Dog Each Day - REWIND!

Marker and color pencil on tan Crescent board, about 11″ x 8″. Reference photo by Gin Marks.

My husband and I originally had two chihuahuas (Samantha and Peanut). Then, we also adopted a lab-shephard mix named Indiana (a long story). Indie was smaller than the chihuahua’s when she came to live with us and always thought she was one of them even though she eventually grew to 85 pounds. She was the “bridge” between our chihuahua’s and our current miniature pinchers. She passed away about a year ago at nearly 15 years of age … a good long life for a big girl. I cried most of the time I was reading “Marley and Me” because it sounded as if they were describing Indie exactly (right down to her extreme fear of thunder storms)! So, okay, that’s enough background. Now, this is how we got to where we are today …After Peanut and then Sammie passed away, Indie was pretty lonely. I had my mind set on getting a little papillon from a local breeder. About that same time, Rick fell madly in love with a feisty little female min-pin in the pet store. He was very persuasive, I eventually gave in, and Sophie came to live with us. A year or so later, my sister called me from the animal inn where she works. A woman who sometimes boarded her male min-pin at the inn was getting a divorce and was looking for a good family to take the dog. She was willing to give up the dog and all his things (dog crate, toys, food, etc.) at no cost. We had never had a male dog and had no plans to ever get one. But, when I mentioned this story to my husband, he decided to go for a visit one Friday on his way home from work “just to check things out.” After waiting at home for some time, I called my sister to ask if Rick had left there … that’s when she told me that they were on their way home. When they arrived, he assured me that it was just a trial visit and the dog would go back on Monday. As you can probably guess, Joey never left our home.

Sophie and Joey have been virtually inseparable since that day forward. We call them my bookends because I always have one on each side whenever I’m sitting down - Joey on my left, Sophie on my right. There were some growing pains in the early days. Joey suffered from separation anxiety - mistook a leather sofa for a giant chew toy, chewed the corners off of all our decorative pillows, little things like that. But, we’ve come a long way since then, and the positives far outweigh the negatives. - Gin

Sophie gets her Day today to match Joey’s Day! Wonderful pair of dogs - Happy birthday, Gin.

Bookmark to: