Today my mom read a story in Coastal Living magazine written by Wade Rouse titled Dog Days on the Shore. It was about his time with his dog Marge that he adopted from a shelter. My mom cried while reading the story. I asked her why she was crying and she said that she was remembering our dog Dancer that we adopted from a shelter. Wade Rouse said in his story that his dog Marge was one of the main reasons that he has success today as a writer and in his life because she never gave up on him. I think dogs know when you are sad or sick. My mom said that our cat Bart would follow her to bed every night when she was pregnant with me and my brother and sit right up against her belly.

I think that Dancer was a great thing for our family. We have had cats before I was born and still have three now. We got our dog Dancer when we moved and my father had to travel once a month for five days and my mom did not like to stay at home alone with us. She said we were at the pet store and she saw the rescue organization called Fairy Tales Adoptions (http://fairytailsadoptions.org) and talked to the lady running it about adopting a dog. When she told my dad she wanted a dog, he did not want one. Which is silly because he loves loves loves dogs. But my mom said that she wanted one and we went to the house of the lady that ran the shelter. I was only three and my brother was one.

The lady lived on a culdesac and she let the dogs all out, there were about 20. They all ran around and we watched them. One dog, a black medium size dog with floppy ears was running around, not really following any dog, and started running right towards my brother. The dog got really close to him, ran right around him and kept on going. My mom said, “That is the dog I want!”

She was the best dog ever. She did not eat any of our toys. She did not go to the bathroom in our house. She did not mess the furniture. She came when you called her. She would sleep in our rooms to make sure we did not get scared at night. She barked at people who came to the door like my mom wanted her to do. She was great. Everyone loved her.

She died two years ago. She had nasal chondrosarcoma. It is a type of cancer in her nose. It was awful. We had to take her to the vet finally one day. It was a bad day. My mom said we should go and be there with her.

Dancer was just supposed to scare away bad people when my dad was gone but she did much more. I think I always loved animals, but I know that Dancer made me love dogs more than anything. Having a dog in my life is the best.

 

This is Dancer playing with Bart the cat.

This is the day we had to take her to the vet to put her down.

 

Our friend Brooke took this picture when she was dog sitting. I am happy she did.