dogdaze

Picture this: you’ve just met the most wonderful guy and in an effort to impress him you invite him over to your place for a special home-cooked meal. The candles are lit, the food is delicious. You look into his eyes and ponder if he’s The One. The next thing you know, your sweet little dog is humping Mr. Wonderful’s leg under the dinner table.

This actually happened to me years ago when I first invited this guy (who is now my husband) over for a romantic dinner. I only had two little Toy Fox Terriers at that time, Bo and Sweetheart. I loved them dearly and treated them like my children. I guess that’s why they were a bit spoiled. Sure they humped on their toys and other dogs, but never on people.

That first night after my babies met my guy and “welcomed” him into our home, I was afraid I’d never see that guy again. To my amazement, my guy fell in love with me and my babies. An animal lover through and through, my guy is really my soul mate.

One of my babies, Chiquita, loves to smile. She is the happiest little dog I’ve ever seen. What is so cute about this mutt of mine is that she is solid black and when she smiles, her little white teeth really stand out.

Chiquita came to live with us about nine years ago. My sister actually found her walking in the middle of a busy road a couple of miles from our house. Being a dog lover, my sister quickly stopped and scooped up the tiny puppy. We placed ads in the paper but never found out who she belonged to. As is a habit with us, we fell in love with her and decided to make her part of our family.

Chiquita has brought us many years of fun and laughter with her lively personality and beautiful smile. She’s even given us a litter of three puppies that have grown up in our home.

Chiquita sleeps snuggled next to me every night. Sometimes, if she’s on top of the bed covers and I roll over and pull the covers close to me, I accidentally push sweet Chiquita off the bed. She doesn’t get mad or pout. She just jumps right back into bed and gets under the covers.

At least she’s learning that it’s safer to sleep under the covers than on top of them.

One of my first toy fox terrier babies, Bo, was one unique dog. He never acted like a dog. I guess he thought he was our little human baby. We treated him like our baby.

When he was a young pup, I loved to dress him in cool hats, jackets or T-shirts and then take him to work with me. Everyone at my job loved Bo. Whenever he walked in, it was like a movie star was gracing the place. Bo loved all the attention too.

When I worked late at night, I always had my little protector with me. He was 8 pounds of cuteness!

I would pack his lunch too, and he always made sure he got it on time. I would pack his lunch in a brown paper sack and he would lie on his blanket and watch it until it was time to eat. Of course, other people at work would save some of their food for Bo, so he never really got hungry. He just got spoiled.

As the years went by and my Little Bo Man got older, he still loved going to the office with me. He would follow me around just like a little kid. He was my hero, my shadow.

During football season he would wear hoodies in the colors of the local teams. He also had a lot of Dallas Cowboys T-shirts, jerseys, etc.

Bo caught a lot of grief one Sunday night when the Dallas Cowboys were playing on television because he wore a Denver Broncos colored hoodie to work with me. I was hoping no one would notice it, but they did. When a coworker asked my why “Bo” wasn’t rooting for the Boys, I replied, “Bo always roots for the Cowboys, but his mom hasn’t done laundry this week.”

It’s been five years since my Bo died and I still miss him very much. I’ve had many dogs through the years, but none as unique and cool as him.

I love my dogs, I really do. But sometimes I wish they would sleep on the floor or in their own beds instead of in mine. The problem is they are such bed hogs. They act like our king size bed is their own!

If I move one way, I’m disturbing the Chihuahua. If I turn over, I almost roll on the other one. Thankfully, some of the little ones sleep curled up, but the bigger dogs like their space. They sprawl out like they’re sunbathing on a beach in Tahiti.

Then there’s Tinkerbelle, my 6-year-old Chihuahua, she likes to sleep under the covers right next to me. If I accidentally uncover her in the middle of the night, she actually uses her little paw to scratch me awake so I can let her under the covers again.

Bella, our 18-month-old rat terrier mix, likes to sleep on a pillow next to mine. The problem is I think she sleep walks because eventually she makes her way to my pillow and practically sleeps on my head. It’s not fun to wake up with a paw in my eye.

I guess it could be worse. Sammy, our 3-year-old black Labrador that still thinks she’s a puppy, could be the one sleeping on my head.

My first toy fox terrier, Sweetheart, was the most lovable dog I’ve ever had. She loved nothing more than to sit in my lap and sleep. She also loved having her belly rubbed.

Sweetheart was truly unique. She was born to love and to please. My friends loved to come over and just watch her rollover. They’d call her name and she’d take a few steps and then just rollover submissively and wait for them to rub her belly. After a few belly rubs, she was ready to play.

One day, a friend from church stopped by for a visit. She had never met Sweetheart and was unaware of her “rollover” trick. I was in the kitchen getting some iced tea for us to drink when my friend ran in the kitchen with a scared look on her face. “There’s something wrong with your dog,” she cried. “I was calling her and she just fell over!”

I rushed to the living room to see Sweetheart still on her back waiting for her belly rub. I couldn’t help but laugh at how my sweet little dog had scared the daylights out of my friend. After explaining that this was Sweetheart’s way of getting attention, my friend sighed with relief and obliged by rubbing Sweetie’s round belly.

I  remember visiting my grandmother and her sister in South Texas as a youngster. These visits usually took place around Christmas and in the summer during family vacations. The thing I remember most about these visits was a herd of tiny Chihuahuas owned by my great-aunt.

A few years ago when my husband and I went on vacation I asked one of my sisters to come stay at our house and take care of our dogs. She agreed to do this and was well prepared for the job… so she thought.

Six months earlier we had gotten a new Chihuahua, Tinkerbell. She was a dainty but playful little thing. My sister had the dog-sitting situation under control considering we had about seven dogs at the time.

On the first day, after feeding them, my sister let the dogs out to potty. After about 15 minutes of running and doing their thing, the dogs were ready to come back in the house… all except Tinkerbell who was missing in action.

In a panic, my sister started searching the grounds of our property for this 2-pound Chihuahua. After about 30 minutes, she called her best friend and cried, “Oh my God, I have lost my sister’s dog! What do I do?” As she talked to her friend on the phone, she noticed something moving under the couch in our living room. She dropped the phone and moved the couch to find Tinkerbell playing hide-and-seek!

To this day, my sister refuses to come and babysit for us. “Tinkerbell scared the heck out of me. My dogsitting days are over!” she said.

Have you ever left your plate of food unattended in front of the television set only to come back minutes later and find it clean of any food? I have, lots of times. And if you’re a dog owner and lover like I am, you have the usual list of suspects.

Before we had children, my husband and I liked to eat in our living room in front of the television. We would use our big coffee table as our table and sit down for a relaxing night together. Our two dogs at the time, Sweetheart and Bo, especially loved this because we would sit on the floor, closer to them.

One night, we ordered pizza and had just put our plates on the coffee table. The phone rang and my husband got up to answer it. I also got up to get some extra napkins. Our plates piled with pizza were left unattended for just a minute or two but that was all the time our little dogs needed to help themselves.

I returned just in time to see Bo sneaking toppings off a slice of pizza and watch as Sweetheart rounded the corner of the couch dragging a piece of pizza bigger than she was in her mouth. She took the pizza behind the couch and devoured it. It was such a funny sight!