My Story

Before I tell you about anything else, let's talk about me. After all, isn't that what blogs are for?

I'm a 5-year old authentic American Original canine Some people might call me a plain brown dog, but only if they're idiots. I hate to brag, but am actually pretty smart. I've trained people to give me treats when I do stuff like shake hands, crawl, roll over and jump. It's funny to watch them - they seem to get so excited when I do tricks like that.

My dad left my mom before I was born. I moved out when I was pretty young. Frankly, a lot of that time period is a blur. I just remember one day when I was about a year old I ended up dirty, skinny and wandering aimlessly with a heavy chain hooked around my neck. Somehow I got the chain wrapped around a tree in some brush in front of a house. It was a hot day and I was pretty thirsty, so I started barking. And although I was glad to see someone come out, I was afraid to let them get near me. The water was appreciated, though.

Long story shorter, these folks were finally able to unhook the chain and encouraged me to "go home." Ha! I was - they just didn't know it yet.

I decided to lay low and hang out in the bushes for a few days. Since the people were offering me food, so I felt the least I could do was help guard the house. So I stayed in the bushes at the bottom of the driveway, barking whenever strange cars came up. It was still a little too dangerous to come out, though, so I just stayed behind the brush. Looked kinda like a barking bush. This earned me the dubious nickname of "Shrub."

Thankfully, my shrub days are long behind me. I share a home with several other dogs and we allow a couple of cats to live here, too. Life is pretty good.

But I haven't forgotten my homeless days. I wonder what happens to others like me who aren't as lucky? The future isn't too rosy for the offspring of dogs like my mom. I don't know for sure, but she probably had more pups after me who also needed homes. Dogs can have at least two litters a year of 5-6 puppies each. In only a year those puppies are having puppies. That's a lot of extra dogs floating around out there.

And you wanna talk promiscuity? Let's talk about cats. The girls have heat cycles all spring and summer, so they can pop out kittens like an assembly line. It's disgusting. And since they can start having kittens as early as 4 months, they stay pretty busy. I'm all for mandatory spay and neuter for all of them. In my opinion, the world just doesn't need anymore cats.

OK, maybe one or two, just to aggravate.

I'm glad that some people are finally looking into making things a little better for animals like me. There are a lot of well-intentioned pet-owners out there who may not have a lot of money, so helping them get pets spayed, neutered or vaccinated is probably a good thing (although I'll never be totally convinced about the neuter issue). And letting people see the faces of available pets in shelters through newspaper or television is a great way to find them homes.

Anyway, that's my story. I thought it would be helpful to give you an idea of what it's like being a "plain brown wrapper." Dogs like me are usually overlooked in the shelter cages because we're too big to be lap dogs, not purebred, and not always cute and fuzzy. Grrrr.

But I think better times are ahead.

Til' later, Buddy