Abby is A Dog

Abby has had so many amazing accomplishments since she has come to live with us; but I think that the one I'm most proud of is her becoming a dog. I know it sounds silly, but Abby has turned into a dog in the past two and a half years, granted she has turned into a very spoiled dog, but she is a dog none-the-less.

In the past few months Abby has had a few more dog-like qualities. She has started giving kisses and she also sits in my lap when I'm knitting or reading. Most people take these things for granted, and I admit that I do with my other kids, but when Abby started doing it, I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. These are things that real dogs do, and up until recently, Abby wasn't a real dog. Sure, she could do some super cool things, but the everyday-ness that makes a dog a dog wasn't there with her.

I think that all the extra work we've been doing with training has really paid off. Not only has she learned to work and to think, but she has also learned how to settle. She has learned to read my body language and has learned the more subtle commands of everyday life that we never actually teach our dogs, but we still expect them to obey anyway. She solicits attention without being overly frantic or needy about it. She can settle in a chair and sleep comfortably near me without always having to be on me. She started fussing back at me when I try brushing her or grooming her for too long. I think that she realizes that she is home and that she will always be loved and cared for here. At least, that is what I hope she feels.

In a world of throw-away pets, this one could have easily been discarded. When I got her, she wasn't social, she was terrified of everything, she was extremely destructive, she had no self-control; and if I had decided to give her away or have her euthanized, no one would have blamed me. But I didn't do that. Instead, I found a way to work with her and to manage as many problems as I could. And after all that work, two and a half years later, I finally have a dog.