by Betty Jo Petty

Created on: August 24, 2007   Last Updated: January 16, 2008

Short Stories: Love of pets
Pets I Loved

Looking out my kitchen window one day, I was amazed to see a tiny white dog in my neighbor's yard. This tiny white dog was just a bit taller than the grass. The grass wasn't very tall.

The neighbor was a young woman, not too far from my age at the time. On her next visit to my house she told me about the tea-cup poodle. She was six-years-old. The lady's mother had brought her from California, and gave her to this young woman.

Good for me, sad for her, the lady's husband didn't like the little dog. He preferred his German Shephard. Yes, she gave me this little dog.

I loved this dog from the minute I saw her. I had been married for four years, with no babies in sight. We had this adorable little poodle for six years. She was twelve when she died. My son was eight-months-old. Until I had my son, this little dog was my baby.

We were given a toy poodle, that lived with us for four years while we had Tika. He
died the day before I found out I was pregnant with my first baby. These dogs were
more well-behaved than most of our friend's children.

These were two pets I loved dearly. Andre and Tika. I gave them cute hair-cuts, and they had two or more showers each week. Andre would stand on his hind legs and admire himself in the mirror. He honestly looked at times like he wanted to talk.

These dogs were my kids, until I finally had my 'real' babies.

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