A tribute to Tia

So I was reading something earlier, about a girl who had two dogs. And then she came upon a tough decision. To keep or not to keep? Her dogs, that is. Then I pondered about my two dogs. Could I ever choose to give them up to a better life (as the girl ultimately ended up doing)? And how can you ever be certain that a different life is the better life?  Now, life with dogs is not always easy. Sometimes they drive me crazy.  And apparently sometimes I drive them crazy. Like when I don't feed them early enough and this is what happens:

Mind you, I DO feed my dogs. Just apparently sometimes they like to eat a little earlier, so they help themselves.

Now, sometimes I like to call them Good dog, Bad dog. The dog pictured above is (surprisingly....NOT!) Bad dog. He likes to bark, he likes to bother the cats, he likes to partake of his drug of choice (cat food) whenever he catches me unaware of his whereabouts (which sadly is more often than I like to admit)! He once ate a whole box (minus one or two) of chocolate covered orange sticks. He puked and puked and Jungle boy lovingly gave him a bath and was ever so sweet with him. This may have possibly created a monster. Now he likes to get in to trouble. When he is being his naughtiest, I like to call him Marley Miller. Miller is his middle name I have decided. Ya know, like your mom calls you FIRST NAME MIDDLE NAME when you are in big trouble too.

And then there is Good dog. This is what she looks like:

Ok, ok. That is not what she looks like anymore. This is what she looks like now:

Still cute right?? She has manners. She doesn't bark, unless there is good reason to. She is friendly. When she was a puppy she was like the bee's knees. People were always stopping us when we were walking her, wanting to pet her. She would ever so slowly go over to them, crawl in their laps, lick their faces. And they would fall in love.

Now, do I have a favorite? Try as I may not to, yes I do have a favorite. I try to treat my dogs equal though. Ya know, love them equally. Yell at them equally. All that good stuff. But, if it was a life and death situation and the only way I could save someone was to tell them my favorite dog? Well....... it would be this one:

The Bad dog. Doing what he loves most, fetching and swimming!

But shhhh....don't tell the Good dog.

Now, back to my original question. Could I give them up? The answer right now would be no. Definitely not. Could never fathom doing that. However, life changes. Hopefully someday I will be a mother and that changes priorities. I like to think though, that these two will always be my furbabies. That I will always be their...caretaker? Human mommy?

And to end this random post about my random dogs, I would like to tell you about this dog:

This was Tia. When she was a wee puppy we found her at a pet store. My dad likes to say we almost ended up with two of her because she had a sibling at the pet store and my dad went there after us, looked at puppies and almost brought the other Tia home (ah the days before cell phones and Facebook and Twitter when you didn't have up-to-the-minute updates on everyone). But alas, he didn't. So we ended up with one. She was the very best of the Good dogs. I am glad that she got to spend almost 16 years with us. Even when she was old and frail, she would go outside and if there was snow on the ground (which sadly happens a good amount of time in Canada) she would run and frolick and roll in the snow, just like she was a little puppy again. So, here's to you, Tia. May you frolick in the warm snow of Heaven forever (because snow in Heaven is of course warm)!!!