I reacted to Cookie as any person who cared about dogs would react to a cute, furry little puppy.  I played with her and gave her as much attention as I could, but something was missing.  I just couldn’t relate to Cookie as I had to Ginger.  Cookie was a little demon that got into everything and destroyed a lot of my toys.  This was my first lesson that puppies had to be patiently taught how to behave. With Ginger this all seemed to come naturally as we spent all our time together.  Ginger learned tricks and behaviors because I played with her constantly.  I didn’t spend that kind of time with Cookie.  When I got home from school there was always homework and chores to do.  Cookie spent a lot of time alone.

As Cookie got older I did give her more time, but it was probably too late.  Even though she responded to my attention, she wasn’t quite herself.  Mom, herself, got a little Chihuahua (see Princess I later on this Website) and even though Cookie got along well with Princess, she still craved people attention.  I was in school most of the time and didn’t notice that Cookie was getting sick.  She died in her sleep one night.  All these years later I realize that none of us saw the signs.  The signs all pointed to a Cancer of some type.

Lesson learned here.  Never get a dog as a replacement for one lost unless you feel really sure that total commitment is there.  As the years went by and I got a lot older, I began to feel I could open myself to more than one dog at a time.  I am very thankful for this because now I can give myself to a large number of dogs at the same time and still realize that each and every one is an individual that deserves 100%.

LADY

Lady was also a reddish-brown terrier type dog. She was quite a bit smaller than Cookie.  Lady was only with us a short time.  She appeared on our doorstep one day ready to give birth.  My Grandmother took her in and cared for her.  After the pups were born my Grandmother became very close to Lady, and Lady to her.  Lady would follow her everywhere.  We were able to find good homes for all the puppies and made plans to have Lady spayed.  However, one day when Grandma was taking the trash out, Lady followed her as she always did.  Grandma forgot to close the gate to the backyard and went into the house to check on something she was cooking.  When she went to see where Lady was, she found the open gate and Lady was gone.  Grandma was heartbroken.  We all searched for weeks after this happened.  We put up signs and checked the dog pound daily in the hope that she would get picked up or turned in.  We felt that she ended up on someone else’s doorstep just as she did ours, and that the people kept her.  At least we all hoped that this is what happened.

I realize that accidents do happen, but after this I became much more safety conscious. Unfortunately, we never even got a picture of Lady.