Jersey the dog

Jersey is our greyhound/blue heeler cross dog. She is covered in black spots simular to a dalmation hense - Jersey. Jersey is approximately 6 years old and is the wisest member of the family. When we rescued her from the local pound at young and energetic 4 months old, Charlie said in his most masculine macho, "She'll be an outside dog. We'll build a dogrun and a house for her." .... That evening she snuggled her way in between us in our queen size bed, as we balanced on the farthest edges to ensure her comfort.

Jersey has been the focus of our lives for just short of 6 years. We had called her our "first born" and had treated her as such. There were times that Jersey got the butcher's best cuts when we ate Rice a Roni or something simularily convenient. We had and still do, consider her part of our family and she has attended relatives various special occasions as one of us. It seems that everyone had accepted her as the newest member of the family. Until one day... We became pregnant. In the moment we had gotten a faint blue line from a home pregnancy test, Jersey had abruptly become our pet dog and not our sweet baby puppy. She didn't know it, but the worse was to come... Poor Jers...

In the early months of our pregnancy, I found that I could not bear her doggy perfume though she is rather pleasant smelling for a dog. Sometimes we think she smells almost like grape juice. Anyway, I feel as if I had kind of alienated Jersey. I couldn't handle he being near me, breathing on me, letting her bodily functions run amuck. Blame my pregnant, sensitive gag reflexes! So, you can imagine how involved I was in Jersey's life at that point. I had kind of left the dog parenting up to Charlie. Poor Charlie was the sole pooper picker upper for 9 months plus!! (I still haven't lifted a turd.)

I try and put myself in her position now and again. How she must have felt so out of place. Wondering why everyone was acting so strange. It must have been very confusing for her little brain to try and comprehend.

Our baby, Isabella was born pink, perfect, quiet and peaceful.
Until we got her home from the hospital.
Suddenly life was full of screaming, burping, shitting and more screaming. With a little more screaming on top of that. Turns out our baby was colicky. Poor Jers was in our backseat for a good 3 months. We had a small amount of time to sleep and eat and then it was back to tending to our screaming beast. Jersey was not our priority at the time. I'm sure her nose was out of joint and probably still is a little. Perhaps a little resentful?

Jersey was a free, spoiled, happy doggy. Not that she isn't all of the above, now. But we had to reassure her after some time. I just think she didn't understand what we were doing in life at that time. She would cry when Isabella cried. She would get scolded when she contributed her own dialogue. - Which she would do very liberally before Isabella was with us. She was now not allowed to express herself in the house! You can understand why. We would spend 3 hours getting baby to stop crying and go to sleep and then Jersey would let us know that the neighbor was unloading groceries from her car and waking our "little angel". What would she do?? She then learned to assert herself by boofing through her lips. How can you get angry at that?

Isabella is now 5 months old and hopefully her colic is in our days gone by. Jersey has been getting back to the usual. We've kind of fallen into our places in the family. Our vet told Charlie to spend lots of time doting on her and making her feel like our special little girl again. When Isabella wakes up and starts sqawking, Jersey runs to her door and waits for me to open it so she can investigate and make sure all's well. She's shown understanding of our current situation and loyalty to our baby, already! I'm very proud of her. She's adjusted to our changed lifestyle well, and she's even learned a few things. Like, "Jersey! Downstairs!" - When she barks and scares the shit out of Isabella.

I think Jersey's smarter than we give her credit for. She has shown us to be a protector and a best friend to our family, and I love her with all my heart. I'm sure she will prove to be a best friend and companion to our baby Isabella in her golden years. Thank heavens we got her those years ago. I can't imagine life without her.

Good Girl Jers!!