The one and only

You read books about people and their wonderful dogs, and it’s always like, “I’ve never had a dog like this before, and I never will again. There is no dog in the world like this one.”

This is true to a point. There are no two dogs that are alike. But there have been massive similarities in the 3 dogs that I have connected very closely with over the years.

The first was my dog Tippy. She came to us a starving, abused puppy that we did not think would survive. Carla and I babied that dog, doing our best to help her survive. We took her out for walks, and ended up carrying her half the time when she was too weak to walk any farther. Her whole life, Tippy had a fear of men, and a bit of an aversion to large groups of people (unless they had food she could beg…). But from the time she was a puppy, she attached herself to Carla and me. She went from being a starving pup, who could hardly stand up, to a pup that was full of life, who would run in the snow with us, pulling our gloves off and running away, the happy look on her face telling us to chase her. She would run to my grandparents’ house any time Carla and I were gone, in the hopes that we were there. She’d track me through the woods when I was riding, and find me even if I was half a mile from home. We were hers, and continued to be hers for the whole of her life.

The next dog like that was Shadow. Technically, not my dog. He is my Grandparents’ dog, but Grampa always says that I am Shadow’s girl. From the moment we met, we have been close. I went to the shelter with Grama and Grampa to choose a dog, and I was the first person to take him for a walk. Then we spent the hour or so long ride together in the backseat. He hadn’t been abused or neglected, but had been given to the shelter by his family when he was still fairly young. He just wanted a buddy. The first time I went to visit after they adopted him, he ran into the house, took one look at me, and jumped on the couch beside me. He wasn’t allowed on the couch, and had not tried to get on there before, but was just too excited to see me. I took him to obedience classes, and showed him in 4-H, which he thought was a big game. He’s getting old, and going for long walks hurts his legs, but he still wants desperately to go for long walks when I go for a visit. And I can’t tell him no. We go for walks, and he bounces around again like he is a puppy. Grama and Grampa always tell me that if my Mom comes over for a visit and I am not there, Shadow comes to say hi, but then wanders around, looking for me, thinking that I am supposed to be there too. It’s hard leaving a dog like that as you’re not able to explain to them why you have to leave. And you can’t communicate with them when you’re away. I miss that boy.

And then there is Cosette. Less than a week, and she has already decided that I am hers. When she sleeps, she really wants to be touching me somehow, even if she is only lying next to me with her head against my leg. She’ll halfway wake up every once in a while, and shift, just so that she is touching me, then fall back asleep. It’s like she is reassuring herself that I am here. She is amazing when I have to leave her tied while I’m working, or leave her at home alone, but when I come back, she jumps around, so excited to have me back. She loves to visit with other people, but always turns back to me, even while she’s playing. She’ll run over to me, get a pat, and go back to whoever she is playing with. She seems to like to know that I am there.

I guess that each of these dogs needed someone, and I happened to be around to be that person. It isn’t anything special about me, it’s just being in the right place at the right time, and being willing.  I haven’t made a huge effort to be a favourite of these dogs. I just treated them the way I typically treat dogs, and they seem to need that. And who knows…Maybe I needed them too.