I should start this entry off by saying this. When I read Summer's post about her dog experience, I was finally able to grieve the loss of both of our dogs. We don't have the luxury of knowing what happened to them, they just disappeared from our yard, one before Christmas and the other a week or so after. I have missed them so much and every bone in my body just aches to love a dog again.

Thunder used to "knock" on the door when he returned from "working" at the corner store and I have checked the door repeatedly after thinking I heard him. Not only did we love Thunder, but all of this town loved Thunder, he even made it to our small town parade last year. My hope is that someone thought he was a stray because of his "route" and took him in and made him a housedog. He came home to us every night and was a housedog, sometimes all day for two or three days-but then he wanted to do his route. We are in the coutry so he could. He also went to jail a couple of times and we bailed him out-worth every penny and we have checked, he is not there. Thunder was a people person, he would go and live with anyone. He always came home to us, but we knew he was a player and spent time with other families.

Buddy the wonder dog was different. He just showed up in our yard and slowly won us over enough to let him move in the house and our hearts. He also became a halfway house dog and loved us to pieces. He was a chocolate lab and he NEVER left us. When we left, he waited on the front porch. I know he did not leave our yard and worry what could have happened. He was very protective and did not like strangers. It took him a while to warm up to all of us and then we were his pack, he did not even like other dogs-just Thunder and the cats. We were his all.

So there you have it, I love all the critters. I am a dog person though. I have always had one(off and on) and just love their big old lovey eyes. They just are a gift from God that love you as big as there little hearts can hold. Cats are different. While I love them, I know they just rely on me for the food stuff and to keep me doing that and the litter box, they occassionally snuggle on their terms. They don't pine for us when we are gone, they play chase and sleep on the kitchen table.

All of this to say, that we heard of a family that had a Wiemeraner stray into their yard. They had had the dog for two weeks and were looking for a home for it. I got the number and came home and did all the research I could on them. Everything sounded typically doggy except that they are high energy-so are my kids, and they are what's nicknamed, "the velcro doggy" because they never want to leave your sight. That really appealed to me. They are also a large breed house dog. That appealed to me. The only concern we had was that they are very instinctive hunters and will hunt squirrels, rabbits, mice, moles and CATS. Every website cautioned they would hunt cats. Except two, one of those said they would tolerate cates if introduce as a puppy to them along with the family. This dog was like Buddy in that he is still a pup, but mostly full grown. After we got home from Erika's doctor appointment in Nashville yesterday (All went great, she is just supposed to be little, no health problems!! YEAH!!), we went to meet "Jack". Jack was so sweet and so pretty. The most laid back dog. The girls and I were all over him petting and loving him. Then he saw Erik and went over to him and made sure to include him too. He won us all over. He had gorgeous eyes and the softest ears in the world. We all had great expectations. We let him in our front door where sat two kitties waiting to greet him. He growled and bolted. I had a good hold of him and we finally managed to get all kitties in the garage. He did sort of ok after that. He was a velcro dog but he stuck to both Erik and I and seemed to be upset until we were all three in the same room. He peed in the floor and stopped when I siad to and then we went outside. The first of I know 15 trips outside to pee. I could tell he was AWAKENED, the hunter within him wanted to explore and sniff and be let loose to hunt kitty. When we went to bed, just like the website said he jumped right in the middle of the bed and we thought it was so sweet, except he could not stop hunting cats. He would get down, go check under the garage door. Pace around, lay down near it. Then come back to bed, sniff our faces and curl into a ball. This happened about 10 times. A big giant jumping onto the bed and sniffing our face and then collapsing onto us is not condusive to sleep. 10 times. At 4 AM he hopped down and started to pee. I said "NO" and took him outside, where he was very enthusiastic and wanted to pee everywhere. I am not a morning person normally, but with no sleep, even less so. At 5 AM, I put his leash back on him and took him back. There were no lights on and I knew he had been staying outside all day while she was at work so he would be ok. I planned to come home, sleep til my alarm went off at 7:30 and then call her. I did that. They had already brought him back in and she said he was slepping like the dead in her bed. I told her he was exhausted from hunting the cats all night and I was so sorry it did not work. He is a great loving dog-that cannot be mixed with the kitties.

I hope my husband, who has no sleep for the day either will forgive me soon. I am also kind of over the dog thing for a little while too. Maybe after we get back from the Texas Vacation in March.