said. “I loved those times. Nothing else mattered to him while eating a Dingo.”

Throughout his life, Zeke would occasionally frighten some unknowing visitors because of his size, Brother Richard said, but more times than not, everyone would comment on his gentleness.

“When I took him for a walk there was always someone who would say, ‘What a handsome dog,’” Brother Richard said. “And if no one said it, I kept walking him until someone did.”

The bond between Brother Richard and Zeke was immeasurable. The dog often jumped on the bed to rest with Brother Richard until he’d fall asleep, then Zeke would move to the floor. In recent months, he began sleeping in the hall, then downstairs with his beloved throw rug he had as a puppy.

“He followed my every move with his eyes from that carpet,” he said. “I loved it when he raised his head as I walked by. He was so dedicated.”

Brother Richard said he believed Zeke changing his sleeping patterns was a way of slowly pulling away, “He was kind that way.”

On Monday evening, Dr. Brian Barron, a 1997 Catholic High graduate and vet at Shackleford Road Veterinary Clinic, came to Catholic High to put Zeke to sleep, alongside Brother Richard and teacher Steve Wells. Just as Zeke had licked Brother Richard’s hand 13 years ago, standing out in a litter full of puppies, “as Zeke was dozing off, he licked my hand,” Brother Richard said. “That was the last thing he did. I was so happy to be with him.”

Local news outlets, including KARK and THV11, have covered Zeke’s death and Straessle wrote a eulogy, posted on Facebook (see sidebar). On the Official Catholic High School Alumni Association Facebook page, the post has more than 1,800 reactions, 775 shares and almost 200 comments as of press time, many from CHS alumni.

“The fact that so many folks were impacted by his death is a testament to the value our community sill places on qualities like loyalty and dedication,” Straessle said. “Simply, we could see it in Zeke and wanted it for ourselves.”

Though Straessle said Catholic High will “definitely have a dog here once more,” Zeke can never be replaced.

“‘Listen carefully to your life and you’ll find that good companionship with a dog touches the broader issues of our relationship with all of creation and the creator,’ that is from a book published by the monks of New Skete, an Orthodox monastery in New York state,” who raise dogs, Brother Richard said. “That says it all with respect to Zeke and me. For that reason alone Zeke was a major gift. But the gift of his concern, in happy and sad times, was also a gift.”

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