I lost one of my grand-dogs today.
He's been with the family a long time. My stepdaughter got him from the pound when she was a sophomore at Iowa state. He was found running loose, and they thought he was about 2 years old. That was almost 13 years ago. When she got him, she was living in a place where she couldn't have dogs, so he came to live with her grandparents for a couple of months, until she could find a new place that allowed dogs. He's been with her ever since. He was a quiet dog. The only time I heard him bark was when I shut him in the bathroom of one of her apartments, so we could leave the front door open and move the furniture. He wasn't much for walking. He was half Husky and half German Shepherd, and he would basically drag you down the street at his pace. I was walking him one day and a car pulled up next to me, and the driver yelled out "I want to get me a big mean dog like that". If he only knew. As long as you didn't have a bushy tail, he was your buddy. He loved everybody. I'm really going to miss him.
After our granddaughter was born, the dogs took a back seat. They either got sent into the back yard, or ended up alone in the house, even when there were people home. They weren't allowed in the family room, and that's where the family spent most of the time. One time when the step-daughter brought them to our place, I almost filled a grocery bag by combing out his undercoat. You could make another dog from what he would shed just about every 6 months.
We are worried how his sister is going to deal with this, they've been together for the last 6 or 7 years. They're not going to get another dog. The granddaughter gets annoyed and cries whenever they get in her face. We think maybe the other grandma's dog bit her once, or something. If the other dog doesn't do well on her own, she can come live with us. Per our town rules, we're only supposed to have two dogs, we'll tell them our little dog is a rat, or an ewok. It will be nice to have a dog that fetches again.
Our old boy.
His little sister. Half Heeler, half Corgi.
