Doggie Days

I cannot remember my family not having a dog. When I was very little until I was moderately little all our dogs were named Suzy.  I have no idea why. But they were.

 Then I started my own family. My children loved dogs. Most of the time my daughter preferred them to humans. Still does.

Now I must explain that I am not a big lover of dogs or any pets. At the same time I do not want to see any animal mistreated. All living things deserve love.

Trixie was a dog we had on a farm we lived on. Trixie had a litter of puppies. Of course they were all named. The only name I remember is Ugly. 

One day my little brother and I in my very best I am innocent of any wrong-doing voice reported that 'somehow' all the puppies were down the toilet hole. (I was about 3 or 4 years old.) They all needed to be rescued and cleaned. Daddy was laughing so hard that he could not stop. It was up to Mom to save all the puppies.

My husband came home one day with a red-haired hound dog. Its name was Redneck. Redneck loved to run; in fact he would run on the sidewalk as cars drove by in the street. He was racing them.

Then my husband brought home a Doberman. She had been hit by a car breaking her leg in several places and shattering her pelvis. The vet said it looked like a broken jigsaw puzzle. We named her Sheba.

Sheba was healing nicely. Then she came into heat. We had somewhere to go that day. Redneck was known for his romantic nature. We could not leave them alone together or we would have a house full of puppies. We left Sheba in the house and locked Redneck in the back porch.

When we got home we were met at the front door by both dogs who had big smiles on their faces. A few weeks later we had cute little puppies

Sheba began to snap at my two youngest children so we had to find her a different home. I allowed the children to keep one of the puppies and the rest were also given new homes.

The puppy they kept was named Atilla. He looked like his mother but was a randy little guy like his father.

Shaggy followed my second son home... with a little coaxing and a rope around her neck. She was probably the filthiest animal I ever saw. We cleaned her up and I said she could stay until we found her owner. I knew we would never find an owner but it was worth a try.

Soon we found out that Shaggy was about to have puppies. As soon as the puppies were weaned Shaggy ran away. We found homes for all the puppies except the one we kept. He was named VaVoom after a cartoon character. VaVoom escaped from our yard and was hit by a truck in front of my whole cub scout pack. We gave him a nice funeral.

I was at a friend's house and saw a cute little puppy tied up in the neighbor's front yard. When I overheard the mother tell the children she was going to take it to the dog pound I offered to take the puppy. I gave her to my son for his birthday. He named her Tillie.

She reminded me of a Southern Belle with her own ideas of proper. She would take the money my son kept on the shelf by his bed and roll in it. But she knew a twenty dollar bill meant pizza was coming. She would not eat any people food so she just liked to bark at the delivery person.

As I said she would not eat people food even if we tried to give it to her. She did like cherry cough drops. We were amused when she stole them and ate them.

One evening we had ordered fast food from Wendy's. Wendy's is known for their Frostys. A Frosty is a sort of shake. We were sitting in the living room talking and I set my Frosty on the floor. My children were all looking at each other and chuckling.

When I reached down for my Frosty I got a handful of dog. Tillie was drinking my Frosty! 

My oldest son was taking care of his father who was dying. After his father's funeral my son would be by himself in a strange place until I could get ready to move here. He wanted a dog for company.

Since he knew no one he had no idea where to begin a search. I told him to check with the veterinarian in the next town. Often they have listings of dogs people can no longer keep. That is where he found Isabella.

She had been abandoned as a puppy and possibly mistreated too. When we went to meet her the woman who was caring for her was so nice. The dog liked the children.

The woman told us her husband did not like the dog so she lived outside. The garage door was open so she could duck out to the weather a bit. The grass in the yard was taller than Bella So we knew the children did not play with her there. I had the feeling that the husband was not kind to her.

It took a long time for Bella to like being cared for by a man. She deeply resented my son for several months. In time though she even wanted to sit in his lap which was not easy. She was a big dog.

After Bella died my son did not want another dog right away. When he finally felt ready he began to search on-line. 

One night he shouted, "I found my dog!" 

He immediately contacted the rescue home. He needed references and the money to adopt her. Once he was proven acceptable, we went and picked her up. They had named her Bene.

They said her mother and all her pups had been found in a ditch in freezing weather. One of the pups had drowned and was frozen in the puddle. The mother and all the puppies needed homes. 

Apparently Bene was a problem child so they first brought a sister in. She was a nice puppy. My son told them he wanted his dog. So we took Bene home with us. My son renamed he as Delilah Bene.

She is now four years old, You have never seen a happier dog. And she is still a problem child.