Posted on 09/29/2006 6:10:11 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
Let’s get this part settled first: I don’t make friends, nor can I handle responsibility in relationships. Never could. Just ask any of my children, they’ll tell you. Although they are fully grown now, all past 30 and quite successful, they grew up like weeds in a garden. Strong, wild, resilient and with little supervision from their workaholic father. I have to face the fact that there are some things I’m good at—being responsible for another living creature is not one of them. So it should be easy to guess my reaction when my wife, Cathy, told me a few days after Christmas 2004 that she wanted a puppy. I was less than enthused.
I certainly did not need a dog. Dogs require care and feeding. They can’t even groom themselves. Dogs need to be walked, played with and picked up after (yes, that kind of picking up after). Absolutely not, I thought. No dogs, not for me. I am not a “dog person,” and I wasn’t going to become one. It was settled: Bruno doesn’t do dogs. One executive decision from my wife later, and there we were with a small, quivering, squealing black pug with a face only a mother could love. We named her Gertie. Suddenly, I was an unwitting dog owner.
Gertie is the type of dog that has to grow on you. She’s not the type of high-fallutin’ princess you see prancing on the end of a leash around the winner’s circle at Westminster. She’s not much to look at but, then again, neither am I. She comes when called at least one time per month. She is bow-legged, her left paw often curls inward when she stands, her tongue is almost always hanging out and she is about as dumb as dirt...
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Ping!
Heya, bwteim, long time no post with! ;>)
LOL, was wondering where you'd disappeared to! Lokking for the pug 'dogs, I see. :>)
Sorry. I have been reading since late this afternoon w/o responding on Lunatic Fringe thread on Foley, the congressman in Florida who resigned.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1710786/posts
Can't believe his stupidity and transgressions if true - 'nice' gift for the Dems.
"Do not go easily to MSNBC "
Well said. I never go, but since it was Ready4Freddy, I made an exception;)
I ventured over there because I saw a breaking news link in the Brazilian airline crash thread, and happened upon this story.
Thanks for the ping, sometimes the accidental dog is the best friend when you need one :~)
Unconditional affection!
I'm a bit anti-social myself but Bubba is militantly social and has made a lot of friends for me on our walks.
He assumes that everyone loves him. If they are walking in his direction, he knows they want to pet him. If they are walking away, he knows they want to pet him, but have just somehow gotten turned around.
If they look determinedly away from him, he manages to get their attention.
When we pass any of our regular groups, particular the AA group that meets in the center we pass, someone always shouts there's Bubba, my favorite dog.
Dogs can change you...at least a little bit ... for the better.
What's the saying? Something like "Lord, help me be the person my dog thinks I am!"
Lovely story, thanks for posting it!
It's been over a year since I went to MSNBC- this story persuaded me to make a hit and run though...lovely piece- thanks for posting:)
My two dogs (welsh corgis) assume everyone on the PLANET wants to know them- often from 1/4 mile away ...they tug on the leash and look at me as though I'm about to be late to meet the queen..
I'm happily wearing a smile!
You've got that right. When I was in my teens my dad, brother and I were driving back from Central Texas back home to the coast. We stopped in rest stop and while there a youngish dog (a mutt maybe 6-8 months old) came walking up to us as we were getting back into the car. He was skin and bones.
The rest stop was in the middle of nowhere and there were no other cars in the parking lot. Dad said that he was most likely dumped there and that we couldn't leave him there. We ended taking home with us thinking we would take him to the ASPCA when we got home.
He had such a lovable and loyal personality that we ended up keeping him and our dog at home accepted him unconditionally.
He ended living a good life for the next 10 years or so.
That's a lovely story. Pets do teach us undemanding love.
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