Gwyneth B. McGlinn

So Alex thinks I don’t like dogs.   I want to set the record straight.  I like dogs but not dogs that live indoors.  My parents have one.  They really enjoy having him which is great for them.  I think he’s a good dog but I prefer outdoor ones.

The things I don’t like are:

Finding hair in my things months after moving out
The faint hint of dog (maybe it’s all in my head)
Finding messes in front of the TV
Not having privacy when I’m home alone (that was a big one)
Cleaning their paws every time they come back inside (Bruno got tired of that fast)

All this may make it sound like I don’t like dogs but I do.  I love going out with them on walks.  The crotch sniffing was a lot like a good handshake or hug (in the recognition sense).

Dogs are usually pretty and have soft fur.  I think Samantha, our shorter haired dog, may have shed more than Bruno the longer haired one they have now.  It was less obvious with her living outside though.

If I could I’d get another Samantha in a heart beat.  She was fun.  You couldn’t turn  your back on her or she’d sneak off to eat cat food.  So you had to have her on a leash.  She was pretty active but she knew exactly when I wanted to be totally still.  We’d lay in the grass together for a long time.  She never seemed bored but would jump up and want to go run afterwards.

She loved walks in the woods, country music, and eating compost.  Rotting banana peels and corn cobs were her favorites.  She liked hanging out when we had the BBQ going.  She hated water so if you wanted her to stop doing something you just had to gently splash her.

She also hated being inside.  We would take her on a long walk and let her run around a bit before brining her in.  She’d go pee multiple times and poo.  Once inside she would wait a couple minutes and then pee on the carpet.  That got her back outside quickly.

Samantha adopted us.  My Mother thinks the neighbors brought her home from the grocery store but the neighbor girl denied that.  We found her in our yard.  She was this cute little thing with her heart held out for us.  Our first thought was that someone would post lost dog signs.  So we posed a dog found sign at the road.

No one claimed her.  We had her in our fenced in backyard.  She very quickly tried her first escape.  I don’t recall if she got out but obviously she came back.  We had another dog back then Argos.  (No, not Arugs like the cameras I own two of.)

She and Argos got along pretty well.  He was the old tough guy who put her in her place.  He wouldn’t put up with her puppy antics.  He was a sweet dog.  I was small when we got him so I just remember his last few years.

I named Samantha after a girl I met once.  The girl was a friend of a friend and liked to go by the name Rambo.  I wanted a name that could be changed if she turned out to be a he.  So if she was a boy she would have been Sam.

She was so full of life.  On a bad day all I had to do was hang out with her and I’d quickly feel better.  She was the first noun (person or thing) I remember saying “I love you” to.  She was the best thing in my life.

Like all of our dogs she got old.  She had bad joints and was probably in a lot of pain when she walked.  She also had other issues due to her age.  When it got really bad we had to put her down.

I remember that day clearly.  I was at my internship when I got the call.  My Mother told me what they were going to do.  I was hoping they would wait till I got home for the funeral but they did it before I got there.  In some ways I think that was best.  It’s been nearly three years and I’m bawling as I write this.

When we got Bruno one of the first things I did was tell him all about her.  We’d make a detour to her grave when out for walks.  I was so upset about it that soon after she died I was driving to J.P.’s work and crashed my Camry.

A couple months ago I was sitting at work.  I got the urge to go home and play with her.  Then I realized she was dead.

Now you’re thinking that I don’t want a dog because none of them will be just like her.  And maybe that is partly true.  In some ways I also think I’ve grown out of the dog ownership phase.

And there’s the watching them age while you’re still young.  It’s hard to go through.  The hardest part is believing their gone.  You put so much time and love into them and then they’re gone.  I’d much rather have kids that will grow old slowly and outlive me.