Woman's Best Friend

No, I'm not talking about shoes or designer handbags. I'm talking about dogs.

Here's a little back story; My family and I have had dogs as far back as I can remember. Our first dog was a male labrador named Seamore. I don't know who named him or when we got him but he was ours. We had him until I was about 5 years old and sadly he ran away. But a great family found him and took him in. Then we moved into our current house and we got a new dog. A female German shepherd/husky mix whose fur was a white and cream colored. Her name was Star. We adopted her from an animal shelter in Bismarck. Star was the best dog and the reason all of our dogs after her were so great.

This photo really doesn't do Star's beauty any justice but this is what she looked like. 

About a year or two after we adopted Star, we then adopted Maggie. Maggie was a lab/pit bull mix. I think it's incredibly unfair that pit bulls get a bad reputation for being mean, ruthless dogs. Maggie was nothing like that. She was a sweet dog who's bark was the worst thing she would do.

As Maggie got older, she started to look more and more like a pit bull. But she was still incredibly nice.

Finally, we got Bailey. Bailey is a chocolate lab mixed with something else but we're not quite sure. We got Bailey from my Uncle John and he even told us he didn't know what she was. Bailey is just as sweet as any other dog we've had but she LOVES  attention. She acts as if we don't give her any love at all!

Bailey with one of her favorite treats because tasted like peanut butter.

Well, Star and Maggie have passed on but we still have Bailey. Bailey has proved to be to be just as loyal as she is sweet. When I started going on runs in the morning, I would take Bailey with me. I didn't need to use a leash and she stayed by my side the whole way. I told my mom that if I ever decided to walk across the country, I would take Bailey with me.

 This photo was taken right after we got back from a morning run. And Look how happy Bailey is!

Another thing to know about me is that my family has owned horses since before I was born. We have a horse named Soda Pop (my sister named him after the character in The Outsiders). Soda is not the nicest horse and on Friday, he kicked Bailey in the face and in the chest. Bailey started out with a popped blood vessel in her eye and sore shoulder. That turned into a swollen eye and an even more sore shoulder. We couldn't get her into the vet until Monday so it was a pretty scary weekend for my mom and me. The vet said her eye would be fine but she also had a bruised heart. :(

Now Bailey is home resting and she has to have this ointment put in her eye three times a day.  My family is so grateful to the vet who kept Bailey for a couple of days to monitor her. Hopefully she makes a speedy recovery! I can't wait to go on more walks and runs with Bailey :)