Who Said That We Are Empty Nesters?

As everyone knows, I love dogs! Maybe because when I was a little girl, one never lived past puberty. One of my dogs got run over by the mailman, Pixie. One died outside by the water spout, and then I think we quit trying. My Uncle Gary had a dog that they had brought back from California and they named him Elvis! How appropriate. Little did we know that Uncle Gary and Mike would grow up and sing just like Elvis! I'm not kidding. They amount of times we have spent singing around the piano and with the Karaoke machine are recorded for history. I used to have Mike come over to my house and sing for the women in my ward, at ward functions. Women still talk about him. He is truly as good as Elvis. I love to hear him and never will get tired of him singing. By the way, Aunt Debbie can sing just like Barbra Streisand and so they make quite a pair.

Anyway, I was talking about Elvis. The Dog! He was a chow mix and I loved him. He was so loyal to Mike and I and we spent our young lives with him. He used to follow us to school and then meet us as we were coming home to Grandma's house. All of the nieghborhood kids knew and understood his quirks. He was very docile until it was time for my Granddaddy to come home from work. He would see his car start to pull up and then Elvis would start barking and chase all of the kids that he had played with all day. When ever the kids would see Granddaddy's car come down the road they would all say "AH OH" and start running. When we were young kids we would walk downtown to the show on Saturday mornings. Elvis would always walk with us. He would actually wait for the cars to go by before he would cross the road. I thought he was magical. Sometimes I would worry because if he followed us to school the dogcatcher would try to get him. He always let me touch him when he would eat and no one else could do that.

One time he got hit by a car and Granddaddy picked him up and put him on the backstep and said ,"We'll just have to wait and see." I don't know how he recovered but there were no insurance plans for dogs back then. He always got fed Grandma's scra[s from supper and let me tell you I would eat those scraps today. Biscuits and gravy, ham, friend chicken etc. He was one lucky dog.

So my reason for remembering my dogs, I love them still today. Thus, we have three dogs living here at any one time.! Much to RIchard's chagrin...............My wonderful children bought me a dog, Gracie, a Chinese Pug, in case something happened to Joie, a Chinese Pug, who I had for 13 years. I talked to her more than I have anyone else in my life I guess. She passed away in March of last year. So Gracie was a good idea. Thank you Jonathan. Then we babysit Jonathan and Jaimie's dog quite a bit, which I love. His name is CHIEF, and I love him too. Then Jacqui is not able to take as good of care of her dog as she would like so she brought her home at Thanksgiving. Thus we generally have three dogs here and Richard is learning to go along with the plan. They actually love him alot. So today I am grateful for my friends. My animal companions. They are God's creations too. Thus, we are not really empty nesters but now a boarding kennel for man's best friend! I am lucky.