After unsuccessfully finding a dog to love after we lost Brandon, we lived without a dog. Two toddlers kept us plenty busy along with the fact that my husband traveled quite a bit for his job. When our children were 4 and 2 years old, we made a cross-country move to warmer climate. The first year in our new location, having a dog was not practical, as we were living in temporary housing and building a new house. When we moved into the new house, though, it was finally time to get another dog.
My husband found a newspaper ad for a Labrador Retriever that needed a new home. He went to see the dog and brought her home. She was about a year old and her first owners had named her Sheba. Not what we likely would have named her, but she responded to her name so we decided not to change it.
We were in the process of building a pool and landscaping our new yard. One day soon after Sheba arrived, I was watering some newly planted bushes with the hose. Sheba ran up and put her face into the water pouring from the hose. She was having a blast playing with the water! This surprised me because our other dogs had wanted nothing to do with water except for drinking!
The pool was a dream come true for this dog who loved water! At every opportunity, she would enter by the steps, swim the length of the pool and back, and then climb out by the steps. When the kids were swimming, she was right there with them. Because the kids were small, and even though they both were good swimmers, we fenced the pool from the rest of our backyard. Although Sheba was a “house dog,” when we went to work and the kids were at school, we generally left her on the covered patio and left the gate to the pool open so she could cool off in the pool whenever she wanted. We lived in that house for about 6 years, and then decided to move to a different school district, one that we thought would be better for our kids. The next house did not have a pool. Poor Sheba! We occasionally got her wet with the hose though. By this time, she was totally an “indoor” dog, so we didn’t have to worry about her being overcome by the summer heat. We “inherited” Rusty from one of our children’s teachers. Rusty had been a class mascot throughout the school year but needed a home when the school year ended. Fortunately Rusty and Sheba got along well. During that time, my daughter also had a slew of gerbils. We started with two… and you can imagine how we ended up with multiple gerbils! They were so small that we only let them out when Sheba was not in the room. We didn’t think she would hurt them but one did get out under the door of my daughter’s room… and Sheba picked it up and accidentally killed it. We felt bad and did a better job of keeping her separated from the gerbils.
A couple of years later we moved to another house in the same neighborhood/school district. That time in my life is a bit blurred but I think we found Rusty and the gerbils new homes before we moved. Sheba, of course, went to our new home with us. By this time she was about 9-10 years old.
A year or so after we moved, my marriage ended and I moved to an apartment nearby the house so the kids would still be able to go to the same schools. No pets were allowed by the apartment complex, so Sheba stayed at the house. I would go over frequently in the evenings after work and take her for long walks. She was a pain in the neck to walk, though. While she was good with other animals in our house, she would bark fiercely and loudly at other people who were walking their dogs. I always watched and stayed clear of other dogs because I had no idea how she or the other dogs would react to her aggressiveness. One thing I was sure of though… no one was going to get near me when I was walking her alone!
About a year after the divorce, I bought a small house that was quite a distance from the house where Sheba lived. She was getting older too, so I no longer walked her. By this time, my children were teenagers and they still loved her and gave her attention when they were at their dad’s house. And he gave her plenty of attention, too.
Several years after my divorce, when Sheba was around 14 years old, it was time for my children to say good-bye to Sheba. They called me and with lots of tears we accepted that it was best to let Sheba go… she had been a loving pet and a good watch dog. Now it was time to let her rest.
After Sheba went over the rainbow bridge, my children had a cat or two at their dad’s house. Much as I loved dogs, I was working full time and the kids were coming and going all the time. I just didn’t think this was the time to add a dog into our busy schedule.
But, it wasn’t long before Kaicee, the Wonder Dog, stole my daughter’s heart and we were off on a new doggy adventure. Stay tuned… let the dog antics begin!
Grace Notes 