Dogs

Elizabeth's post from yesterday has for some unknown reason inspired me to write about dogs. I am not an animal lover, or a "dog person". I think dogs are cute....in other people's homes, but they shed, smell, lick, poop, walk through their poop, vomit and then taste their vomit. GAG!

However, growing up, we had dogs. Here are some of them.

1) Petey- got him when I was 7 or 8. He was a peke-a-poo. His real name was "Oui Ebony Pierre Fido", which translated to English means "Yes Black Pierre Dog". Makes lots of sense, huh? His death/disappearance is a mystery. He escaped from the backyard never to return.

2) Boots- have no idea when we got him. I was probably 10 or so. He was a little black shaggy dog with white paws. Hence the name Boots. I think he was a peke-a-poo, too, but I don't really know (Mom, Lindsay??). My mom and sister will tell you he was the best dog we ever had. He got hit and killed by a car. However, this was not the worst thing that ever happened to him. When my sister was about four years old, she put his ears together and made a ponytail. A TIGHT ponytail and used one of those little real rubber rubber-bands.....like what the newspaper has around it, but smaller. Have you ever heard a dog scream? Put their ears in a ponytail and you'll know what I'm talking about.

3) I'm going to skip Su-Su and Gizmo......

4) Raider and Duke-got them when I was in high school. We decided to "surprise" my mom with two labs (mixed). She was surprised, but not in a good way. They were two of the prettiest dogs you have ever seen, but they were big and destructive. They ATE a hole THROUGH my parents garage door; they pulled up sprinkler heads; Duke bit a serviceman that came to our house in his manhood; etc. Duke finally went to live with some family friends that had a lot of land. There, he terrorized their cattle. I don't know what became of Duke, but I have a feeling he is resting in peace. Raider, became a great dog after Duke left. He thought he was a 133 pound "lap dog". He had quite the personality and didn't cause much problem, but he hated the vet. Trying to drag him into the vet was like trying to push the Empire State Building with your bare hands.

5) Shiner and Raider- I got Shiner when I was in college. She was a collie/rottweiler mix. Rottweiler body and hair with Collie markings. Pretty dog. She could be sweet, and she could be mean. She sometimes scared me. She would get mad and curl her lip to show her teeth. She and Raider became BFF when she lived with my parents. When I got married and took Shiner with me, Raider and Shiner both became very sad. Raider would sit on the back porch and howl for hours. Pitiful. Shiner went back. When my parents moved to Arlington, Raider and Shiner went together to go live with a nice man that wanted two big dogs.

6) Bandit-Jeff's dog from college. Blue heeler (cow dog). I had a serious love/hate relationship with this dog. More hate than love, but sometimes love. Bandit's claim to fame was that he attacked vacuum cleaners. Jeff loved to show off when we had people over how Bandit would "beat up" on the vacuum. The problem with Bandit was that he NEVER wanted to be outside; he thought he was a person and should always remain indoors. He would bark like crazy if he had to go outside, and he had THE MOST annoying bark! If we put him out and forgot to lock the sliding glass door, he would open it with his nose and let himself back in. As much as Bandit thought he was a person, he was still a cow dog by instinct. When Landry was first learning to walk, he would "corral" her by nipping at her heels into a corner. It annoyed her and frustrated me to no end. When we moved, Bandit had to go. Same story.....went to live on a guy's land in Mesquite. Last we heard, he was doing fine.

My dog days are over for a long while.......