Dogs Dogs Dogs

A couple of days ago, I went on and on about how much I love chocolate/sweets. One of my other loves is dogs. And, most specifically, I love me a good herding dog. This affection started when I was just a wee one, still in diapers. Here I am with Dusty, one of our first Collies. 

Then came Goldie. She still reigns supreme as the #1 Collie when we were growing up. I think I was 6 when she came on the scene as a puppy. She truly was one of the family. She particularly loved going for boat rides with us on our many Sundays at our Grandma's cottage at Lake Delhi. (Lake Delhi...well, that's a story for another day.)

Lassie was popular on TV around this time. At one point, my mom stopped letting me watch it because I would cry and cry at every episode. That's remained constant...I have copies of Lassie Come Home and a collection of the best Lassie episodes. Yep, you guessed it. They still make me cry. From the original Lassie Come Home with a young Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowell to the remake The Magic of Lassie with Jimmy Stewart. Break out the tissues, I'm going to get the ugly cry. When it comes to any dog story, I'm a wreck. I was physically exhausted from crying when I walked out of the theater after Eight Below. And, don't even get me started on My Dog Skip. Have you seen those recent ASPCA commercials with Willie Nelson singing in the background? 

Maybe I didn't treat you
Quite as good as I should have
Maybe I didn't love you
Quite as often as I could have 

I seriously have to change the channel. I can't take the pressure! Sweet Goldie was with us until I was a freshman in high school. I remember the morning we woke and found that she had died during the night. I went to school and told my cousin Mary Pat that she was gone, and we both burst into tears. Of course, a classmate misunderstood what we were crying about and she thought one of my brothers had died. Whoops....this is how rumors get started. 

Whimps came on the scene when I was in junior high. My dad, sister, and I were coming home from the Dubuque County Fair, and we stopped at a farmer's house on the way. They had a litter of mixed breed Shelties. Well, needless to say, we didn't leave the farmer's house without one. You see, as much as my dad might claim to not like dogs, he loves them as much as the rest of us. We always thought of Whimps as part Sheltie/part Fox. She was very spirited, but her fear of thunderstorms caused her to go a little wacko in her later years. The garage door at my parents' house still bears the evidence of her neuroses.

There was also an incident with Whimps where the groomer in Dubuque "lost" her, and she was missing in Dubuque for almost three days. We thought she was a goner, but my brother Dave drove around the area where she was lost a final time and when Whimps heard the truck backfire when he shifted, she came on the dead run out of a cornfield. It was practically like a remake of Lassie Come Home. Yep, I bawled when he brought her home. 

Bandit was the next most memorable Collies we had. She disliked any adults who were not "in the family." She literally would try to take down anyone who dared to enter the house. But, she was completely gentle and protective of the little kids. 

We don't know what happened to Bandit. We lost custody of her in a divorce. So, then came Lucky. Now, here was another dog that was full of personality. 

Lucky considered herself a lapdog. This one time, I was trying to place a catalog order over the phone, and Lucky ran into the room and did a flying leap onto my lap. Well, when 80 pounds of dog hits you, it's not exactly graceful. I think the poor woman on the other end of the phone thought I was being assaulted until I assured her it was just my dog. Lucky was also afraid of storms. We lost her the day my parents drove to O'Hare to pick me up from a trip I had taken to China to visit friends. A thunderstorm came up while they were gone, and she dug her way under the fence in the backyard to get out and was hit by a car. That was not how I wanted to end my vacation.  :-(

Lucky was survived by Mac (her "husband") and her daughter Maggie. They were around for a good long life. 

Jack joined the crew later. He was a Christmas present for our dad one year. After I adopted Bailey, I also convinced mom and dad to adopt Louie (another Sheltie), who had been surrendered to the shelter with Bailey. Here's a big family photo, which also includes Kelly (my brother's family's Border Collie), and Lexi (another brother's Golden Retriever) and Rusty (same brother's Yellow Lab).

After losing Mac, Maggie, and Louie in fairly close succession to old age, we got our sweet Annie. Another dog that Raymond "didn't like." Sure, Raymond....

We lost Annie way too soon. When she was just six months old, the vet determined that she had deformed kidneys and wasn't expected to live more than six more months. We had her for two more years. She lived as good of a life that a dog could possibly live in her two and a half short years. Annie was an expert food thief. She would circle the dining room table like a shark (queue up the Jaws theme here) and would find the weakest link. In the blink of an eye, she could snatch a piece of pizza, a whole sandwich, a piece of steak right out of your hands or off your plate before you knew what hit you. I think everyone in our family fell victim to her cunning ways at one point or another. I still miss that sweet girl. 

Through good karma, I think, we found our lovely Lucy at a shelter in Kankakee, Illinois. She was bought as a puppy by a family with two young daughters. Sadly, one of the girls developed a severe allergy to her that could not be controlled through medication or other means of keeping her away from Lucy. She had such a bad reaction that at one point the girl had to be airlifted to a hospital in Chicago. The family then made the hard decision that they could not keep Lucy. So, what was sad for them was good for us. Pearl, Jack, and I made the 9 hour round-trip to Kankakee to scoop her up, and she's been giving us laughs ever since. She, too, thinks she is a lapdog. I know I shouldn't promote these "bad doggie" behaviors, but I love to hug her. 

There were other dogs over the years (Angel, Duffy, Tippi, Murphy, Bart), but the dogs shown here were our "Top Dogs" in my mind. A few years ago, I gave my mom (the other dog lover in the family) a photo album with pictures of all our dogs over the years. At the front of it, I placed this poem that I had found. This is me, too, as I will also "Grow Old With Dogs."

When I am old...

I will wear soft gray sweatshirts and a bandanna over my silver hair,
and I will spend my social security checks on wine and my dogs.
I will sit in my house on my well-worn chair and listen to my dogs' breathing.
 

I will sneak out in the middle of a warm summer night and take my dogs for a run, 

if my old bones will allow.

When people come to call, I will smile and nod as I show them my dogs,
and talk of them and about them......
the ones so beloved of the past and the ones so beloved of today.

I will still work hard cleaning after them, mopping, washing, brushing, and feeding them,
and whispering their names in a soft loving way.
I will be an embarrassment to all, especially my family,
who have not yet found the peace in being free to have dogs as your best friends.

These friends who always wait, at any hour, for your footfall,
and eagerly jump to their feet out of a sound sleep, to greet you as if you are a God.
With warm eyes full of adoring love and hope that you will always stay, 

I'll hug their big strong necks.
I'll kiss their dear sweet heads,
and whisper in their very special company.
 

I look in the mirror
and see I am getting old.
This is the kind of person I am,
and have always been.
Loving dogs is easy,
They are part of me.
 

Please accept me for who I am.
My dogs appreciate my presence in their lives;
they love my presence in their lives.
When I am old this will be important to me.
You will understand when you are old....
if you have dogs to love too.