I was lucky enough to have been raised with animals ever since birth.
When I was born my parents and siblings had two dogs, both of them lasted into the early 80s when they crossed over the rainbow bridge.
We had been blessed with streudel who was a terrier mutt mix. She lived at hour house and at my dads nursery. She was one lovable, but tough dog. She once saved my oldest brother from two German shepherds who had wandered on to the nursery...one was a pregnant female and the other her protector a male. My brother was trapped by them until streudel came and chased the two dogs off. My dad (He was a great man but a horrible businessman) would sometimes trade landscaping shops for stuff...and in 1976 this time the stuff was our cow daisy. streudel and daisy were such a pair that an old, long gone newspaper columnist wrote a story about their friendship and the cow who thought he was a dog.
The other dog we had since I was born was a chihuahua...oddly enough that my sister named Tiny. Tiny was...well Tiny and not too smart. She was not that outgoing and although I have many memories of her she was my sister’s dog and basically the rest of us just existed around her, in her view….we did not have much contact nor playful times with her.
Then when I got old enough to take care of my own pet, in the early 80s, I was able to convince my parents to rescue Clyde. Clyde was a special dog to me. He was a mix between a beagle and a german shepherd….he looked like a beagle sized shepherd in coloring. I used to run home to play with him all the time. He was mistreated before we got him and although he was not always the most rule-bound dog in his heart he was a definite sweet-heart.
So, how about yourself?