People Let Me Tell You 'Bout My Best Friend...

This is Lady.  She's my best friend (Spousetacular does not qualify as friend, he's more.  The Boy cannot be a friend - yet.  He's too young).  Lady came to our family when she was 6 months old.  We didn't know beforehand, but we figured out pretty quickly that she had been abused at her first home.  Yeah, I know...we got her at 6 months.  A puppy isn't usually separated from the litter until about 3 months, so in 3 months, someone was a complete bastard to her.  And she was the cutest puppy!  Lady is 12 now.  Just turned 12 in January.  We had a little party for her.  There was cake, and presents, and we sang "Happy Birthday" to her as she sat on Spousetacular's lap.  She loved it, especially the cake and the Busy Bone part.

We need to go back a little way -- to the abuse part.  When we got her, we thought maybe she was just shy.  No, it was more than shy.  She was terrified.  Lady would roll over on her back and wet herself when a man walked in the room.  If someone sneezed, she would run to a dark corner and hide.  If someone raised their voice (didn't have to be angry, just louder than conversation), she'd pee, then run away and hide.  It was heartbreaking.  To this day, she'll still seek out a dark corner if she can.  But we've worked on all these things, because we love her. 

We cured her fear of Spousetacular because we found she was even more terrified of the vacuum.  So, one night, when I needed to vacuum, and Spousetacular was lying on the couch, I plopped her trembling little body on his chest, and he held her, pet her, and whispered sweet nothings in her ear, until she fell asleep.  Cured.  Now she's a big fan of Spousetacular.  The greeting he gets when he comes from work is really cute.  She's a dancing fool for him now.

Sneezes were more difficult.  She's still not really confident when she hears a nasal explosion.  But we try.  We call her over immediately and tell her how brave she is.  She likes that.  Every now and then, she'll start heading over as soon as she hears the sneeze, but not consistently.  Yep, 11 1/2 years and we're still working on that.

We do our best to avoid male dogs.  She's not at a fan of them, though she has stopped wetting herself when she smells one.  In general, other female dogs are fine, if they're on the other side of the fence, and they don't put a wet nose in her ear.  Lady has sensitive ears.  When our other Lab, Duchess, was alive, Duchess took good care of Lady.  Duchess would put herself between Lady and another dog, even if the fence was between them.  At first, Duchess, affectionately called "The Pooh", was not a fan of Lady.  Duchess liked being the only dog.  After a while, Lady grew on Duchess, and Duchess adopted the "she's a pest, but she's my pest, so piss off" attitude.  Duchess was a great and terrible beauty.  Gorgeous, show dog gorgeous, but she absolutely ran the show.  Lady idolized her.

Now, Lady is the alpha dog in the house.  That she is the only dog in the house helps.  She follows me everywhere.  I could have named her Shadow.  She dances when I grab the cars keys, because she loves to ride in the car and usually gets to go with when I go out.  In nice weather, she'll spend all day lying on the different decks and porches around our house, or, out by the mailbox.  She loves The Boy and likes to play "puppies on a blanket" with him, or "Ice Station Zebra" under the blanket. 

I know at 12, we have a handful of years left with her.  I'd like to think that she's happy with us.  She seems it.  So, if you remember the TV show, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, you probably remember the theme song.  I sing that to her, although I've changed the words a little.  She's my one dog, cuddly toy, my up, my down, my pride, my joy.