Me too.......... That's a good post!I love dogs. I have been fortunate to have been buds with a lot of them. Each one had a piece of my heart. I've had pure breeds and strooches. My earliest memory was a Cocker Spaniel. My second, I was in grade school at the time, was a black and white Border Collie rescue I found in a cardboard box in the road. Prince was hit by a truck my senior year and I had to put him down.
I didn't have a dog through my college years. When I got married we got a Beagle. She named her Cuddles, I called her Puddles. We were presented with children after a few years of marriage and had Min Pins, and the smallest German Shepard I've ever seen. I bought a Weimaraner and trained him as a pointer but he soon became an inside dog because the wife, well, you know.
I took him out several times bird hunting and had no problems. I took him out the last day of the season, put his boots on, and headed toward a hill hunting birds. He went over that hill and I never saw him again. I spent hours and hours looking for that dog. I visited all the farm houses within miles of that place and never heard a word from the sympathetic farmers. I went out there for three weeks looking for him. It's like aliens beamed him up.
Marvelous Maverick Murphy was a free rescue Doberman that was bred to be a show dog but during the cropping of his ears one of them didn't grow the cartilage necessary to keep his ears erect. He couldn't be a show animal so they were going to put him down. I found out about it through a breeder friend of mine and relieved them of their burdensome animal. Murphy grew to about 80 black and tan pounds of intelligence. He was already obedience trained when I got him. When we went for walks he had so much energy I took him out to the country roads and let him run to his hearts content. I'd let him get ahead of me and slowly follow. He'd finally get tired and want back in the truck.
He would be at the side of my chair and I would smell something God awful and say, "Pew Murphy!" He'd get up and walk up the stairs stopping at the top and turn around to look at me. He then did his "Hrrrmph" and laid down. Murphy, when outside, was always on patrol. He wore a rut next to the fence the perimeter of our property. We had to move to an apartment that didn't take dogs in a different city. I left Murphy with "friends" I thought. After a month, we moved to another place I could keep dogs so I went to get Murphy. He was a changed dog. He had sores all over him and was mean. He tried to bite me. They were not interested in me getting him back and the way they ruined him I wasn't either.
It was during this time we also had another rescue dog. While I was running, I noticed a small shoe box in the ditch that was bulging and rolling over. The lid was taped shut with no air holes. A little grey Cockapoo pup was inside. I took her home and wife fed her then I took her to the pound. She was immediately loved and adored by the caring staff there. Three days later, "Snickers" came home with me. Twenty nine years later she passed during the night on our bed.
Houdy was next. He is a cute little Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Pomeranian. His real name is Houdini because he gets out of everything. I have been bitten more by this dog than all the other dogs I've dealt with my whole life. My daughter and wife drove to Tulsa to get him.
I guess on the trip home they bonded. They gave this little cute ball of fur to me to hold while they went shopping. Houdy saw them leave and from then on in his little brain I was the enemy keeping him from going with them. He has nothing to do with me unless wifey is around then I'm tolerated with him barking at me every time I walk near them. If she's gone, and a stranger is around, I'm second best and can pick him up while he barks at the stranger. I can play with him then a switch flips in his little head and ouch!
Shelby is the dog in the picture. she's another rescue dog from Phoenix Arizona. My son kind of inherited her as she came with a house he was renting. The owner didn't want her. Son brought her back here 3 years ago Christmas Day. He was moving soon and couldn't keep her so we did.
No matter what, dogs really have enriched my life and I'm tearing up as I write this.