by Juliannah Jamarin

Created on: March 17, 2009

Before my husband and I were married I used to visit him and he had just brought home a new puppy at that time. The dog was a Dachshund/Chihuahua mix but looked more like a Dachshund. My husband used to joke that I just came to see the puppy. Well it wasn't entirely true but the puppy was so cute. He was only about six inches long at that time and I used to hold him in my lap and stroke his belly.

We were married soon after and I moved in with Hero and my new husband. I would let Hero out in the morning and after awhile I would go look for him. One morning I was surprised as when I called to him I saw his little head pop out of an empty flower pot. I thought he was stuck in the pot and went to help him out but to my amazement he jumped right out wagging his tail as he was jumping up and down. After that when I went outside and in the pot is where I usually would find him. We called it Hero's pot and decided he probably didn't need a dog house because he found one on his own.

After Hero grew up we found he had some unusual habits. One night we were using a flashlight when all of a sudden Hero started chasing the light. Soon my husband was moving the light up and down the hallway with Hero following close behind trying to "catch" the light. After awhile my husband had Hero following the light all over the house. But the funniest part was when my husband shone the light up the wall, Hero would actually try and go up the wall after the light. If you held the light in one place the dog would then stomp the light. We discovered in later years that a laser light would have the same effect.

One day we found Hero outside stomping on the cement and we were dumbfounded to find that he was stomping fly shadows. Yes, apparently he could see them. He would stomp fly shadows for hours. We would just sit outside and laugh at him. We wondered if he was highly intelligent or just plain stupid. Either way he was happy so we let him stomp fly shadows.

One of his favorite indoor activities was to be put in a round laundry basket and having it spun around lightly while he barked and ran around the inside of the basket. I could understand the light chasing and fly shadow stomping but I admit I never figured this activity out. I don't even know how my husband got him to get in the laundry basket.

One Fourth of July we discovered another of Hero's favorite things to do. We were celebrating with fireworks and my husband lit a ground flower. It is a colorful, spinning firework that is thrown on the ground. It emits sparkler like lights. Well Hero soon found a new love. Once the ground flower started spinning Hero would run around it barking until it would finally burn out. Then Hero would look up at my husband as if her were say please throw out another ground flower

Needless to say this dog was very entertaining and provided us with a lot of laughter over the years. We lost Hero awhile ago but we are so happy to have been able to experience flashlight chasing, fly stomping, basket spinning and he always made Fourth of July just a little bit more fun.

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