Dogs . . . . . Man's best friend.

It seems that ever since we had a home of our own, we've had a dog, pretty much. Kinda came naturally.

We really didn't go LOOKING for a dog, they found us!

In 1980, we had our first home and got Sadie, the brittany spaniel that had too much energy for our little backyard. The people that had her before needed a place to send her and we thought we could take her in . . . only to realize she needed a LOT of room!! So by 1983, we found her a good home on a farm and she loved it! The guy that got her was training her to be a bird dog!

Rusty was a golden retriever that my mother-in-law called me about one evening in 1981, wanting my hubby to put a note on the board at work. She said that the dog (about a year old)  had to go THAT NIGHT as the people were moving to an apartment. Well, hubby had already left so my father-in-law went and got the dog even though we had Sadie at the time. OMgosh, he was so emaciated and so scared. Full blood golden retriever but he had been badly abused and was really sick with worms. So we had two dogs all of a sudden!

Rusty with our oldest, Rob, now 38 and Bethany, now 31!

After numerous and expensive vet bills, he turned out to be one of the best dogs! Rusty, as we called him, was very distrustful of people and would come up BEHIND you and nuzzle your hand at your side to be petted. But a gentler dog could not be found. The only person he would approach head on was our daughter, Bethany, who was only two at the time. She would ride him like a horse and he would let her!!

After we moved in '85, Rusty was in his element! He would roam around back like there was no tomorrow! Very few people lived out here back then and Rusty, being a golden retriever, liked to steal things! Out here, people would burn their garbage and the cans went to the dump. Well, Rusty would go to the next farm house and steal tin cans!! Hubby read up on it and it was suggested in the article to tie the can around the dogs neck, loosely, and they would stop it. NOT! I had more tin cans in my garbage from the neighbor than I did from us!

About '88, we were driving home one day and came upon a little dog with a rope tied to his collar. Just about ran him over but he moved and we went on home. All of a sudden, I looked down the lane and here comes this little dog, following us home. Well, we left him outside, along with Rustly until we figured out what to do with him. Hubby went out to back up the car, not knowing this little dog was laying behind the wheel. He backed up, the dog yelped and ran into the woods!

We all looked for him but he was not to be found. The kids were crying but we had to leave and get our son to a game that he had to play in. Well, when we came home, here was this little dog, sitting on the stoop! Not a scratch on him! I will tell you one thing, he never went near a car again!

Speedy, fuzzy little thing, huh?

 We put an ad in the paper but no one wanted this little guy. He was probably part poodle, part schnauzer from what we could tell. The vet said about a year old. Bethany called him Speedy because he was speedy enough not to get crushed under the wheel! We found that Speedy, a male, had been neutered and was fully house trained! He didn't weigh over 11 pounds.

In 1989, Rusty, even though he had all his shots, came down with distemper. We had to put him down. It was a very sad day. Rusty was sorely missed but we still had Speedy.

In 2000, my daughter and her boyfriend at the time, bought a siberian husky pup, Dakota. Of course, the two split up and the boyfriend got to keep the dog as he refused to give him up. In 2003, she called and told us that she was going to get him back. Aaron, the boyfriend, was going to get married and didn't want the dog anymore. We convinced Bethany that an apartment was NOT the place for an 80 pound siberian husky so guess where he went? To our house!!

Dakota, gentle, quiet, a beautiful dog!

Dakota and Speedy got along famously. Speedy had really aged but Dakota gave him a great last year! Really perked him Speedy up for awhile until we finally had to put him down. After all, he was about 16-17! We all missed him a lot.

Dakota was our last dog, or so we thought. He loved laying outdoors, looking out the back, especially in the snow! He loved doing the "air chomp" as we called it. And loved it when Bethany came home with her little dog Rafael! Oh, the running around then! A little over a year ago, right before Christmas 2010, Dakota became ill. In no time at all, it seemed, his stomach swelled and we rushed him to an emergency vet. She said he had a cancerous tumor that had burst and was filling his abdomen with blood. We had no choice but to put him down.

Crying and totally in shock, my husband and I drove home that night. It seemed to take months to get over the loss but we figured we had always had another dog and this time we didn't but we weren't quite ready to get another.

Then we went to my dad's in Montana the next summer, 2011 and met Sassy. She is a border collie and labrador mix. My niece foolishly went out and bought her and my brother told her she had to find a home for her.  She was about a year old and we fell in love with her!

Sassy, just as her name implies!

Now Sassy looks like she's been drinking milk but in all honesty, she's been chewing on a rawhide bone! She is now our baby, our pet, our pest!!

We've had other animals come in and out of our lives but none have been such wonderful pets as these dogs! Why is that? I don't know. We feel our pets are part of our families and when we lose one, it hurts. I can say that we have truly been blessed with our pets over the years and wouldn't have had it any other way!! I wonder who we'll find next?

Now if you have a dog that you like to pamper, come on over to OLA.com! We have a lot of great deals here, leashes, collars and specialty collars, dog books and so much more!

And if this isn't what you are looking for, as always, feel free to browse through our store, KornKountryTreasures! We'd love to have you as our guest!

Thank you!