Today our little Squiggee is 9 years old....
it is hard to remember what life was like without dogs...our first Woof Woof, was a mix of Irish Terrier and Poodle....we had only been married three years and were living in a garden apartment..... it was a big deal to get permission from the landlady, Silva Goucher, to have a pet. We had to fill out papers and , we were charged an extra fee of 10.00 a month for the dog and also a pet deposit of 100.00, in case the dog ate the apartment. We didn't have much money, but this was important to me. I had started my freelance design company Festival Designs and was home working , so I could train a puppy.
We lived in a small town outside of Frederick Maryland, and I had formed a real attachment for a dog named Dagney, that lived in apartments. Dagney was a poodle mix and home all day alone. I ended up having Dagney with me all day, for company. We would walk all around the small town and became fast friends. It was my first relationship with a dog, and I decided that I would never be without a dog. I was hooked on dogs.
When Dagney's parents moved , I was upset, I missed our walks and the company. Painting all day without the company of my dog friend was terrible.
This is how we came to have our first dog. Our house will never be without a dog/child....and we enjoy having two..the most we have ever had at one time is three. Jake was a stray that had been dumped at the next farm with his litter and was the only puppy that was not found a home. When we moved to PA, Woofie was getting on in years and adopted Jake. Jake was left tied to a tree in the farmer's yard with a little dog house and a plastic bowl for food...he was so dirty, but so sweet...Woofie would visit him daily and eventually we adopted Jake as our own .... washed , Jake looked like a new dog and within one day Woofie had house trained him...When Woofie died , it was Jake that eased our pain, just by being with us. When you lose a dog , the whole dynamics of the house change. Since this time we have made a point of adding a puppy to the mix when we lose a dog. It helps the whole family......you are so busy couping with all that a puppy does..poo, pee, and general destruction, that it makes you not just zero in on how sad you are that you have lost your trusted friend..it seems to make it easier....so that is how Squiggee came to us.... our little Fox terrier Pookie, had been run over after she escaped and ran out into the road, Jake was getting so old and Bubbles, a young dog (Springer Spaniel Mix w/lab) was missing Pookie so much....
Squiggee is the most stubborn of dogs, smart and with an agenda of her own.....it is a funny house now...Bubbles will be 13 in March and my husband, Bubbles, myself and Squiggee are all getting so gray...it is too funny...Woofie, was a strawberry colored dog and was just two months shy of his 14th birthday when he died, but he never showed any gray...Pookie died young, just two, and Jake was such a mixture of Beagle, Blue tick and who knows how many breeds that his gray was always part of his coat, so when he died and was just 13, his gray just mixed in.....but now we are really seeing the gray on our two pooches.... we are like a poster add for AARP+ the pooch version...
Squiggee will have roast beef tonight and a birthday cake...the same cake that all our dogs have always had...Pepperidge Farm white cake with /coconut icing...it is tradition....and a quick version of Happy Birthday to you !.....it is a special treat ...and no ....we don't serve the dogs cake daily...they are dogs........FYI..we also love coconut!!..surprise ..surprise...
FYI...our landlady Silva, always sends a Christmas card and loves receiving our annual Doggy Christmas card....
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