D is for Dog!

    How neat that Made by Joey's letter challenge and the Every Inchie Monday challenge work so well together!  Wonder if that will happen very often? 
    Here is my letter D for the alphabet challenge.  I used the tangles - disco, dash off, and dessus-dessous.  I am also trying to stay with the color theme for this challenge.

 
    Warning - it is going to be hard to talk about dogs in a sentence or two.  So you can look at my inchie and flee if you want.  I won't take offense.  My life has been filled with those wonderful furry creatures.  I cannot imagine a life without one curled up at my feet or greeting me when I come home.  I do promise not to talk about ALL the pups that have enriched my life.  I honestly don't think I could.  At least not in one afternoon!  So here is just a few.

      My precious little beagle pup, Boots.  He was given to me by a great uncle who raised hunting dogs because he was the runt of the litter.  I kept him dressed in doll clothes and tucked in my doll carriage.  He was my baby doll!
     One of the saddest experiences was with a dog I had named Lollipop.  (Do you remember the song "My Boy Lollipop"?)  Well, if you don't it is not all that great of a memory loss, but at the time I loved it.  He was a hound looking thing that had wondered up at my grandparents.  I played with him and loved him dearly.  I could not understand when Papa told me he had found him a home.  He had a home!  But arguments did not work.  He was taken to another home.  Months later, we went to visit him.  He was chained up in the back yard by a barn and would not let me near him.  Those growls and look of distrust cut me to the core.  I cried for days.
     We have had lots of collies, beagles, springer spaniels, samoyeds, Pekingese, a golden retriever and some I know I have accidentally left out!  One of my most precious memories is of my beloved Highway.  Twenty pounds of absolute love.  We were coming home from school one afternoon (my brother picks me up) when I saw up ahead what appeared to be a cat.  I was terrified it would get hit by a car.  So we stopped and I discovered a tiny black puppy.  He was so frightened.  I got him in my arms and we asked local houses if they recognized him.  Since we already had a beautiful golden retriever - Sasquatch - I said I would ask around at school for someone to give him a home.  By the time Ray picked me up the next day, he had a home with us.  No way were Ray and Sasquatch going to let him go.  He slept with me.  Curled up on my shoulder while I worked.  He was a constant in my life.  For nineteen years.  When it became obvious one weekend we were going to lose him, I made the decision to let him go to sleep.  I have never had to do that before.  The memory of that night and rushing him to an emergency clinic is still very vivid. 
     And that brings you up to my current baby.   I could not manage our house without a dog.  I was beyond miserable.  So I looked at an ad for the pound and found Lakota.  It was about 2 weeks from our loss of Highway.  We went to pick him up and instantly fell in love.  We should have waited.  We should have allowed our hearts to settle, but really I would not change a thing.  And it is good we did not wait.  We took him for his "wellness" visit and they told us he had parvo and the survival rate was very low.  I simply could take another loss.  I said do whatever you can.  The vet sort of advised against it, saying we had only had him for about 4 days and we probably could return him.  Nope.  Couldn't give up.  He went into intensive care and 6 days later, we brought home a bouncy puppy.  Lakota is so different from Highway that it is hard to believe they are the same species.  For the last nineteen years we had lived with a super timid, very docile pup.  From his beginning of 6 pounds to his current weight of 112 pounds, Lakota is not in any way timid.  He charges ahead.  He is bold with strangers, sometimes loving, sometimes not.  He was an incredible ball of energy.  There were (many) times we would rejoice at his simply being asleep.  But through it all, we have a wonderful dog.  I would not trade him for the world.  And as he gotten older he is much more settled.  Well, sometimes.  Don't take a ball anywhere around him!  If it rolls, he wants it!

     Thanks for dropping by.  Pardon the long post, but I love dogs and I love to write.  So you got stuck.  But if you made it to here - thanks and hugs!