It’s National Dog Day!

Today is National Dog Day – who knew?  This gives me a great opportunity to celebrate the dogs in my life!

After my parents were married but before I was born, a beautiful collie named Bruce was the first dog to join the family.  I don’t know why but I’ve always remembered that his registered name was Elesko’s Golden Bruce.



While Bruce (or Brucie as we sometimes called him) was great around my sister and me, when little brother joined the family he couldn’t be trusted around a new baby, not to mention our friends who liked to come play in the back yard.  So we built a separate, fenced off area for him to stay in when we were outside or friends were over. 

I don’t recall what happened to Bruce (or when) but next to join the family was Silver Penny, a miniature poodle.  Quite a change from a collie!



I will always remember Penny’s dainty feet.

Once again, we were dogless (I don’t remember the details) and Buffy, a silver poodle, joined the family.  If I remember correctly, she was named after the little sister on Family Affair played by Anissa Jones.

See the resemblance?



At that point my parents decided that while one dog was fine, two were even better and a little apricot poodle joined our family.  Shortly after we brought this little pup home, my mother visited the beauty parlor for her weekly “do” and told her long-time hairdresser that we hadn’t come up with a name yet.  The hairdresser, who had become a dear friend, said we could use her name and we did.  Meet Tinka!



Unfortunately, Tinka had some health issues and after just a short year or two, the epilepsy became unmanageable and we had to put her down.  So it was time for a new dog. 

I’m guessing that because my parents missed their beautiful collie, yet weren’t ready for a big dog, they decided on a sheltie.  I remember driving the 30 minutes or so to check out a dog, about 7 months old, and discussing on the way there what we should name her.  We thought and thought and were having difficulty coming up with a name when Dad said “let’s name her Tinka”.  No, we couldn’t possibly do that even though we all loved the name.  We arrived at the house, knocked on the door, and the owner greeted us with the beautiful sheltie by her side.  And when she said “come in and meet our dog, Tinker” we knew we had just met our new family member.



It wasn’t long before I met my soon-to-be husband.  I’m not sure why we thought it would be a good idea to get a dog (and I’m sure my future mother-in-law agreed) but we brought Tanya, a german shepherd, into our lives.

Once we were married and living in an apartment, Tanya stayed with my mother-in-law but we did take her on outings whenever we could.



By now we were living in a house which made it the perfect time to bring some dogs into the family.  And one by one they came, and one by one they left for one reason or another.

First up was a yellow lab that if I hadn’t seen this picture of me with the puppy in the house, I would never have believed we ever owned one.  She must not have stayed with us long because either she never got a name or the years have erased it from my mind.

I don’t know, maybe we were just puppy sitting?

Then came Tasha, our golden retriever.  We drove at least an hour, in the middle of the gas crisis of the 1970’s, to pick up this cute little girl.  The breeders had marked each of the dogs by shaving a small spot in a different location so that the prospective buyers could identify which one they wanted.  I believe Tasha was right hind leg but she was more easily identifiable by the muddy paws she had here.



I spent a LOT of time with Tasha going through obedience training, and even a few shows.  And she spent a lot of time going on outings – she even went with us to pick out our Christmas tree.

I guess the “two dogs are better than one” gene didn’t stop with my parents and we became the proud owners of another golden retriever pup, Quiche.  I don’t remember much about Quiche other than she had some sort of growth on her head and was bandaged for what seemed like forever.



Tasha and Quiche, along with a cat, hamster, and four tortoises made the big move from California to Washington with us, all riding in our Toyota station wagon we towed on the back of the U-Haul truck.  What a wild sight that must have been for people as they passed our mobile pet store on the highway.

I don’t remember all the specifics but somehow Quiche was placed in a new home and Tasha went off to a breeder who was anxious to have her lineage in their kennel. 

And for a short time, we were back to one dog, Kodiak.



Cute little dog but I remember NOTHING about her other than her name.  What happened to her?  Where did she go?

And then we were back to the two-dogs-are-better-than-one mentality and Christmas brought us sisters Chelsey (buff) and Maddie (black).  We felt like our kids were finally old enough to really enjoy (and help care for) dogs so two dogs it was.



The pups were cute but having two puppies at the same time was probably not the best decision.  They sure loved going out to our property on the Cowlitz River.



But as so many sisters do, these two sisters fought like we couldn’t imagine.  So as hard as it was, one of them needed to find a new family and, fortunately, a friend was only too happy to bring Maddie into their home.  Perfect solution!

Out of all the dogs we have had as a married couple, Chelsey became the dearest addition to our family.  She loved to lay by the fire and just be close by at all times.  Until she got sick and her life was cut much too short.



Our hearts were broken and it seemed that the best medicine would be to get a new dog to fill our lives.  We decided on another cocker spaniel but the new pet couldn’t look like either Chelsey or Maddie but needed to be an individual.  Enter Kylie!

I know she looks a lot like Chelsey but in reality she was buff and white.  And she grew into a beautiful dog – one who, apparently, wasn’t too photogenic except when she was sleeping.



Unfortunately, we learned the hard way that cars and dogs don’t mix well and we lost Kylie all too soon.  Which should have been the end of the line but for those of you with kids, you know that no matter how old they are they can’t stand to be without a dog.  And what kids don’t like a cute little dalmation?



I will admit that Zoey was an adorable pup but I have NO idea how the family in the Disney movie could have handled not only Zoey, but her 98 brothers and sisters.  That girl was active and mischevious…..but we loved her just the same.  And she grew into a beautiful, loving dog who was happiest when we were camping and playing in or near the river.



And yes, you guessed it – back to the two-dogs-are-better-than-one thought and Payton the border collie came to join us.  Payton was named after my favorite basketball player, Gary Payton.  Boy was she a crafty one and she taught Zoey many tricks, the worst being “watch me climb this fence”.  While a border collie has no trouble scaling a fence, it’s not a good activity for a dalmation.  But they did have fun playing at the river together.



But Payton needed to be on a farm herding sheep and cattle so off she went to live with a friend on a farm to do what she did best.

And then we saw Quincy waiting patiently to be adopted.  He had been returned to the shelter because the owners decided he was just a bit too large for their one bedroom apartment – no kidding!



Once Zoey was gone, Quincy was alone – he really needed a family with kids to keep him active.  And was he ever lucky when we found a family with not just one but THREE kids to love on him.  And as he drove away, he never looked back.

We’ve been dogless now for about 10 years but what great memories we have of the dogs in our life!