Dogs

We have three dogs (all rescues): Snowball, a lab-chow mix; Cooper, a lab-golden retriever mix; and Foster, a beagle-basset hound mix. And the longer we live together, the more I realize that they, truly, *are* (wo)man’s best friend. My hubby has been traveling a fair bit these past six months and while the dogs always are vigilant, they get more protective when Chris is not there: they surround me when I sleep (or am trying to go to sleep), making sure they are all touching me, and one of them, Cooper, makes sure he is facing the door. When I have a rare very bad pain day (I deal with fairly severe chronic pain), Cooper will often refuse to go outside in the morning until I can get out of bed (even if that is not until early afternoon) and he will stay with me every second.

Snowball has had two litters of puppies in her life, and even though the last litter is almost ten years ago, she has always remained a “momma-dog”, mothering – or trying to – baby animals (kittens, birds, puppies), baby humans, and taking care of her Vrouwtje and Baasje (the affectionate term for mistress/master, doggie mom/dad in Dutch).

And Foster…. Foster shows us how to live life with abandon. He is a little engineer, super intelligent, figures new things out continually, and is one of the smartest dogs I have ever been around. He is also supremely sweet though – when my dad passed away three years ago I got the word in a 7 am phone call when Chris was not home (he was on his way to the airport for a work trip and fortunately was able to turn around and come back home). I sat on the edge of our bed and cried. Pa’s death was not unexpected – he had been battling cancer for four years – but I and we did not expect it *then*, and I felt like something massive had just hit me. Snowball and Cooper took up their places at the foot of the bed, forming a hedge that anyone who would want to approach me would have to go through first. And my little bagel-dog, as we call him affectionately (bagel = beagle+basset…. in case you were wondering:)), quietly walked up to the bed, jumped on it, settled in next to me and put his head on my chest. And sat there for half an hour, occasionally giving me a small lick.

Our dogs are not people, but they sure are part of our family. So…. a few pictures: