Read Online Finally Home-Lessons on Life from a Free-Spirited Dog by Elizabeth Parker - Free Book Online Page A

were about ready for a new one. Thank goodness for small favors. I was glad we hadn’t purchased a new couch prior to adopting Brandi.
    Raising two dogs was not without its rewards and we were doing the necessary things to make their life a pleasant one. Within a few weeks of her adoption , it was time to get Brandi spayed. We decided that I would stay at my mom’s with Brandi during her recovery period because Buddy was just too hyper . We did not want him accidentally ripping any of her stitches by playing too rough. She was perfect at my mom’s and did not have any accidents. She did not even pay any attention to the cockatiels.
    While we were stay ing there, I had made a decision to give the cockatiels away to a better home (though I feel badly now for doing so). I felt they were not getting enough attention and that they would do better elsewhere, ironically similar to Buddy’s story with his previous owners . During that same time, we thought Buddy and Brandi were missing each other, so Michael brought Buddy over to visit .
    Buddy was happy to see Brandi , but after their initial greeting, he ran directly downstairs to where the cockatiels had been . When he did not see them, he started whimpering and carrying on. He peeked behind the door where they once were, circl ed outside the room, smell ed the floor, and then returned back to the location where the original bird cage was.
    He then looked at me with the saddest face imaginable, giving me the worst type of guilt trip before moping away. It was at that moment that I realized two important things . First of all, I felt terrible for giving away the birds , and Buddy had magnified that feeling of guilt for me by searching for the m . Secondly, Buddy (and probably most dogs) d id not forget. It had been months since he had seen those birds, and yet he remembered them and their exact location.
    After the two - week recovery period for Brandi, we were finally able to bring her home again. Thankfully, she was back to her old self and seemed happy to be where she was most comfortable.
    She was turning out to be a very easy dog compared to Buddy. If I were to write a book about Brandi, it would be very short and sweet. She just listen ed to the commands as they we re given without giving us any heartache. Buddy , on the other hand, actually th ought about the commands, determin ing whether or not they fit with his current mood and then decid ing if he is going to follow through or not. I swear that you could actually see him deliberating the outcome of his actions.
    He knew what would get him in trouble and then took the time to contemplate whether it was worth it or not. A prime example of this took place after one of our evening walks around the block. We always walked the dogs with a leash, but whenever we got close to our front door, we took them off of the leash to let them run home. We never had issues with this routine. Well, one night we followed the same routine and were not really paying much attention, but there waiting for us on our doorstep was our neighbor’s skittish cat. We knew that Bud would n ever harm a cat , but a chase is a chase and he was certainly up for the challenge.
    It did not matter that we had just walked for two miles and that we were exhausted. Buddy still had tons of energy and he took off like a speed demon, cross ing our extremely busy street and r unning in the dark away from our house. I d id not know where I learned all of the obscenities I screamed , but they were coming out of my mouth full - force. I could have sw orn Buddy was definitely going to get hit by a car that night.
    My heart was racing. I had to make a quick decision whether to run after him or go in side of the house, get the keys , and drive to find him. As mad as I was, I was devastatingly upset. Not that we could have foreseen a cat lounging by our front door, but that we should have known better than to let a hyperactive, insane pup off of the leash in the front