Puppy Tales

Looking through some of my past posts I noticed that I haven't brought you up to date on our current dog 'life'.  We love our dogs-usually, and after owner quite a few variety of breeds and from my experience working at a veterinary clinic for many years, I've been able to see many breeds, we have our favorites picked out(so we thought). 

As you may know, German Shepherds have been a favorite, especially with Bryan. I myself have grown quite fond of the shepherd with the only complaint is they can really shed!!  The girls on the other hand, like the shepherds but have always talked about owning different breeds.  Jessie's idea of an 'ideal' dog has changed many times from a Pomeranian, whippet, golden retriever to a great dane. Marisa on the other hand has had her heart set on a corgi-a smaller breed dog. 

With all of the dogs we have owned, it is funny to me how to Jessie and Marisa the dogs have to have that one person they belong to-none of them just belong to the family although we all share the dog. So, with this thought, it became very evident to Marisa that she didn't 'own' a dog and that Jessie had owned 2 in the past(neither of which worked out with life here) and she currently owned many cats and a rabbit.  This of course brought Marisa to us with a question, "Can I get my own dog?"

We thought about this quite a bit and knew that she had her heart set on a corgi but neither Bryan or I were sure we wanted a 'little' dog so we talked her into a shepherd. We contacted the breeder that we had gotten our other shepherd from and she just so happened to have a litter ready in a couple weeks with one male-we had also talked Marisa into a male.  So, after a couple weeks, Bryan and Marisa went and got 'John', named after John the Baptist.

Of course, Marisa was very excited with a new puppy that was hers but as he got bigger and a bit rougher when playing she had a hard time 'dealing' with him and he started to show that the 'bond' between them wasn't how she had envisioned it to be.  Needless to say, she still loved him and she tried frequently to get those 'special moments' of bonding with him and never seemed to get to discouraged when he wasn't that interested.

John continued to grow into a huge shepherd and was falling into a nice routine with the other dogs here and was great with knowing his place when it came to the livestock, chickens, cats etc....Bryan and I were thinking we had gotten ourselves another really nice, well behaved dog; but maybe we got a little to proud about it, maybe not. 

On a beautiful fall evening, Jessie went outside to start doing evening chores and as usual she took the dogs with her.  I was going to go out and help her after I got Marisa set up with watching little Melody, my niece, long enough for me to go help.  The next thing I know, Jessie comes running through the door yelling that she thinks John is dying!!!!   What!!???   I went running outside to where he was, Bryan was already there, and there on the ground was lying John's lifeless body-he was indeed dead.

This of course was shocking to say the least!  I asked Jessie if she knew what happened and she said he was playing ball with her and as he was coming back from retrieving the ball he started to wobble and then collapsed.  I, of course, am trying to figure out what would cause that and knowing that just yesterday a friend of ours down the road had just suddenly lost there 'healthy' dog too made me wonder about some poison but I couldn't think of a single poison that kills without symptoms.  I called the vet and made arrangements to have an autopsy done the next day.  We took him to Elko and they discovered that it wasn't poison that killed him-this was a huge relief because the anger that was boiling inside of me at the thought of someone doing this was scary; the cause of death was a deformed heart and that it was only going to be a matter of time before he out-grew and out-worked the capabilities of his heart.

This in someways brought relief knowing that he never suffered-he never showed any symptoms of anything wrong and he got to live like a puppy would love to right to the very end.

   I don't need to go into great depth at the heart ache that this brought to Marisa-her first dog died and then she had to remind me that all of the cats that she claimed as hers have also passed away and then her bunny which then begged the question, why?   This brought about a great discussion of how sin has had a very negative affect on all living things in this world and that death is one of them.  I reminded her that God knows when even a sparrow falls to the ground-none of it happens without Him knowing but one day we can look forward to a life with no death, no sickness, no bad hearts, etc......
   Okay, gotta move on; gettin a little teary eyed here.  Bryan and I decided we were going to wait a while before we got another dog and we did........not quite  a year.  Some friends of ours raise Corgi's-yep, we decided that we should contact them and see if they were going to have any litters available.  Sure enough, they had a litter just barely born.  We decided not to tell Marisa but made plans to go out and see them and let her pick one out.  She was so surprised!!  After looking at all of them, she decided on the runt of the litter.  We had to wait 7wks before she would be ready to come home,  so we went out a couple times to go see her. What a doll!!!

   Her she is, Marisa's little 'Angel'.   

  I have to say, that she has definitely grown on all of us and fits in quite well.  Her size is made up in attitude by far-she runs the place and isn't even a year old yet.  Most importantly, she sleeps and snuggles with Marisa and loves to play with her!!

 Have I mentioned yet how common it seems to be for dogs and owners to be 'alike'?   If I haven't, it quite often is true for them to have similarities and this is no different for Marisa and Angel. They're both cute, little, like to snuggle and have no problem taking control of a situation and gettin things lined out!
   Wow, so now we are up to 4 dogs-this is enough, right?  Now, Jessie starts talking about wanting to have her 'own' dog because technically none of the dogs we have our hers-now, which is kinda true but we told her she was going to have to wait a year or so. I reminded her to be thankful for the critters that we did have- horses, many cats, rabbits, chickens, etc......
   Ha, ha, ha......I get an e-mail from a friend that has a very nice blue heeler that needed a home. I made the mistake of telling these people that if for any reason they couldn't keep him, let me know-he was 8wks old at that time a year and a half ago but she hadn't forgot.  So, yep, we caved-showed Jessie a picture of him and she was 'sold' on this dog.  On the plus side, he was already housebroken, neutered, good with kids etc.....so we said we give him a try.

 Meet Waylon!  He has proven to be the typical healer-strong willed but loyal and he is definitely Jessie's dog!!

   He has proven to be well behaved(most of the time-he's still young) and to be a good patient when he cuts his foot open on sheet metal.

 He has also proven to be a big 'ham'.  He loves to snuggle-very affectionate unlike our other healer.  So we are now up to 5 dogs. All in all, its not that hard to have them; they know the routines around here and on a whole are extremely well behaved and most importantly, the girls each have 'their' dog that loves them!