The downside to dog ownership

NOT THE DOWNSIDE

I really love dogs, but I have to admit that there IS a downside to dog ownership. I won't go into all of the bad things that have happened to us with our dogs, but I'll mention a few.

Dogs DO pee and poop in the house, and sometimes the house is covered with dog hair. When Lady (sled-dog type) and Katie (collie) were alive, it looked like there were white pillows of dog hair up against the wall in the basement.

One of our dogs, Buddy (mutt), spent his days outside, barking and annoying the neighborhood (and me).

Buddy also got bored and chewed the basement stairs. Twice, he got into my food (destroying a bag of peanuts and ruining a perfectly good bowl of soup).

Lady got hold of my spare glasses (they were out of her reach, I thought) and crushed the case and glasses. It cost me $84 to replace the lenses.

If you're eating, your dogs are begging for food. All of our dogs begged, but Dixie might be our No. 1 beggar.

LADY, DIGGER DELUXE

Most of our five dogs dug in the yard at one time or another. Lady was the star digger in the family.

Lady often got out of the yard, and Buddy and Dixie (beagle, above picture) have gotten out now and then.

We had fights, of course, between Lady and Katie (our first collie) and Lady and Buddy. Lady was trying to assert her dominance, and the others were trying to survive.

All of our dogs have gotten in our way, particularly when they were begging for food. They all would lay down in the middle of the walkway, turning the house into a doggy minefield.

The worst thing, of course, came when our first four dogs, one by one, got sick and died or had to be put to sleep. I'd take them back with all their faults, if I could.

Sometime soon, I'll talk about the good times. There have been many more of those.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

MORE ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

EDITOR@WORK BLOG ENTRIES

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

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• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

ANECDOTES BY TOM GILLISPIE

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer OUTTA there!

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