The Child I Do Have

Yes friends, I have kept a secret from you.  I do have a child.  She is furry and four legged.

Pathetic and irresistible

Since I can't get myself in a halfway decent mood, I figured I'd blog about my awesome doggie.  Her name is Scout. She's named after the character in "To Kill A Mockingbird" so if you thought I had a Demi Moore thing, I say to you "read a book."  I named her Scout because I was hoping she would embrace some of the trusting characteristics of our beloved Jean Louise, but alas, she's a freak show.  A freak show that I love very much.

When I was feeling that I would be single forever, I figured I should hurry up and get myself a dog before I found myself turning into the crazy single cat lady on the corner.  I really wanted a Corgi and I searched Petfinder.com for weeks to find one.  I finally saw my Scoutie at a shelter in SC.  So I drove down one Valentine's Day to get her.  I saw her in that cage and I could not wait to take her home.  She would run up to me and let me pet her for a nano second and then she would run and hide.  She'd work up the courage to come near me again and then she'd go hide again.  My heartstrings done been pulled.  I brought her home.  The only thing I knew about her was that she was in a hoarding situation.  I also knew that when they went to spay her, they found puppies.  My poor little girl had an abortion against her will.


Super Scout!

She was so fearful.  She used to hide in the corner and shake whenever anyone would come over for at least 6 months.  When we went on walks, she would literally stop in her tracks and refuse to move if someone was walking on the other side of the street.  I took her to training and she was a rock star.  She earned her Canine Good Citizen Award and stopped with the shaking.  Then the freak show came out.

She is so super protective of me it isn't even funny.  When anyone comes relatively close to the house, she barks her fool head off.  God forbid someone actually comes in the house!  That causes a complete freak out.  Barking her fool head off, blocking the guest's way in.  No one likes my poor puppy except for us.  When J and I started dating, it took a lot of work to get them to be friends.  They are inseparable now, but it took a lot of table scraps to get there (J giving them to Scout, not the other way around). 

One of these things just doesn't belong!
Scout at the Corgi picnic.

When I first got her, I was told she was a Corgi.  Then I took her to a Corgi picnic.  She stood out like a sore paw!  My mom got her one of those DNA tests so we could see what she was mixed with.  It came back Chow and Lab... no Corgi at all!  The vet thinks she's probably Chow and Australian Shepard and she's just short.  Shortness fits in well in this family!

For as big a freak show as she is, she's the light of our lives.  Every night she runs around the house and plays with her blue racket ball.  Her short little legs bat at that thing like it's a pinata full of the best goodies you've ever seen.  It's so dang cute.  When one of us is upset, she is not having it.  She isn't the kind of dog who sits in your lap with the sad doggie face and warms your heart.  My dog jumps allover you and licks off your tears.  She's more of a "cut that crap out!" kind of dog than an enabler. 

I have to admit, infertility is easier to face when you have a dog to throw all of your maternal energy at.  I highly recommend it.