We have a dog, a big one, not massive, but big. She's a boxer-beagle mix named Lacey, and we describe her as a boxer with a beagle head (doesn't sound as cute as she looks right?). My wife and I got her shortly before we got married. In hindsight it was perhaps our "test run" at parenthood. She started out as this adorable little puppy you see here.
And this is our beautiful girl now, she's gotten a little bit bigger (about 70 lbs bigger!):
Lacey comes with a bit of a story that I'd like to share with you. My sister lives in what us in Southern Ontario call "up north". It's about a 2 hour drive north of where we reside. It's cottage country to Southern Ontarians, where there are a lot of very nice retired people, some people who call it their year round homes and some very backward people. Lacey came from one of those "backward" people. He was a farmer who raised boxer pups to sell as purebred. It turns out that by some twist of fate a beagle got with his prize boxer mom and bred. The result was 7 boxer/beagle pups. Afraid the news would get out that the boxer bloodlines were not pure, he was going to shoot all 7 pups. As soon as my sister heard this she got on the phone to me an asked if we would rescue a pup. We sure as hell did! Between my sister and I we managed to find a home for all 7 pups *whew*. In a strange twist of fate the dirtbag who was going to shoot the pups is now raising boxer/beagles because of their popularity *grrrr*. But I digress.......
Lacey has taught two free wheeling young twenty somethings a thing or two about responsibility. Every decision we made thereafter involved our new member of the family. We weren't able to just up and take off for a weekend without factoring her into our plans. She also taught us about saving, having to save for her vet bills and puppy training. We also have to make sure she gets sufficient exercise and proper food.
When we were about to have our first daughter my wife and I prepared to smooth the transition from a three member family to a four member family. We were worried about the dog feeling ignored and having her turf invaded. We did everything to make everyone feel like they had a part to play in our family and that there was more then enough love to go around. When our daughter was just a little baby, Lacey was very, very well behaved considering what she had to put up with. Our daughter "Peanut" would crawl over to where Lacey was sleeping and poke her ears and bend her tail and Lacey would just get up and move out of reach. Now that Peanut is older she has learned to be gentle with Lacey and not hurt her. She has learned that Lacey needs love, hugs, kisses, treats, food and regular walks. Today, Lacey and Peanut are best of friends.
As for Lacey she gives us all she has in return, heaps of love. Even if I go out to the garage to grab a screwdriver she acts as if I've been gone all day and is excited to see me. We as humans can learn a thing or two from our pets when it comes to animals "I don't give a crap what you look like, do for a living or the clothes you wear" uninhibited love for us. We had a scenario where we had put our daughter to bed and were sitting on the back porch enjoying the evening. Lacey came to the patio door like she wanted to go outside to relieve herself. I got up to let her out and she took off and bolted from the door, back inside the house and upstairs to the second floor. Finding this odd I went upstairs to see where she had gone. I found her sitting at the foot of our daughter's bed, with our daughter on the floor crying. She had fallen out of bed and Lacey came to get us, GOOD GIRL!
To this day we can't express in words how much our dog has enriched our lives. We offer in return our love to her.
I'm sure all of you our there have stories of how your pets have added to your lives. Please share those stories and see you in the comments!
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