Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Puppy Love

This week, my niece and her husband got a new puppy, Peyton, who is just adorable. Look at him, how can you resist? Knowing that Lisa and Michael are starting their newly married life (they got married last summer) with a little puppy is heartwarming because I know that little guy will bring them many years of happiness and joy. He will become part of their family and they will love that puppy always!

Of course, seeing this little pup makes me think of the doggies that have been part of my life. When I was a wee girl, my family had a little black dachshund named Mitzi. She was a love and lived a long life--I always thought of her as my dog. When I was a teenager, Mitzi was on her last legs when we got a little red doxie that I got to name. Since I was in the midst of four years of high school Spanish, I picked the name Bonita (for pretty), but we called her Bonnie. A few years after we got Bonnie, my mom couldn't resist a little Yorkshire terrier we named Annie. The two became fast friends and provided us with a lot of joy. I do remember the first time we bathed Annie--I thought we got a Chihuahua with lots of hair because she was tiny under all of her fluff!

When Matt was a boy, he really wanted a dog. We lived next to a veterinarian, Kristi, for a few years and during that time, she brought home a little black dachshund named Misty. (Weird, huh, just like my first dog, except the name was just a little different.) When Kristi went out of town, we used to dog sit for her. Eventually, because of the long hours she worked, Kristi said she thought it would be better for Misty to live with us. So Misty became part of our family when she was about one - and that was almost 13 years ago.

A few years after we got Misty, we moved into our house and I told Matt we could get another dog. The only catch was that the dog had to be able to fit through the doggie door, which at 5" x 7" really put a limit on the type of dog we could get. We went to the Humane Society and looked at all of the doggies, but there just wasn't that one pup calling out to us. One of the workers said we could fill out an interest card and list the type of dog we hoped to get. Imagine my surprise when a few weeks later they called to see if we were interested in adopting a dachshund puppy!

This time it was a male puppy, black with very little tan coloring. Matt got the honor of naming he and he decided to call him Bubba. I don't remember how he came up with that name but it fit. Bubba was the happiest little dog - always wagging his tail and ready to play. Misty, on the other hand, is a bit neurotic and nervous. The girl is sweet, but she has some hang ups! Bubba was just a happy dog, all the time. Sadly, we had to put Bubba down when he was only 9 years old. He was a good dog for all the years we had him and I still miss him.

Misty is going to be 14 in July and she is still going strong. As I wrote in an earlier post, she is always happy to see me when I get home and I think her goal in life is to sit in my lap or next to me. Even as I sit at the table typing this, she is waiting for me to move to the couch. This is video I took of her after I got home from work today because she was just being so darned cute. Thirteen years later and I still feel puppy love!


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