Community Dogs

We don't currently have any pets of our own, but we have community dogs. We've always had community dogs.We live out in the country where the dogs pretty much run free. Our first doggy friend was Sissy.

Sissy lived about 2 doors down (1/2 mile, maybe) and would come visit almost daily. She was such a loveable dog and super sweet, to boot! When we met Sissy, we did have pets

a golden retriever named "Scotty" and a cat named "Maggie".

Needless to day, Maggie and Sissy didn't get along and Sissy got her nose scratched up quite a bit back in those days. On the other hand, Sissy and Scotty got along famously. So famously that they had babies together.

This is the only picture I have of Scotty and Sissy and two of their "babies". You can see Scotty on the left...he's not interested in family gatherings. Combining a short and squatty dog like Sissy (sorry, I can never remember what breed she was) and a golden retriever like Scotty makes for some interesting babies. Penny (the black dog) had super short legs and couldn't even climb stairs, but she had a normal shaped body. Boomer (the white dog), on the other hand seemed perfect.

We decided to adopt one of the babies and Boomer became our newest addition to the pet family.

He was so cute,

so loveable,

so sweet and generous,

and he got spoiled a bit - for a country dog, that is. No, he didn't get to sleep indoors, but we did tease him a little with it!

Unfortunately, Boomer just disappeared one day. My husband thinks he was stolen because he was such a beautiful and friendly dog.
Sissy continued to visit.

Then Scotty died. Maggie died the following year.

Sissy still came to visit us, and you could tell she was lonely.

One day, she came accompanied by this little fella. His name was Buddy.

He was so pretty, with the biggest brown eyes you've ever seen and one lazy ear, but he had ENORMOUS amounts of energy! Sissy was getting old and arthritic and Buddy would jump all over her and bite her until she finally growled and snapped at him. It didn't slow him down for long and soon he'd be back at it again, playing like the puppy he was.

Then, Sissy died (yes - we've been thru a lot of doggie funerals) and it was Buddy's turn to be lonely. His owner tried keeping him penned up and for a few months we didn't see Buddy much at all. He was kind of a spastic dog and I could understand this because he could easily run out into the road and get hit. His owner must've gotten tired of seeing his sad face behind the fence and soon Buddy was back visiting the community again. Buddy was such a lover....he thrives on attention and literally throws himself at you for some affection. When you sit in the swing on the back porch, Buddy leaps up into the swing and plants himself, wiggling furiously, on your lap and buries his nose in you, just begging for some love.

One day Buddy came to visit with another dog. This one was much smaller than he and real scruffy looking.

She was a little skittish at first but after awhile she warmed up to us a eventually and let us pet her. We found out soon that her name was Dixie. Now we get daily visits from Buddy and Dixie. Dixie is a real gentle and sweet little girl and is totally dedicated to Buddy. Buddy, on the other hand, is what we call a "love pig". You can't help but reach for Dixie and say sweet things to her while you pet her because she is so cute, but when Buddy sees this happening he rushes in, noses her out of the way and demands he needs the love more than her.

The nicest thing about community dogs is that you don't have to feed them and worry about what to do with them when you want to go on vacation! Our neighbor just whistles or hollers or something (we can't hear it but they can) and the dogs go running home every night.

I'm still a cat person, though.

>^..^<~

Jenn