As many of you know I have a dog named Sophie. For many years she was my best friend. She was always there for me and loved me unconditonally. Let me tell you the story how Ms. Sophie and I found each other.
The year was 1998 and I was doing an internship my final year of college when I was getting my bachelors degree. I had been working at this community center for two weeks. I was working in the inner city, so there were stray dogs always walking around. After being there for two weeks I pulled up one morning to find this little puppy (she was around 8 pounds) running around our parking lot. My supervisor came and gave her some food from our food pantry. I remember watching her in the security cameras thinking.."she is going to get hit by a car". I told myself that if she was still around at lunch I would take her home. At lunch time she was no where to be found. I was secretly grateful because I already had a dog, Casey. (he was a cock-a-poo) Around 3pm I went out to do a home visit and when I returned around 3:30 she was running around the parking lot again. I called her over to me and she came running. I picked her up and told her "if you are here when I get off at 4:30 I will take you home with me." When I walked out the door at 4:30, this sweet little puppy was sleeping on the steps by the front door. So, as promised, I picked her up, put her in my car and took her home. Now when I got home I put her in the backyard. My cousin was getting married in a few weeks and I had to go do a final fitting for my dress. I wasn't sure if she had anything, so I wanted to keep her away from Casey. When I got home a few hours later she was not in the backyard. I went to the front yard and just started yelling, "puppy, puppy". Since I hadn't named her yet I didnt' know what else to say. Well, she came running from 2 houses up. That night my ex and I went out and bought stuff to put around the parts of the fence where she could slip out. She has been part of my life ever since.
Now, Sophie has been very spoiled since she came into my life. She was such a cute puppy and then grew into such a sweet personality, how could I not spoil her??? Well, as it turned out, by spoiling her I turned her into kind of a snob as well. She learned she could do whatever she wanted and get away with it. I didn't have the heart to punish her.
So, when Laura came into my life the two of them started butting heads. Sophie was the Queen of the house and Laura was not going to put up with any of the things she was doing, when Sophie knew she shouldn't be doing those things. Sophie quickly learned that she can not mess around with Laura and when Laura says "no" she means "no". When Laura and Sophie would be home alone things were perfect. Sophie acted like a perfect dog. Then the minute I would walk in the door she would go back to those old behaviors. It would make Laura so mad.
One day we were sitting and watching Ceasar Millan's "The Dog Whisperer". In this show he talks with people about making sure your dog knows you are the leader of the pack. I had a HUGE lightbulb moment. This was how Sophie saw things:
Laura was the leader of the pack and I was just another bitch in the pack.
Damn..that dog is good.
3 comments:
Awww....I love dog stories. When shel and I first got together I came into the relationship with Abby (my 8 year old peke-a-poo). Abby was my first "on my own" dog and we were bonded together as tightly as any human-canine relationship I'd ever known. Shel used to joke(I think she was joking, anyway) that when I would leave the house that Abby would just look at her like "You're not my REAL Mom...I don't have to do what you say". They ended up falling in love with each other and Shel was always as much her Mom as I was. I still miss that girl so much!
Angie
Yes, I think that's exactly what Sophie thinks! That Caesar Milan really knows his stuff, doesn't he!
Oh, if only I could have Cesar come to my house. My dogs are well behaved around us, but they will not let ANYONE except my sister in the house. Lots of snarling and growling. I'm glad I rescued them, but boy do they have issues! I'm glad Sophie found such wonderful home. It's hard not to spoil a rescue!
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