Dogs...

We have an outside dog, she's old as dirt... She was a gift from my husband because my other doggie Jake died.. I HAD to have another one. He searched and got me exactly what I wanted.. Me and Lindsi came home one day and he had the puppy all bundled up on a baby blanket sitting inside of a little wooden baby bed. She was so pretty... Fat 8 week old chocolate lab. I knew I wanted another lab because Jake was a lab and he was perfect. Jake being black and a male I decided I didn't want one that looked like him because he was too special to "replace" So I asked for the opposite. Well... I lived through total Hell with this dog. She tortured me at even moment she could. I'd come home to chewed up shit all over the house. She slept in the bed with me and she chewed the sheets, Lindsi's special Shea Shea baby doll. She crapped everywhere.. Pissed all over the place. NON STOP! She didn't listen to a word we said. As she got a little older I decided she needs to stay in her crate while Lindsi was at school and I was at work. I couldn't tell you how many people gave us that advice... They will be fine, they will get used to it.. It'll help to train them, they won't pee or poop in the cage... etc. Oh but ALL of those people had normal dogs, my dog was the spawn of Satan. She punished me every way she could for putting her in that crate. I had just found out I was pregnant and the dog only got worse. SHe attacked everyone that came through the door. Not by biting but the jumping and clawing and crazy shit that drives company up the wall... Then she started living up to her real name... She became a bitch. I'd come home in the freezing cold to a dog that would crap in her cage roll all around in it EAT it and the puke it back up.... YES! Almost everyday I'd have to drag that crap covered dog outside in the winter weather give her a bath and wash out her cage... I'd cry, I'd stress, there were many times I just wanted to open our front door and set the bitch free... The few times she would get away from us she'd run away.. My husband would chase her down the road into other people's yards. I knew she'd come back but IF she got hit by a car my luck she wouldn't of been killed just hurt and there we would be having to fork out a ton of money to fix a broken dog.. NO THANK YOU! We took her to the park and she'd pull us all over the place. We got her a choke collar so she wouldn't drag us, she still did. Her eyes would bug out of her head and turn blood shot red and she'd still pull... She'd bark in the house until you felt deaf.. We bought a shock collar just to break her of it. NOPE... It fried the hair off her neck and shocked her until she had vampire marks bleeding through her fur... She wouldn't stop for anything. Pointless. We couldn't use that anymore. Training is one thing but to continue to use it was pure cruel. Besides it didn't work so what was the point? Right before having Keeli I decided she needed to go outside. I didn't trust her around the baby and I didn't need that added stress I knew she'd cause. We live in a neighborhood with kids and stray dogs so she had to have a pin... She adapted so well to the cage. And I adapted so well to a dog free home. It was wonderful. No shit, piss, barking, jumping, hair, NOTHING.. Very relaxing. She's been out there for 8 years now. When we give her a bath or let her out, she runs right back into her pin. She's content out there. Keeli can pet her and I trust her now. The fur around her face is white, and if she has an over active day she walks with a limp. I know she's losing her hearing because I can walk all the way to the cage before she comes out of her house to greet me with a jump and a bark. She doesn't run off when I open her cage to feed her and give her fresh water, she doesn't go crazy and jump on me. For some reason this summer the flies were attacking her. They have never done that before. I was so angry watching them torture her. It was weird. Her ears were eat up, her nose was eat up and I was on a mission to get these pesky flies off my dog. I cleaned her wounds everyday with peroxide and ointment. I hung up bags of water and pennies all over her cage alone with fly traps. It all worked and with in days she looked back to normal. She let me take care of her everyday. It made me sad. Thinking about how bad I've hated her for all these years... I know she's old and I'm going to walk out to her pin one day and she's not going to come and greet me. I don't know what I'll do. I can't say I love her like a family member, that was Jake.. but I can say I love her like a pet.... Keeli asked for a dog of her own from Santa last year, she got it.. Her name is Eli, she's a Jack Russell... She is a whole other story!! Getting Eli has made me realize I'm not a dog lover like I thought I was.