Friday Faithfuls

I love animals and over the years I have had dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, turtles, tortoises, fish, lizards, and a baby opossum who didn’t have sense enough to stay out of our garage. Ok, so the opossum wasn’t actually a pet, but he spent a summer with us feasting on Purina cat chow.

After my husband passed away in 2016 I adopted Gracie. She was two years old, very sweet, very well-trained and just a joy to have around. She acted as if she had always been my dog. Her favorite thing to do was to sit against my arm while we rocked watching TV.

This past March a customer came into the store with the cutest puppy. He indicated that he had to place this last puppy or he was going to have to just let it go. I just couldn’t let that happen so that night Dixie came home with me. Now, it’s been many years since I had a puppy. There is a big difference between a trained, older dog joining your family and bringing an untrained, rambunctious puppy home.

Needless to say, she has been a challenge. She will turn 1 year old on January 24th and I am still not sure I will let her live to see her first birthday. She is wild, hates to go to the bathroom outside, likes to chew paper, especially paper towels, and has made me fall several times. She is cute and I love her to death, but she’s going to be the death of me.

She wrapped her leash around me after it rained one afternoon and pulled me down a hill with wet grass. I landed on my belly and slid down the hill landing with my head under the bushes. When I got up my glasses fell off of my face in four pieces. With that, she danced around me wagging her tail as if to say do it again mommy! All the time Gracie just looked at her, then at me and I swear I could hear her thinking to herself why did you bring that pest home with you?

Here are my girls. Gracie in the front and Dixie in the back. They bring a lot of joy into my life. I just can’t imagine living without a pet.