Dogs

I've always had dogs. When I was a kid we had lots of hound dogs: bassett hounds, doxens, and a beagle once. We had a bassett hound, Lady, who played soccer with my brother and I in the backyard. She'd push the ball around with her chest and kick it with her front paws. The three of us would play until we were too tired to run and then we'd go inside. Lady would have water with ice cubes and my brother and I would have Koolaid. Once we'd had something to drink we'd go watch TV and Lady would be our pillow. She was a good dog. An annoying barker and stubborn to train but I miss her. We also had Buddy, some sort of a herding breed we'd gotten at a shelter. We grew up in rural NJ so playing outside meant playing all over the neighborhood and the neighboring neighboorhoods. Buddy went with us because he kept the group together in the woods- nobody got lost on his watch! There was also Leroy and Chauncey a pair of older bassetts my parent's had had before I was born. They were very protective of me as a baby but didn't like much when I tried to ride them as a toddler. They made a jolly pair when they sang along with my kazoo.

Now that I'm all grown up, Husband and I have 4 dogs. We got Emily in Virginia. She was at the humane society, at the time an underweight golden retriever who'd obviously been through a lot. We got here because I didn't know a soul in Virginia besides me husband and I was tired of talking to the plants in our rented condo. I didn't really want a 50lb dog but we fell in love with her and besides being truamatized she was perfect. Well trained, well mannered, housebroken, and sweet. She didn't know what the heck a dog toy was when we got here! Emily and I went everywhere together and she went from a shaking, scared dog who never wagged her tail, to a happy dog who loved to romp at the dog park. Emily and my two cats even drove the across the country together, in July, in a 2door Mustang. That's love!

When we got here we'd rented a house. Emily was lonely and missed her dog park friends so we went to the SPCA to look for another dog. We saw a few we liked and chose Betsey, a lab mix, with comically funny legs, who came bounding to you everytime she heard her name. Betsey almost went back to the shelter the next week! We loved her enthusiasm at the shelter but inside the house her constant enthusiastic tail wagging, jumping up, circle running, tail chasing, and face-licking greetings, were almost too much for us. Not to mention at 1.5 years old she wasn't housebroken. So began the task of housebreaking an adult dog. Not an easy task! Every 3 hours we went outside. I set my alarm for 1, 4, and 7 am to walk her. After 3 weeks of no progress I did the umbillical cord method. I attached her lease to me and continued the schedule. Within a week she'd started to get it. Thank goodness! She'd also started to calm down and fall into our routine. Emily stopped hiding from her!

Next we added Roger, a 15lb poodle on death row at the Pound. We got him because after my miscarriage I needed something to baby. Emily and Betsey were too big and I also wanted to save a life to honor the one that we lost. Roger is the baby I wanted. He wears clothes. He likes to be carried and coddled and cuddled. I love him to pieces but he gets a bath more frequently then I do (I shower!). A white dog in the desert is a lot of upkeep!

And finally there's Bear. We didn't set out to get another dog, certainly not an even bigger dog, but Husband knew someone who was giving him away. He was deploying soon and couldn't keep him. The SPCA was full so we would have been on death row if we didn't take him. Bear and Betsey, both black lab mixes, look a lot alike when I don't wear my glasses. The major difference is that Bear has fat legs, big paws, and weighs 25lbs more then Betsey. At 75lbs, he's the biggest dog I've ever had. He came to us housebroken and well trained but we think he may have diabetes. He goes to the vet on Mon.

More on our pack next time...