I have not told you about the love of my life. He is a little 10-month-old
Papillion puppy. He is just plain adorable. His name is Sparky. When I got him,
the people who had him were keeping him in a cage. He was given to a young lady
as a Christmas gift. Anyone who has raised a puppy will tell you that puppies
are a lot of work. They will also tell you NEVER give a pet as a gift unless
you know that the person really wants it. Well the young lady decided that she
did not want the puppy so she kept it in a cage.
The young lady's grandmother lives here in the mobile
home park that I live in. Another neighbor heard about the puppy and went and
looked at it. She told my neighbor that she know someone who would love to take
the puppy. She came and got me. I was just recovering from a broken shoulder
and was still dealing with a lot of pain and not much movement in my arm. I was
not sure at that point if I really wanted to take on a puppy but Joyce told me
the puppy's story and said what the heck let me go look at him. When I went
over to Rose's house she said she would call her daughter and make arraignments
for them to bring him over the next day for me to look at. I went back the next
day and I took one look at this little face and I knew he had to be mine. The
poor little thing was scared beyond belief and snapped at me but I just set
that aside. I knew he was just scared and had no clue what was going on.
They put him in his cage and carried him round to
my house and set him on the floor. I left him is the cage that night as it was
getting bedtime. He did not have any toys, no collar no leash no nothing, the only thing he came with was the cage and a
piece of chicken complete with bones. Seeing he had not been given the KFC
chicken yet, I ate the chicken and gave him some dry cat food for the evening.
I figured I would go out the next day and buy him what he needed.
The next morning I knew he had to go potty so I
found an old collar for one of the cats and put that on him and I had a leash
here that had been Max's. OH BOY took him out and in no time he had managed to
get the collar off of him. He got loose and took off; all he wanted to do was
RUN. There was no catching him. You would not believe how bad I felt. Well, I
went out a couple of hours later to go look for him and he was at the neighbors.
Stella said that he was getting into her fenced in section of her carport. I
was trying to catch him and here came two other neighbors. One was Joyce who
told me about the puppy to begin with and the other was Bobby who is
handicapped and in a wheel chair. Well Joyce had with her a leash, a harness.
Stella had some dry kitty food that she leaves out for the kitties that visit
her house. So we took some of the food and put it where the puppy could get to
it but yet where it was cornered. I was then able to put the harness on the
puppy and get him home.
When I got him back in the door the first thing he did was run to his
cage. He knew that was where he had to go. The only thing was, his new mommy
did NOT shut the door. I left it open. You should of seen this little thing, he
could not figure out why I had not locked the door. After a while he inched is
way out the door. Wait, I'm not getting yelled at about being out of my cage.
It did not take him long to figure out that his new home was the whole house
and not that little cage. It also took him no time at all to learn that we get
to go outside and take long walks with our new mommy. By the end of the first
week, this little boy had decided he liked it here and that he liked his
new life.
Well this is Sparky now. He is the most lovable little thing ever. He
loves running and I do take him out to run and play off the leash. He knows the
word cookie and will come running if you offer him a cookie. When I am fixing
his food he will dance in the floor letting you know how excited he is. Then
when I sit the food on the floor I make him settle down and sit for ten seconds
before he is allowed to eat. I have tested him and I can walk away from him and
he will sit there until I say EAT.
