All of my dogs have passed me in years. The siblings, Flounder and Feather will be 10 in January. Lady, the stray who adopted us, is of unknown age, but she has a tattoo on her thigh that says, "D. Boone Killed A Bar With This Dog..."When Flounder and Feather arrived as insane bouncy pups, we had a chocolate Lab named Ranger who was 12 years old. To differentiate between Ranger and the new arrivals, we just referred to Feather and Flounder as "the pups". Now almost ten years later we still call them "the pups" even though they have grey muzzles, worn teeth, and a little less bounce.
Lady joined us in the winter of '97. Lady was a "dumpee".In the country, people will dump unwanted dogs and cats. I don't know what they are thinking when they do this. Does the pet dumper think that starving to death, getting hit by a car, or killed by coyotes is a kinder fate than the pound?
Anyway, Lady refused to leave and it wasn't long before the kids had named her. I fed her because I couldn't watch her starve and well, you know the rest of the story. Lady was old when she adopted us 7 years ago, so she has to be a really old dog. She's deaf and doesn't see too well, but otherwise she's like the Energizer bunny.
I find it frustrating that dogs have such short lifespans. Of course, they live longer now than my childhood dogs did. Here in Florida, before heartworm preventatives were developed, your dog was almost destined to get infected and die by 5 or 6 years of age. We get alot more time with them these days, so I suppose I should be grateful for that. Still, If I were in charge, I would have given dogs a much longer lifespan.
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went." Will Rogers
I'm with you Will...
5 comments:
Dogs...can't live with 'em and can't live without 'em. We adopted our dog from a quilt shop a couple of years ago. Good dog, but probably was abused by a previous owner.
Dang! A dog post. Now I'm going to be sentimental all day. I think I agree with Will Rogers.
Hick,
You have to be patient with abused dogs. When I was a kid my family adopted a bedraggled, abused dog named "Ralph". He was in terrible physical condition and would run and cower if you picked up a broom or newspaper. Obviously he had been beaten with both. At our house, Ralph blossomed and gradually got over his fear of newspapers and brooms. He turned out to be a diamond in the RUFF!
Pablo,
Sorry for the sentimentaliy. Dogs bring it out in me...just be glad I didn't attempt to write about Ranger. It's been 4 years and I still miss him...
I'm very proud of myself. I read your post out loud to my husband and I didn't cry -- pretty good for me when dogs are the subject.
Our Hannah is 11 years old -- getting on up there for a lab/golden cross. She's still a puppy at heart but she's not as frisky as she used to be. Her hips have been giving her trouble.
We lost LT year before last and still can't talk about it. He was a lab/hound cross - one of those tossed out dogs. He was the sweetest dog I have ever known. Goofy, but sweet.
Whoops, here come the tears -- gotta go.
Swamp,
Flounder and Feather are Lab/Golden crosses also. Seems to be a good mix of sweetness and loveable goofiness. Thank you for your heartfelt comments. Go hug Hannah!
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