Doggie Love

I know that a lot of people think of their dogs just like family and I am one of them.  I have always loved dogs since I was a child.  Each of them has their own personality and they are very distinctive.  We had a Shetland sheepdog, named Duke, when I was growing up and he was the best dog.  My sister and I would play with him all day long.  He was well behaved too.  We knew that he would protect us if he had to.

     After Duke died, we had a few mutts who were just as good as Duke in their own way.  I remember one named George, who was a dog after my heart.  He was so good-natured and he was a loving member of the family.  Except for one thing, my parents did not allow any pets inside the house.  I hated that rule.  I always felt sorry for them outside on really hot or cold days.  I know that they can take it, but I just wanted to be able to have an inside dog. 

     As an adult, my husband and I decided to get two Chow Chows puppies, one was named Cinnamon and the other was named Chaos.  We got two because we wanted them to be company for each other, when we could not be there.  My husband was also raised where dogs stayed outside, so they stayed outside.  I know that a lot of people think that Chows are vicious dogs but I know that to be a matter of how they are brought up.  Our Chows never hurt a fly.  One time a group of little kids came up to the chain link fence and stuck their hands through and all they did was lick their hands.   I always said they would rather lick you to death than to bite.  Not that they weren't protective of us but they would look at us for their cues. 

    Now, we have four inside dogs.  How did that happen?  It's funny how you see a progression of things that happen and not know that it's going on at the time.  Our first inside dog, Samson, is a combination of Pit and Shar Pei.  I call him a SharPit.  He wormed his way into my heart.  He was supposed to be our daughter's dog and while he was just a puppy, she went off to college.  I'd be watching T.V. and he would come over and push his nose in between my arm and side.  I didn't want to get too attached to him but I couldn't help it and before you knew it he was our dog instead of our daughter's.  She was very upset with us but then she found her mixed breed of Chow, Pit and Shar Pei.  Now Delilah is her number one and she couldn't part with her if she tried.  Now Delilah had a litter of puppies with a full-blooded Chow Chow.  We kept two of the puppies, one is our daughter's and one is ours.  We named them Charlie and Chocolate.  Now you see where the four inside dogs came from.  Sometimes I feel like we have dog carpeting and it gets a little hard to walk around the house, but I couldn't do without them at all.  I just love dogs.  They are the best and I think of them as part of my family.  They even sleep with us at night.  Now that gets a little crazy, but you never know what you'll put up with until you try. 

     Do you have any dog stories you'd like to share?  What kind of dogs do you have?