I've never had much first hand experience with having a dog in the house. Didn't have one growing up and when the kids were growing up, we got a cat, not a dog.
But about a year ago, my good girl saw the picture of a cute dog at a rescue shelter and decided to give her a home. She had been abandoned and was found in the streets and taken to a shelter. Well, the dog has been here since Christmas. When my good girl took a trip back home for 16 days, she left the dog here.
I was a bit apprehensive when she said the dog wa a pit mix, but she doesn't fit the pit bull stereotype. She's very friendly and loves to roll on her back and get belly rubs. I've been introduced to dog parks and to people who have dogs. One of them even had a birthday party for her two dogs at the park. She even had cupcakes with a milk bone on top. I was given one and my good girl's dog virtually inhaled it.
She quickly figured a way to get more. She went to the table where the cupcakes were and some of the people had them in their hands so she went up to them, sat quietly and looked up at them with a sad face and got a couple of people to feed her more. That's her. When we're in the kitchen she's right there hoping we give her something and drop something on the floor. We try not to feed her people food because we want her to keep eating doggy food but sometimes we relent. She whines at times when she wants somebody to play with her but when she is looking for our food, she just sits there and looks up at us with those sad eyes. She nows how to play us.
She's also like an alarm clock. She sleeps in a doggy bed in the bedroom and at about 730 she gets up and comes to the side of our bed and is just tall enough to put her head on the bed but never jumps on it. And she loves to swim at the doggy park.
I can now see how people get attached to dogs think they are members of the family. Right now, she is curled up on the couch next to me as I type. She often puts her head between my legs right in front of the computer. I have to admit that when she goes home with my good girl later this week, it will seem kind of strange when I return and she's not here.
If any of the bloggers have dogs, I think they will understand.
FD