My Life in Dog Years

Tarah's blog has inspired me to write about a book I just finished by Gary Paulsen, "My Life in Dog Years". (by the way, Tarah, I try to comment on your blog but have no luck. I'll keep trying. I'm sure its something I'm doing wrong. ) But anyway, this book made me think about dogs and all the ones I've had through the years. The first dog I remember in my young life was Teddy (a pomeranian) with fur the same reddish color as my hair. Teddy was so pretty and looked just like a teddy bear. I wish I could remember as much detail as Gary does in his book. But we had many dogs in between but the one I remember was one my siblings and I all loved that a townperson shot and said he was in his sheep. I just remember what a shock it was that someone would shoot our dog. Sparkie was a full blooded poodle that a friend gave to me. My first personal dog. Sparkie was very spoiled and the only dog my mother ever allowed in the house. We were on vacation and she ran off and we never could find her again. Definately the smartest and closest I have ever been to any dog was Bo. He was a Sheltie and very fond of me and I of him. We really had a bond. I related with Gary Paulsen when he said there was a vocabulary of words that his dog understood. Bo knew certain words and responded certain ways to them so that I knew without a doubt that he understood. He loved to play ball and would retrieve and catch a frisbee in the air. I'll never forget the first time he had a seizure. I thought he had rabies or something. But I learned that he was okay but just had these small seizures every once in a while. There were many dogs in between until there was Auzzie. She was a gift to Scott from the boys for Father's day. She was only with us for a couple of years but she was a sweet, sweet dog and a very hard worker. She never went through the usual puppy-troubles. She always was sober and serious about her work...and did she every love to work. She loved to go with Scott wherever he went and gathered whatever it was that needed to be gathered. A special talent she had was to grab the reigns of the horse and lead it around. It was so funny to see the horses follow her around and she was just so proud to do it. Its hard to realize that we have had so many dogs in our life. Some of them were around for many years but most of them were just here for a short duration. I don't know if we just didn't take good care of them or if our lifestyle is just dangerous...but, many just disappeared, were hit by cars, or died of old age. That's my life in dog years!