It seems as though pets these days are becoming more and more like children. Pets have their own human like beds, outfits that match the mood or weather, and more accessories than even I. I am not one to judge, and to be honest, I think it is cute, and shows that you care. Although for me, they are a pet, and along with a lot of love, I treat them as so.
For myself, when we moved to this Army post, I decided that I for sure was going to get a dog. One, because in general I just love animals, but also for when we were left without a man in the house.
I started out with a puppy, that bit and shredded my children’s skin and clothes. We then got an older puppy that we loved, but needed a friend. On a whim I saw a listing for a two year old dog that is very, very shy. This dog had been abused and did not seem to trust humans. I have a soft spot for any animal that needs help, but bringing a dog into my house around my children is always a nerve racking experience, especially a dog that is iffy of humans. I went anyways and picked this dog up, a little shocked at what I saw. She, the dog, was a lot bigger than I was expecting, and extremely scared.
In the days to follow she would not come near anyone, and if let outside it was a trick to get her come back into our home. We found out that she was sick with many different things ranging from double ear infections, to severe allergies, and also a skin infection. She has had stones in her stomach, ring worm, and also hair loss. Really? This was not exactly what I thought we were getting when getting a family pet.
Long story short we nursed her back and did not give up on making her part of our family. She slowly began to come around more and more, and before we knew it, she was playing with us. Although it seemed as though she had never really played, since she was and still is very awkward with it. Walking was always a trick since she would panic and hide whenever anyone or anything came near.
Let me put this into more of a perspective for you, she is a 100 pound chocolate lab, who at the time we got her, was flabby and very unhealthy. She now 2 years later is still around 100 pounds, and still has flab, but also a ton of muscle. So when she panics during a walk, or really anything, she makes it very difficult to regain control.
Slowly but surely she moved her way into our family and into our hearts. But it was not until my husband deployed that she became my saving grace.
It seems as though my ears became amazingly sensitive when my husband left, I could hear for miles. Maybe not miles, more like inches away from me, but still seemed amazing to me. Over a 12 month period, I do not think I slept more than a few hours of broken up sleep a night. Not to mention the neighborhood we live in was having a peeping tom problem, and also it seemed as though any weirdo’s (sorry if your reading this) in our neighborhood decided to continually stop by the house. I tried everything from moving the vehicles around, to speaking about my husband as though he was home whenever around strangers to make it seem as though I was not alone. I slept with a tire knocker under my pillow and checked on the children numerous times throughout the night. It is exhausting to continually be on alert for a murderer that is about to break in and take your life, or at least exhausting to just think these things.
I would let my dog sleep with me on and off during the time that my husband was gone, but it was not until a housing office member came into the house that I realized she was a protector. The man walked in to do a routine housing inspection, and the dog stood in front of myself and the children and watched the man until he walked out the door. Now this may not seem strange for a dog, but for a dog that seems to be afraid of a fart (yes I said it), let alone a strange man, it was great for me to see.
She began sleeping in bed with me, not only for the protection of her being close, but also for the fact that there was another body in the bed. Now only those of you that have a significant other that leaves for long periods of times will understand that. Sometimes it is nice to have a bed of your own, but after a night or two it becomes hard to sleep without that other body in bed with you. Thankfully my big dog took that place.
I know it all sounds crazy, but thinking of how I came upon this dog that needed help and ended up having her help me seems like such a blessing. There is no way that I would have gotten any sleep during this deployment if I had not had her watching over us. She went from being a scared odd acting dog, to a lover and protector of our family. I truly believe that God brought us together to keep each other safe, and sane.
And yes, she has her own sweatshirt now.
