Dogs from my past remembered…including the odd balls

Dogs from my past remembered …including the odd balls

My first dog was brought home by my dad because dad could not say no to a friend who was moving out of state. You can’t imagine the feeling of terror I felt when dad opened the passenger door of our 1948 two door Buick and out came a dog bigger than ME!! Then…guess what happened?

child hugging new dog

I became the target of all its licking, of all its pouncing on and all its games…i.e. carrying off everything not nailed down, of chasing the chickens and its favorite game of all … laying in ambush until I came past carrying two pails of water or feed for the animals… then without warning he would let out the loudest bark and jump up on me! Pails of food or water would go flying everywhere! Everyone would laugh and hoot at me… Let’s just say these were not my favorite times in my childhood!
The next dog that stands out in my memory was Pal- the-chewer! This dog LOVED to chew on everything he took a fancy to! Shoes, slippers, clothes and wood products bore the scars of his chewing escapades! No matter what we did or what we tried… Pal-the-Chewer kept on gnawing away! Then, one day we came home and found our bathroom’s built in cabinets had been chomped on by Pal …this was the last straw… Pal-the –Chewer had to go!

Dog the chewer… saying I’m sorry

So, I looked around and found a farmer who would take Pal even if Pal had a chewing habit. Pal would have… a heated dog house… which was a converted incubator… have over 10 acres of woods to chew on and a big barn loaded with hay and straw bales to play on. A year later, I met this farmer at one of our flea markets and asked him how Pal was doing. His answer was what I had suspected all along… Pal-the –Chewer had been a BEAVER in another life!! It sure felt good to realize that all of our efforts to rehabilitate Pal were in vain… because we were using dog training methods on Pal-the-Chewer instead of BEAVER training methods!

The most remembered dog of my childhood days was a Brindle Bulldog named Pepper. Where ever I went or what I was doing pepper was there at my side doing it too! I shall have to stop here because the memories and Pepper’s death are still too painful to me… Pepper taught me what companionship, faithfulness and love was about… so… with teary eyes and loving memories I say good-bye to Pepper!

Buddy, our rescue dog

Today, our lives hovers around two dogs… The oldest is Buddy who was rescued from the dog pound 15 years ago…

Princess our little Boston Terrier

and Princess who is a 7 yrs. old Boston Terrier and whose antics has kept us in fits of laughter and also kept us in states of complete awe because of her actions. When we brought Princess home, we were a little apprehensive about how the older Buddy would react to having to share his home with another dog! But, to our amazement, Buddy took this little puppy under his care!

Buddy and Princess greeting each other

Buddy would allow Princess to pull his hair, to grab his tail and pull on it. Buddy would even share his food with her! Over the years, we have seen these dogs bring food to each other, sleep together, and even get into trouble together!

Buddy and Princess as a pup, sleeping together

To this date these two are inseparable… BUT sadly, the time is nearing when Buddy will no longer be able to chase Princess around the house, to play tug-of-war or to just be here

… you see Buddy has lung cancer and day by day we him fading away…Soon Princess will be alone… and only time will tell how she will react at the loss of her life long companion! She has already showed us that she knows something is wrong with Buddy…. She sniffs him all over, she goes to him when he coughs or tries to breathe through his nose and more and more she stays at his side! I believe this is nature’s way of saying GOOD BYE Buddy!

Thanks for listening to our story of our loved pets. Here at Doggie Dog Coats, our pets are our children…we like to dress them, feed them, protect them, and love them.