by Tsing Tao

Created on: March 16, 2007   Last Updated: December 14, 2011

The Dog came to live with us in the fall. We are not Dog people. We have never had a dog in our family before.

My eldest daughter came to live with us last summer and brought The Dog with her. When she left again to pursue greener pastures we inherited The Dog.

"I'll send for her when I'm settled." She called back to us as she escaped into the western horizon."

Fall turned into winter, which turned into spring, followed by Summer and no call came for The Dog.

The little, black and white dog was ours. We were stuck with her. At least for the time being.

So, we took care of The Dog. We fed her. Groomed her. Took her to the Vet. Walked her. Talked to her, and brought her into our family. In retrospect, It could have been much worse.

A dog, after all, is not like a human child. Some couples that we know have children that come home with children of their own. They leave the children behind and go off to pursue other adventures. This is a frightening scenario.

What we got was, The Dog. A little, black and white border collie. Female.

Trained well. Obedient. Well behaved. Good-natured. Smart. Just the kind of dog anyone would want. If you wanted a dog. Which we did not. We are not "dog people".

Dogs tend to grow on you though. You don't want anything to with them at first. They are a nuisance, an inconvenience.
They are like little children, with fur.

But, when you come home after nine or ten hours of dragon slaying and the little black and white border collie is waiting, right inside the door, so excited and just more happy to see you then darn few people have ever been, it starts to grow on you.

"Oh, alright." You say to The Dog, effecting a bored tone "Yes, yes. I'm happy to see you as well."

She doesn't like to be left alone. (Who does ?) She likes to have her people close by. Where she can keep an eye on them.

We are, after all, her people.

We are the ones that she got stuck with.

We are going to have to do. At least for the time being.

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