Dogs

I have been thinking a lot about dogs. Dogs are a big part of my life. Or at least this one little dog is. His name is Linus. He is my baby. He has a least a million nicknames:

Little Bear (when he was a puppy he looked like a small polar bear)
Pooperloo
Pupperdoo
Polka Flats (his grifting name)
Linus Dog
Linus Bear (which is actually his whole name Linus Bear White)
Little Dog
Baby Dog
Little Ole Linus Bear
Little Lovin’ Dog (or Lovin’ Dog for short)
Lickenista (the dog LOVES to lick)
Lickin’ Dog

There are some just to name a few…I am sure he has like multiple personality disorder because of it. But anyways for our purposes we will just call him Linus. I got Linus about 1 month after I moved into my house. He was not a dog I ever would have picked out. “I left work that day I bought him to just look at breeds of dogs” …and that is how the Linus story starts…

I left work that day I bought him to just look at breeds of dogs. I pretty much had my mind made up, that I was getting a pug. They were just so cute and wrinkly and fun. It would be perfect, but I wanted to keep my options open so I decided to look at the Frazer Zoo just to LOOK at breeds and decide that I was making the right decision. I took my trusty sidekick and partner in crime Lisa along with me to just LOOK at other dogs. Before I left a co-worker cursed…er actually in this case blessed, me by saying “you know you are coming home with a dog right?” I assured him I would not and was on my merry way.

We walked in…now it was a Friday night and we were having a good time. There were dogs everywhere, running in the pens, out in the open, kids holding them, adults haggling prices, you get the picture. We pick up a couple of dogs and they were all ADORABLE! Lisa had a little Jack Russell that I could have SWORN she was going to end up leaving with, it was SO attached to her and actually she to him…and she is a cat person not a normally a woman wooed by a cutie pie faced dog so easily. So we are walking around and believe me they were all cute and I TOTALLY am a dog person…wooed by even the ugliest dog LOL! So you can imagine my surprise when I turned to Lisa and was like “They are all so cute, but none really grab me.” It was fine. It just confirmed my decision of the pug. I then took one last walk around and heard a whimper.

Now when I say a whimper, I mean the most pathetic whimper I have ever heard. It instantly BROKE my heart and I had to know where it was coming from. I listened at each pen. This place has the little dogs generally on the wall in little puppy pens and the big dogs in floor pens each with their litter. I followed this sad little whine to one of the big pens and looked in it to find nothing. Hmmm…curious, so I banged on the side of the pen and out of the wood shavings falling ass over head was the littlest dog ever! He tripped over his feet fell down at least twice and pounded his way to the gate where he stretched and begged and whined. This little PURE WHITE (bound to get dirty) Maltese (a breed I had long since decided against cause of their silky long hair and whiteness…I can’t even keep a white shirt clean, let ALONE a white dog!) I turned to Lisa and put out my bottom lip and said “I have to have him, I have to have him RIGHT NOW! Quick lean over and get him!” There was a sign that said not to go into the pens but I didn’t want one of these squirrelly little brats to see him and tell their Daddy they wanted them I told her to grab him and give him to me so that I didn’t get in trouble for going in the pen LOL!

I held him…and I knew he was my dog. I am not trivializing parenting at all…but it is kinda like that. When you hold your baby and he looks up at you like you are all you have in the world. That’s your dog. He licks your nose and nestles in next to you and falls right to sleep cause he’s yours and he knows it. And that is what happened, he looked at me licked my nose and he was mine. I haggled price knowing that if he didn’t budge that was my dog, didn’t care if he would have cost a million dollars I wasn’t not going to have him.

When I got that little guy home he refused to leave my side, loved sleeping in my lap, around my head, next to my leg, it didn’t matter where as long as he was touching me. The funniest thing he would be laying down and I would deliberately move away from him and he would stretch out his little paw just to touch me on the leg or foot or wherever was closest to him. And LOVEY! This dog LOVES EVERYBODY! But even more crazy is everyone loves this dog. My friend Mikey HATES DOGS (funny that Linus was born on his b-day September 29th) but when Mikey came to stay with me one weekend who did I find with my little ole dog in his lap…yup Mikey and the dog chilling on the couch watching TV LOL! This is how dogs are.

Dogs have this amazing UNCONDITIONAL love that seems unending. They find the person who isn’t loving on them and they hug up next to that person and MAKE them love them. My Linus Bear is the embodiment of those dog traits. He is a lover! Loves people, loves other dogs, loves toys, loves food, loves to play, and just LOVES! He is my loving dog. No matter how bad my day it all fades away when I walk in the door and have him hide behind the sofa until I call his name at which point he comes BOUNDING (well as much as a 9lb dog can BOUND) out and attacks me showering me with all the love that he seems to have stashed away for until I came home to see him. Once I am holding my pup and kissing his little head it is all gone away.

So if you are a dog person I hope you enjoyed my story of my Pooperloo…and if not, well I suggest you give dogs another try. The can fill a life with a love you can’t imagine.