Who is the Master?

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Who is the Master?

There is no love more true than that of a pet, and for a pet. There is something magical about interacting with a different species, often being the sole source of food and water, love and affection, and attention and care.

I’ve had many pets over the decades, starting with a grey and white Chihuahua. Cece was a wonderful pet, providing many hours of patient love and attention to me. She had puppies which we sold, and I went off to college and left her behind. I seem to have a natural ability to get along with dogs. There really have been very few dogs I haven’t been able to connect with, and pet almost as soon as we meet. There was one Doberman who wanted to bite me once when I was trying to deliver flowers, but luckily I had on tight enough pants the teeth just kept slipping off the denim. And then the owner answered the door.

My children grew up having pets around, and they really were members of the family. Some of them have been purebred, and others were mongrels. We seem to attract cats to our house, and since there are mice running around in the fields, we feed them and that makes them want to stay. I really don’t like cats as much as dogs, but don’t tell the cat who is living with us now. My daughter rescued him years ago from someone who couldn’t have a cat anymore. He stays outside and rubs up against me when I go outside, and likes to be petted. Most cats aren’t really that social around the dogs we nearly always have around.

Really the only dog who has bit the hand that feeds her was a cute little Schnauzer who had just been run over by a car. She was one of the sweetest dogs, and as she was crossing the street, someone who was texting didn’t see her and both my wife and I watched as this poor little dog rolled under the car. I had read you really shouldn’t pick up a dog who is hurt, but when one of your pets is hurt, most of the common sense we have goes away. As I tried to pick up this dog, she firmly latched onto my hand, then bit my wife and bit me again. I told my wife to go get a towel we could wrap her in, and we took her to a vet, but she was too seriously injured and died shortly after the accident.

When the kids have grown and left, sometimes the dogs become the kids. The shock of seeing this small innocent animal killed was too much of a shock for my wife not to replace the dog, and the very next day she drove for several hours to get our newest addition to the family.

The small Maltese has been a wonderful ray of sunshine in our house, though we still miss the other dog. She gets along with the cat, who likes to paw at her, and I think the cat might think this small dog is really a white rat. The other dog gets along with her really well, and though the older dog is a border collie, she thinks she is also a lap dog.

The Border collie only wants to serve, and since there are no sheep around to chase, she often herds me to the backyard where she loves to play. Once this dog learned to catch a Frisbee, there was no stopping her insistence that anytime is playtime. I once tested her while I was watering the garden, and kept throwing the Frisbee, trying to determine how long it would be before she got tired of it. She faithfully brought that plastic disc back every time for over two hours, only stopping briefly to dunk herself in our small pond so she could cool off. I got tired before she did, and I think she would have rather dropped dead from exhaustion than stop catching the Frisbee.

So what does a house with two humans and two dogs look like? I wonder who the master is sometimes. I have to check and make sure there is food and water, and if the food runs out, I am the one who has to go to the store and buy more. When the dogs have been good, they get treats, but I don’t get treats for training them so well. It would be nice to have someone scratch my every itch, but they don’t even worry about if I have an itch. They just want to be scratched and petted, and would like nothing better than a continuous head to toe massage.

I think I want to be someone’s pet. Where do I apply?