I just read a fun SubStack from “Dog Snobs,” called “Your Dog is Training You,” and it reminded me how much fun my dogs were or are, so I thought I would share them with you, briefly, today.
[a colorful paw print background, and 4 snapshots of 5 dogs - a honey colored Pomeranian smiling at the camera, 2 Blenheim Cavalier King Charles Spaniels smiling at the camera, and a black American Cocker Spaniel with his Ruby Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, also smiling at the camera.]
🐕🦮🐩🐕🦺
In my late 40s, I was slowly learning I might not be the cat person I’d always thought I was. I started working at a Sunrise Senior Living that had a dog, Andy, there. Andy was a sweet, 10 year old Beagle. It was my job to feed Andy and change his water, and give him his daily Prozac so he wouldn’t bark. He mostly followed the maintenance worker all day, every day. But when the maintenance worker left, I became his new person to follow around and hang out with.
One time, the power went out in the building. Probably a thunderstorm. Emergency lighting came on. The building has some good generators that work, because it’s a nursing facility in parts of it, and it’s pretty important for seniors to have light so they don’t get disoriented and such. This, however, scared poor Andy. He went behind my desk and shivered for at least 45 minutes. The poor little guy.
I was finally able to coax him out and give him a treat. And then put him in my lap and just pet him for the next hour and comfort him. After that, he loved to greet me when I came to work each day. I was going through a rough patch at home (divorce was coming, but I wasn’t at the point yet to admit it to myself), and it was so nice to be greeted so happily when I arrived at work. Goodness knows I was never greeted when I got home. What’s-his-name also trained my kids not to greet me when I got home. It hurt. A lot. I decided I needed to get a dog, because I wanted someone to be happy when I got home from work.
The first dog I got as an adult Pomeranian named Scruffles. Scruffles was owned by a college gal who was going off to college. She couldn’t take her dog with her, so she was looking for a home for him. I met her in a parking lot and got her dog. I think I gave her $100. Scruffles was a sweetie. He clung to me. He had beautiful poofy fur and a big smile. I called him a monkey. He thought that was kind of fun. When I lay down on the couch, he cuddled around my head.
When the weather was nice, we sat outside in a small gated area I had set up in my front yard. I sat in one Adirondack chair, and he sat in the other, while I would read my book, just quietly keeping me company, hanging out together.
Scruffles was a cutie. Unfortunately, whenever the husband came home, Scruffles would bark incessantly and he couldn’t handle that. So I found a wonderful person to take him to his next home - with a huge fenced in yard and a beach not too far away for lots of wonderful walks and roaming.
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A few weeks later, while out and about at some point, I met a beautiful lady Cavalier King Charles spaniel. She was gorgeous and so sweet and loved all the affection. I said, “when I get a dog, I want one like that.”
I found a breeder from Pennsylvania on Facebook - Norfolk Heritage Farm in Montrose, Pennsylvania. I talked with the breeder and she explained the breed to me and all the things I would need to know as a first time dog owner and as an owner of this breed. I really wanted a girl dog, as that is what I had met on the street that day a month or two before.
When her puppies were born, there were 2 girls and 3 boys born. I drove up to meet them when the time was right and lo and behold, I got the most perfect puppy ever that day, and brought her home. She was such a sweetheart.
I let my kids pick out a name - and my younger son named her Bella. I added Luna, because she had been born on a new moon in October. We got her in time for Christmas.
Bella was with me during the most difficult part of my life. She loved me unconditionally. She wagged her whole body every time I came home; I said she was going to take off like a helicopter, she was wagging so hard. We had many adventures. She moved with me from the master bedroom in the marital home to the smallest room in the house, then to the largest upstairs bedroom. We clung to each other through Covid. I cried multiple times a day as my entire life fell apart and I felt I had no one to turn to. Bella was always right there to comfort me. My divorce dragged on for four years. The final year, I was finally able to move out of the marital home. Bella and I found a beautiful little home in Shenandoah, Virginia, and lived there for a year.
Bella loved me with her whole being.
We loved living in Shenandoah. She had a huge backyard full of things like turtles, mice, a groundhog, rabbits, squirrels, birds and bats. We just enjoyed the heck out of living there.
I took Bella and my boys canoeing on the Shenandoah River one day. I made sure we all had lifejackets on. Bella looked like she was having the best day of her life that day, too. She loved being on the water with my boys and me. What a fun day! Until we capsized. Then I hit panic mode, trying to take care of all of us and get us home safely.
Thankfully, my older son, Ian, noticed Bella shivering and he tried to warm her up, despite all of us being completely drenched. My keys, my wallet, my Covid-vaccination card - everything sank to the bottom of the Shenandoah River that day. The boys, Bella and I, though, were relatively safe.
I believe she caught a virus that day and her little body couldn’t fight it. 2 weeks later, she was gone - she died.
To say my heart was ripped from my body and left a huge void would be the biggest understatement of my life. I had a giant hole in my chest. I cried and cried. My younger son had an idea to write our favorite memories of her in a special journal. My son never likes to write anything. He resists all writing projects. But he and I both wrote memory after memory of her in this journal. I discovered that my son can write quite easily about subjects that matter to him. Thank you for showing this about my son to me, Bella.
[Bella in her life preserver. Living her best life.]
💗🐶💗
With my heart wrenched out of my chest, I desperately started looking for another dog I could adopt. I found an American Cocker Spaniel - I thought, “Ever since I saw Disney’s “Lady and the Tramp,” I have wanted a cocker spaniel, let’s try it.”
God’s Dogs Rescue in Texas had a sweet dog named Deno in their care. I applied for him and he was driven to me in Virginia, from Texas. He arrived around 3am! They dropped him off at the field in front of my home. I was letting him use the grass to relieve himself, and the van that had dropped him off drove away. He turned and watched them and I had no idea what he was thinking right then. Maybe surprise? Worry? Fear? I have no idea.
We went in to my home - after having to cajole him up the porch steps. He had apparently never seen steps before and didn’t know how to get up them. But he did it!
I gave him a treat and told him it was time for bed.
I patted my bed, he leaped up on it, and he immediately knew this was the home for him. He never wanted to leave again.
This is my Jasper on my back deck in Shenandoah, Virginia.
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I will write more on this topic when I have quiet moments. I need to monitor my dogs who are wrestling & making noises at each other right now!