I am a new dog parent. What I mean is I was not raised by dog “lovers”. My parents come from a culture of working dogs and the transition from working dog to pet was not made. Both my parents did not grow up farming or ranching but grew up in its wake. We did have dogs growing up but not one spent more than a few years with us and though this is hard to admit, I do not know what happened to any of them. I did not know any better and neither did my parents. This is no excuse, just a fact. Life is very different now. I have three four-legged kids that keep me busy. My three are not rescues in the traditional sense but I want to believe that they are better off with me than where they came from. I have a male and female pittie soon to be six and a little terrier mix who will be seven in August. Honey Girl (HG) the terrier came to me at about five months old when my brother decided I was ready for a dog. My mom had recently adopted her little one and I had been talking about adopting too. HG had a great life with her canine friends and human interaction was minimum. She was dirty, full of fleas and was distrusting of humans when she came to me. She is still distrusting of humans today. I am the only human in her life. Lucky me, yeah!
My two pitties are litter mates and their mother was an awesome dog and friend to HG too. Both pitties had previous owners but luckily Hila’s previous owner changed his mind after only days and I’ve had Hila since she was six weeks old. My male, Mik, visited often until about three years ago when he became a permanent resident in my tiny house. Earlier I said rescues. How are my dogs’ rescues? We somehow found each other. I was not settled on becoming a dog parent yet when HG came into my life and Hila and Mik certainly weren’t planned. But we needed each other and here we are. Now, I’m not saying that their lives would not have been good without me but their previous humans have the same thinking about dogs that my parents had when I was young.
My pitties’ mother was also known to us. She was barely one year when she was bred. She had 10 pups, which amazingly all found homes. She got to spend a few months living with Mik and visiting with Hila and HG but she was gone before she was 2 years old. Her owner did not believe in keeping his dogs contained in the yard. They could wander and momma loved to wander. She would return with awful sores on her feet from the terrain around her home but this did not give her owner cause to change his ways. One day she did not return. Mik had this same habit. Luckily, he came to live with me permanently.
Now don’t get me wrong I fail them often but I keep trying; I keep learning. I guess the difference between the young me and older me, besides the obvious, is that I want to do right by them. We live in an age where I now know there are better, more humane ways to treat dogs and why wouldn’t I. I can also learn about dogs in any number of different ways from TV, the Internet, classes at my local Humane Society or the obedience class and Petco. Times have changed and I want to change with it. I have spent years learning how to be a good dog parent and unfortunately I still have a long way to go. But along the way there have been and will continue to be many life lessons that lead me to be believe that I was rescued by three of the most energetic, drooling, loving, wiggling, frustrating, amazing four-legged kids in the world.
