A Dog’s World
Owning a dog is a wonderful experience and has added so much quality to my life.
They will give you so much unconditional love and brighten each and every day.
In exchange for some care and attention, a dog will provide years of faithful companionship and unconditional love.
However, owning a dog requires responsibility and commitment from the owner. Understanding these responsibilities is essential and it’s very important to think about whether you are willing to commit the time, effort and expense required for its proper care.
Responsible dog owners understand that proper nutrition, socialization, training, veterinary care, regular exercise and love and understanding are all necessary elements to pet ownership.
Dog’s have been part of my life since childhood and they have always been considered part of the family. I remember when I was really young we had a German Shepherd that really intimidated me. He was so large and strong and quite honestly, I was afraid of him. In my growing years we had many other dogs and I’ve always enjoyed having them around. Becoming an adult and leaving home, dog ownership seemed to disappear. Perhaps it was because I never lived in a place that would allow a dog or I was too independent and care-free, I didn’t own one again for many years.
Then on my birthday, my sister Janet gifted me a puppy from the Humane Society. I remember being at the shelter looking at different pups and one sorta stood out… or should I say stood forward. This little puppy excitedly ran across the room to me as if he knew I was to be his owner and would be taking him to his forever home. He was right.
He was a mixed breed that included Springer Spaniel and I named him, Trooper.
An unexpected addition to my doggy family happened on July 4th when this scruffy little dog started hanging around my front door. Of course, I felt sorry for him and began to feed and water him. I checked with all the regular sources inquiring about a found dog but nobody replied. As a result, I named him “Scruffy” and he became part of the family.
After the passing of Trooper and Scruffy, I felt a huge void in my life and began searching for another dog. I spent hours researching dog breeds and decided to look for an English Springer Spaniel. I found a breeder in nearby Oklahoma and arranged with him to get a puppy from his next litter. In the meantime, I put in a request to the Humane Society that if they were to get an English Springer Spaniel, I wanted him. To my surprise, within a few weeks I got a call from the Humane Society that they had an abandoned pure bred ESS puppy.
In January 2005, I brought my new dog home and named her Trixie.
After all the previous research I had done, I committed to raising this dog in a different way. First, I was only going to feed her high quality dog food. No more of that cheap stuff from the grocery store.
I also took her to socialization classes at my veterinarian and when she was old enough enrolled her in a obedience training class.
Since I was now self-employed working from home, I was able to spend endless hours with Trixie and she went everywhere with me. It’s been said this dog breed is like “Velcro” and sure enough Trixie stuck with me everywhere. She would follow me around from room to room and seemed to always want to be near me.
Trixie also became an inspiration for me to create a new website where I would share my experice with English Springer Spaniels and write about topics I was learning about dogs.
Trixie sure had a high energy level and was all over me. I tried training her to not jump on me and gouge me with her sharp nails. Several pairs of pants and shirts were torn before she got the message.
After many hours of training her jumping somewhat slowed but another disturbing behavior emerged. She had a definite food aggression and I learned she was overly possessive of rawhide treats.
Over time I became more aware of the plight of abandoned and abused dogs and made a decision to do my little part to help.
I began to volunteer at my local pet shelter to foster dogs that are either too young to adopt or need to recover from an illness or surgery. I came to really enjoy taking care of those dogs and got particularly focused on caring for young puppies not yet old enough to adopt.
In September 2020, Trixie suddenly lost her vision. She had already lost her hearing and now I was presented with a new challenge. She was nearly 16-years old and other than the hearing and vision issues, her health seemed to still be pretty good. So, rather than taking other drastic measures, I committed to making her life as comfortable and workable as I could.
Poor girl tries walking around but cannot see things and constantly bumps her head. Don’t know if it’s from frustration or boredom, but she spends allot of her time sleeping.
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