to do for a friend at a hard time.
Losing an animal we love is so painful. And we’ve been through that too, particularly as my children started to lose their childhood dogs recently. With much sadness, we just lost the last one. We remember them fondly, with great love for all the years we shared with them. We have a little pet cemetery in our backyard in California, with the rabbits the kids had as children, and our beloved dogs. The dog of the original owner of the house, Sugar, is still there too. We have little stone headstones to honor each of them.
One of the many things I am happy about with Minnie is that Chihuahuas usually live for a long time, some for close to twenty years. Longevity is something to keep in mind when you buy a dog, although I would have bought Minnie no matter what breed she was. When you fall in love, you fall in love.
Maxx’s Nancy: keeping busy in the office
Cassio Alves
SIX
The Gift that Keeps on Giving
More than once I have done something that no sane person should ever try to do: give someone I love a dog. It is an incredibly brave, and usually foolhardy, thing to do. And I have no idea why, but it has turned out well every time. It’s a very gutsy thing to do. One thing you should try to be sure of is that the recipient
really
wants a dog! (The antique dealer who sent me Greta had no idea if I wanted one, but that turned out happily too.)
When my kids were little, I gave them their dogs as gifts and surprised them. They had been asking for a dog for a while, and the gift was always met with squeals of delight. My oldest daughter picked her dog, and I surprised her with her second one, which was never really an exciting dog, so I guess that wasn’t a resounding success. Maxx’s first Boston bull, Annabelle, was a surprise, which gave him endless joy forfourteen years. All three of Vanessa’s Yorkies were surprises, and all three were major hits. Victoria picked out both of her Chihuahuas, and Sam her miniature dachshund, and all were beloved dogs, and Victoria’s Chihuahua Tallulah still is.
But the really courageous and insane act has been giving dogs to friends, and each was a special case. The difficult thing with giving a dog to a friend is that sometimes people say they want something they really don’t. Or they think they do, but the reality is a lot different than the wish. A dog, and particularly a puppy, is a
lot
of work and can turn your life upside down. Suddenly you have to rush home from work to walk it, or hire a dog walker, which is expensive. You can’t leave for a weekend at the drop of a hat without figuring out what to do with the dog. And you can spend a lot of time walking, training, and cleaning up after it. They’re not just cute, they’re a lot of work. The reality may be more than a friend wants to cope with. But fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and I’ve cast my lot with the fools in the dog department, although I’ve gotten lucky with the end result. And I didn’t actually “rush” into it, in most cases. I thought about it for a while and tried to be sure they really meant it when they said they wanted a dog.
A close friend of mine had a terrible bout of cancer and really went through the agonies of the damned, with fantasticresults. She bravely faced the most aggressive treatments, and what was thought to be incurable cancer was cured in less than a year. It was truly a miracle, and I gave her a “miracle party” to celebrate her victory. For years she had said that she wanted a boxer, and with my heart in my throat, I decided to take her at her word. I found a good breeder and picked out a gorgeous dog for her, and the night of the party, I gave it to her. To say she looked stunned is a major understatement, and I’m sure as I gave it to her, she and her husband were thinking of the freedom they’d just lost. Their kids were grown, they love to travel, and having a dog at home was going to be a big change for them. I was
Losing an animal we love is so painful. And we’ve been through that too, particularly as my children started to lose their childhood dogs recently. With much sadness, we just lost the last one. We remember them fondly, with great love for all the years we shared with them. We have a little pet cemetery in our backyard in California, with the rabbits the kids had as children, and our beloved dogs. The dog of the original owner of the house, Sugar, is still there too. We have little stone headstones to honor each of them.
One of the many things I am happy about with Minnie is that Chihuahuas usually live for a long time, some for close to twenty years. Longevity is something to keep in mind when you buy a dog, although I would have bought Minnie no matter what breed she was. When you fall in love, you fall in love.
Maxx’s Nancy: keeping busy in the office
Cassio Alves
SIX
The Gift that Keeps on Giving
More than once I have done something that no sane person should ever try to do: give someone I love a dog. It is an incredibly brave, and usually foolhardy, thing to do. And I have no idea why, but it has turned out well every time. It’s a very gutsy thing to do. One thing you should try to be sure of is that the recipient
really
wants a dog! (The antique dealer who sent me Greta had no idea if I wanted one, but that turned out happily too.)
When my kids were little, I gave them their dogs as gifts and surprised them. They had been asking for a dog for a while, and the gift was always met with squeals of delight. My oldest daughter picked her dog, and I surprised her with her second one, which was never really an exciting dog, so I guess that wasn’t a resounding success. Maxx’s first Boston bull, Annabelle, was a surprise, which gave him endless joy forfourteen years. All three of Vanessa’s Yorkies were surprises, and all three were major hits. Victoria picked out both of her Chihuahuas, and Sam her miniature dachshund, and all were beloved dogs, and Victoria’s Chihuahua Tallulah still is.
But the really courageous and insane act has been giving dogs to friends, and each was a special case. The difficult thing with giving a dog to a friend is that sometimes people say they want something they really don’t. Or they think they do, but the reality is a lot different than the wish. A dog, and particularly a puppy, is a
lot
of work and can turn your life upside down. Suddenly you have to rush home from work to walk it, or hire a dog walker, which is expensive. You can’t leave for a weekend at the drop of a hat without figuring out what to do with the dog. And you can spend a lot of time walking, training, and cleaning up after it. They’re not just cute, they’re a lot of work. The reality may be more than a friend wants to cope with. But fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and I’ve cast my lot with the fools in the dog department, although I’ve gotten lucky with the end result. And I didn’t actually “rush” into it, in most cases. I thought about it for a while and tried to be sure they really meant it when they said they wanted a dog.
A close friend of mine had a terrible bout of cancer and really went through the agonies of the damned, with fantasticresults. She bravely faced the most aggressive treatments, and what was thought to be incurable cancer was cured in less than a year. It was truly a miracle, and I gave her a “miracle party” to celebrate her victory. For years she had said that she wanted a boxer, and with my heart in my throat, I decided to take her at her word. I found a good breeder and picked out a gorgeous dog for her, and the night of the party, I gave it to her. To say she looked stunned is a major understatement, and I’m sure as I gave it to her, she and her husband were thinking of the freedom they’d just lost. Their kids were grown, they love to travel, and having a dog at home was going to be a big change for them. I was
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