When I was growing up our home was never without at least one dog. My favorite of all the dogs was the dog my brother, Scott, got for me. He bought my little brother and I each a "Boarder Collie." I got the female dog and my little brother, Mike, got the male dog. I don't recall what we named Mike's dog, but my dog was named Kyo, as in the last part of the city Tokyo. Our whole family loved that dog. Once she grew out of her puppy stage, I don't recall her ever barking. Unlike most of the dogs we owned she was an inside dog. We bred her and she had puppies. I still remember those cute little puppies. I left for college and Kyo was still there when I came home. In fact she came to visit me with my mom when she came just after the birth of my firstborn. But that following summer I received terrible news. Kyo was hit by a car and didn't live. She must have been 16 or 17 years old and had horrible hearing and was very slow. I didn't think I would cry when this dog was gone, but I did, I actually sobbed. I don't think I cried over a pet since the time I stepped on a kitten and killed her. (That's an awful story for another day, but it was totally an accident.)
Dogs have always been part of my life, until Kyo was gone. She wasn't with me at college because of course you don't have pets there. Then we moved and were living in apartments and didn't have the money nor the yard for a dog. Our ever growing family moved into a house and I didn't have the energy for a dog and I didn't want "one more thing" to take care of.
Then we were done having children. Jessie, my youngest, was potty trained and life was great. Then we discovered we had animal dander allergies. Well, there went my idea of getting a dog. But worse than that was the constant rain here. How could I leave a dog outside in the constant drizzle. He would always be muddy, never allowed in the house, forever ruining the yard and just making life difficult. I didn't relish the thought of cleaning up the yard to go outside and play. I just wanted to kick the kids outside and say, "Don't come in until the sun goes down."
But the nagging feeling of needing and wanting a dog was still with me. I started doing research on dogs and allergies. There were dogs that didn't shed and therefore the allergies that humans have towards animal dander is no longer a problem. Then I did research on what kind of dogs don't shed. There were a few breeds out there that I liked. All were mostly toy dogs which helped eliminate my problem with them being left out in the cold rain 9 months out of the year. I had decided that a Yorkshire Terrier was the type of dog we would get.
Now came the hard part, convincing my "We will never have a dog" husband. My children had no problem with this idea, although they would have liked a bigger dog. My daughter was all for it. All the glamour shots of a Yorkie have them beautifully groomed with bows and very long hair. Talk about a princess type dog. But, Steve was a different story. I had done all the research and all I had to do was show him and then have him write the check. I set up an appointment and we just went to "window shop." Well, we came home with "Alexander the Great" a 10 week old Yorkshire Terrier. He fit in the palm of my husband's hand and was scared to death, but he must have melted my husband's heart while at the breeders.
He was named by Steve because, "he has delusions of grandeur" just like his name sake. It is also fitting that his name is longer than he is. Full grown he might weigh five pounds!
After having him for a year, we cannot see our family without him. Just recently we had to leave him with a dog sitter while we went to Big White. It was so hard to say goodbye and then each night know that he wasn't going to jump onto our bed and sleep with us. He truly is a member of our family.
Here are some of the things he does.
If we leave him home, he waits for us on the back of the living room couch where he can keep watch out the window for the van to drive up. He will even be there when just I am gone.
If Steve is downstairs and I'm upstairs in bed, he will wait at the top of the stairs until Steve comes up for bed. He will even wait there with his ball because the nightly routine is to play fetch a few times before curling up for the evening.
He does the army crawl when he is especially happy.
He loves to dance and jump.
He loves to chase the bunnies off the front yard.
I'm his favorite person, of course.
He loves to ride in the car.
He loves to think he is a guard dog and barks when the door bell rings or the garage door goes up.
He loves each of us and his favorite thing to do is find a warm soft lap and take a nap.
He is truly a GREAT dog!
Other pictures of Alex can be found
http://www.waldsfe.org/scouting/Merit%20badges/dogcare.htm
Doreen