My love of dogs has certainly grown over the years. I never had a dog growing up, well at least prior to high school. My dad was conveniently "allergic". Which is really interesting because he has two dogs now...but I digress.
I was 16 when we got our first dog. His name was Buster and he was from the local pound. He didn't last long because he bit a few people...a cousin, a boyfriend...and back to the shelter poor Buster went.
That's Buster with our first exchange student, Lucia.
My mother then searched for an "owned dog" that would be more easily assimilated into our very busy household.
Moggie came from a young couple who didn't have time for her. She was a beautiful Belgian Shepard who was bigger and longer haired than my mother wanted, but she fit with us well. I think she was about a year old when she joined our family in 1988.
Moggie lived with my parents until her she got to be old and incontinent and was euthanized in November 2001.
I got married in 1997 and Hub and I bought our first townhome just prior to our wedding. I couldn't wait to get my very own dog. I begged and begged and Hub finally conceded in late January 1998. I was determined to get a dog THAT day. We had agreed that we would get an adult dog, about 1 year old, so we would not have to raise a puppy and we wanted to rescue a dog from a shelter. After visiting two in the Boston area without any luck, Hub was done. I BEGGED to drive the 45 minutes to the Salem Animal Rescue League and Hub finally relented. There we fell in love with Bailey (actually his name was Damian which we promptly changed!). He was a 3 month-old puppy that had been adopted and returned that morning. He had attended puppy-kindergarten, was crate trained and knew basic commands.
We got in the car with "Damian" and I turned to Hub and said "Bailey or Casey?" See I all ready had names picked out. Hub picked Bailey and we took our new bundle of joy home.
Bailey was a black lab/pit bull mix and he grew to a stocky 60 lbs. He was a strong-willed smart dog who had me wrapped around his paw! We added Bug to our family in April 2001 and Bailey was protective and gentle with the new "cub". Abby could crawl over him, play with his mouth, pull herself up on him...he tolerated it all.
Bailey became ill in April 2005. It started off as seizures. Once he was house-trained, he slept on our bed between Steve's legs. ALWAYS! So, we he started seizing the first time it immediately woke us up and we held him until it stopped. We took him to the vet and did blood work and took him home to observe. He continued to have cluster seizures every couple of weeks until late September when they began happening more frequently and impairing his neurological function. We had an awesome vet who helped us come to the decision to euthanize him on October 2, 2005. We were devastated!
Hub didn't want another dog for a while. I was beside myself with sadness at coming home to an empty house daily. We compromised. We decided to foster. Hub said no black dogs. I agreed.
I found a wonderful organization, American Lab Rescue, and we signed up to foster with them. Our first foster, Jake, arrived on December 4, 2005 and was adopted by a family a week later. Bug picked out a puppy she wanted to foster next, but that dog was adopted and didn't need a foster so I told them we'd take "Tory"a beautiful yellow lab from Louisiana. She was arriving on December 18, 2005. Three days before her arrival, I got a call. Would we please take an awesome black lab named Trey. He was also in the shelter and would be euthanized before the next scheduled transport run from his area (due to the holidays it would be three weeks instead of two). Hub and I agreed to take Trey and I quickly let everyone I knew know that we had a black lab that needed a home ASAP! My friend A and her family were interested and after meeting Trey the day after he arrived, he was home!
"Tory" was a precious girl with quite a history. She had survived both Hurricane Katrina and Rita. She was 9-months old and had truly had a horrible start to life. She was underweight and easily scared, but sweet as can be with the softest fur ever. We quickly made the decision that she was meant to be our dog and we renamed her Chloe.
In the process of meeting Trey, Hub decided he LOVES black labs. I agreed they are a beautiful breed of dogs. We opened ourselves back up to any color lab.
We fostered many more dogs including "Big Brown Biting Dog" (AKA Reese) who was a 150 lb chocolate lab that attacked Bug.
"Garret" was handpicked for us after the Reese incident. He was a very gentle black lab and I was smitten! I renamed him Cole and he was my love! Our family was complete!
We continued fostering for a total of year. We had over 20 dogs come through our home on their way to permanent homes. It was incredibly rewarding and we learned that I am a sucker for a dog in need of a home, even if only temporarily. We realized that without Hub, I would be like those crazy cat ladies...only with labs! I would seriously have taken a dozen of them if I didn't have Hub setting limits!
When we moved from MA to VA we couldn't have bring our dogs to the county apartment we were living in while we sold our house in MA. It was a really tough time for me but we were so blessed to have amazing friends who loved our dogs like their own. Chloe came to VA with us and stayed with the "R" family and Cole remained in MA with the "B" family who had adopted Trey. We continued to visit them both and missed them like crazy!
Two years later we move into a bigger place where we can have our dogs. Chloe moved in the same day we did. We planned to pick up Cole when we went to NH or vacation.
Cole had become very attached to the "B "family and Trey and had not done well when we had initially left, so we made the difficult decision to leave Cole with the "B" family who had taken him in and loved him like he was theirs.
That left us with an opening for a new dog. I searched for an adult black lab here in VA and learned that in nearby NC, adult black labs are the second most commonly euthanized dog because folks are "afraid" of "Big Black Dogs"! CRAZY! Anyway...we were matched with "Black Jack" who is now Remy.
I LOVE my dogs. They are my four-legged kids! I love spending time with them. I love having them greet me after a tough day. I love the warmth they bring to my bed at night and the security I feel having them in the house.
I hope they are happy with their life with us. I think they are! They have it pretty good! :)
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