In Praise of the Smaller Dog

Far be it from me to tell anyone what sort of pet to keep.

As a child we had many pets furred, finned and feathered. Still, in the furred department this usually meant a dog.

Our family dogs came to us from the shelter or pound. To my knowledge there were no rescue organizations back then. In short they were usually one of a kind and of dubious pedigree. What folks most likely would call Mutts.

They were an odd assortment of sizes and colors. But all were at least twenty-five lbs, not more then seventy. Yes. Some of them came to us as puppies but soon grew past the puppy stage, small and cute into something called a dog that was in that general weight category.

Toy dogs, little tiny, fluffy and fragile were thought of as foo foo, of no use, a waste of dog food to Dad and my older brothers, manly men all! I guess as the youngest and the the only girl child I had inherited the notion that little dogs were simply out of the question.

I keenly remember joking as a teen, with a few friends, that a dog under twenty-five lbs. was a rat with laryngitis (bark) and a pituitary problem. That made them grow past the size any self respecting rat should grow.

Even as an adult I never really became fond of the toy breeds. The only dog that I had ever been bitten by was a tiny little nasty thing named Paco . . . a Chihuahua. This tended only to reinforce my feelings that little dogs tended to be testy little snits, since Paco was as short in stature as he was in temper.

Many years and dogs later, a few days after my last sweet old gal of a pit mix passed, I headed to the SPCA in hopes of finding one more warm doggie head to pet. It is indeed an unfortunate fact that our dear companion animals have much shorter live spans then we who care for them.

I guess I must have a neon sign on my forehead that reads 'Sucker' that only dogs in shelter cages can see. Because every time I walk into a shelter every dog in the place seems to be wearing their most pathetic "take me home PLEEEEEASE ?" look.

This time however , I came armed with the latest computer generated, Petfinder report that I had printed out so I actually knew of at least 3 dogs I might be interested in. Ahhh the joys of the digital age.