Dog Decade with our Buddy

It was 10 years ago this day that I went to my grandparents' house for a lunch in celebration of my birthday that was to come in a few days.  As I walked into the entry area to greet my Abuela with the usual "hugs and kisses" as she puts it, I heard a dog barking.  A couple of months before, their dog Mei Mei had passed away.  I dismissed such barking as coming from somewhere else in the neighborhood.  But then something made me think the barking couldn't be coming from somewhere else.  As this realization dawned on me, Abuela stepped aside, at which moment I first lay eyes on Buddy the dog.

Just a few days before, she and my Abuelo, while out, decided to stop at Orphans of the Storm, not necessarily having intentions to get a new dog, but just to look.  While there, they saw two different dogs practically right away.  Another person went to take one of them for a walk, and so Abuelo decided to take the other one for a walk.  He became attached to this one dog, saying, "He's my buddy."  They soon decided to bring Buddy home with them.

Over the past decade, it has been such a delight to have Buddy as part of our family.  He's certainly amused us with his antics, like his insistence on getting a cookie at the conclusion of every meal, and then taking it to the carpeted living room where he plays with it, even getting on his back and rolling over it a few times, to give it the "Buddy smell".  (By the way, people claim he stinks and he smells, and has some kind of pungent odor, but as far as I'm concerned, he just smells like soft fur.)

Yes, he does things he shouldn't like get up on the couch, enjoy one too many cookies, or barking strongly, like at other dogs, or even when someone rings the doorbell at his house--a.k.a., "the barking machine".

He takes delight in children a lot of the time, though.  He likes playing with toys, of which he has many.  He enjoys giving things a good sniff, like when he's out for a walk, or the time when he intently sniffed out a gift of dog bones for him underneath the Christmas tree, and wouldn't even wait until Nativity Day.  He lives the relaxed life of lying in a chair for long stretches of time.

I so do enjoy giving him a nice belly rub, because he's so soft, and he kindly obliges in rolling over on his side or back when I start rubbing him on the belly.  Whenever I visit with him, I make a point to give him, at minimum, a 5-minute belly rub--whether he's at home, or we're dog-sitting him, which then I seek to do every day.

Indeed, we have been blessed with the joys of the presence of Buddy in our lives.  And so we heartily celebrate his decade with us.