Saturday, March 21, 2020

Good Dog...sort of

We have a new puppy. We're calling her Ladybug. She is a Shih Tzu cross. I had really forgotten how much work potty training is. Memories of short nights and groggy mornings with a new born child suddenly come to mind. Ladybug is a good little girl. Really, she is. It's not her fault that she can't communicate "I have to go pee" when the urge hits her. And she really can't explain why the bedroom is a much more desirable a toilet than our frost covered lawn at 2 a.m. It's up to her people (me) to convince her. I know it will happen. I just hope it's before a guest discovers her latest mistake before we do.

Dogs are incredibly smart. I've witnessed it time and again. When people label an animal as 'dumb', it's only because that person hasn't taken time with the animal. Our last little dog who just passed away was a little rescue dog that had been wandering the streets in town. She'd been abandoned about a week before we brought her home. She became very dear to us. But for years, as we walked together on her leash, when a certain model of pick up drove by, she would tug on her leash, totally adamant that we needed to follow that truck. It was extremely important to her. I can only conclude that she was dumped from a similar truck as a young dog when someone abandoned her. She remembered and the memory was a difficult one. It was a number of years before she gave up on finding the truck. This is not a "dumb animal." She was an incredibly smart one.

The animal shelters across our country are very in need of help. If you can't give a home to a shelter pet, please give your time, and if you don't have time, then please consider giving financially. There are hundreds of little friends with beautiful stories just waiting to share with a special someone.

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