During the time that Ken was sick, Kim Headrick (a good friend and fellow Boynton Media Center volunteer) started looking for a puppy. She already had a veritable menagerie at home…dogs, cats, guinea pigs, chinchilla, chickens, sheep, in addition to her husband and two daughters, but she decided she wanted a Pomeranian puppy with a teddy bear face. She looked for quite a while and finally was able to find one she fell in love with way down in Ft. Payne, AL. She brought her home and named her “Sadie” (actually, I think her full name is “Sweet Southern Sadie Belle”). Sadie was a tiny little puppy, and Kim didn’t want to leave her at home by herself. So, she would put Sadie in her purse and sneak her into the Media Center. We would play with her all day. We all got pretty good at shelving books with one hand and holding little Sadie with the other. Of course, it was a big treat for the kids to get to see Sadie whenever they came to get books. They knew Sadie wasn’t really supposed to be in the school, so they would come to the desk, look both ways to make sure no one was around, and whisper, “Is the puppy here today?” She was our unofficial Media Center mascot until someone ratted us out to the principal. Wonder who that was?
Anyway, during this time, Benjamin absolutely fell in love with Sadie. He begged over and over if we could have a “Sadie puppy”. I said, “Baby, Mrs. Kim paid $400 for Sadie and I haven’t met a dog yet that I think is worth $400, and besides, we already have Dots. So no, we can’t have a Sadie puppy”. That was the end of it…or so I thought.
Shortly after Ken died, Kim told me that she was going to breed Sadie when she came into season. I knew she wanted more puppies, so I was not surprised. What DID surprise me, though, was that she said the pick of the litter was going to be a gift to Benjamin to cheer him up! Well, I was wonder-smitten (that’s my new word to take the place of flabbergasted – I think it is a much better word, don’t you?). Kim wouldn’t take no for an answer, and a little while later she announced that Sadie was expecting. We waited anxiously and decided that we would name our new addition “Lollipop”.
Lollipop Lunsford was born, I think, in March (could be April, though), and he was a single birth – no puppy brothers and sisters. We were in the process of getting ready to move to Alabama, so Kim graciously said she would keep him until we got all settled, later that summer. She brought him to meet us at the final Boynton assembly for that year. He was just the tiniest little handful of fluff. He looked just like Sadie, same coloring and all, so Benjamin was thrilled.
We moved the first part of June. After a couple or three weeks of unpacking and settling in, we were asked to come back for a picnic in our honor given by mine and Ken’s Sunday School class. I called Kim and told her I was coming and we met at my old house so she could bring Lollipop to us. He had grown, but he was still just itty bitty. We took him with us to the picnic, and he was the hit of the party.
I worried all the way home what Dots’ reaction would be to a new critter invading his space. He is VERY territorial and usually would quickly and aggressively run other dogs out of our yard if they came too close. But, it was almost as if Dots knew from the moment he saw Lollipop that he was there to stay. He looked him over, sniffed his hiney, and started PLAYING with him! I think Dots thought we had brought him a new play toy.
It took us about a minute after we got him home to realize that his personality would not allow us to continue calling him “Lollipop”. He is the silliest little dog I’ve ever seen and he BARKS ALL THE TIME. Doesn’t matter if he knows you or not, if you go from one room to another, he is going to stand there and bark at you. Not only does he bark, but he does this little “crazy dog dance” where he turns ‘round and ‘round in circles and hops around on his hind legs. CRAZY little dog! So, we decided that since he is such a little doodle-head, we would call him “Doodlebug”. The name is a perfect fit.
Our third dog is Sam, a HUGE black lab. He was not one I intended to adopt, either. It’s funny how things turn out. The first thing Benjamin asked me when he saw that our new house had a fenced yard was for a BIG dog. He had been pretending since he was tiny that he had a big dog named “Chewy” that followed him everywhere he went. So when he saw the fence, he started pestering me about an outside dog. Of course, my answer was, “Are you kidding? We already have TWO dogs. The last thing we need is another one, especially one that would eat us out of house and home.” Benjamin would sulk for a while, but then he’d get over it. But every once in a while, he would bring up the subject of a big dog again. I would say “No!” again, and he would go off sulking again.
I guess it was the year Benjamin was in sixth grade that he was really struggling with his grades. It seemed that nothing I said or did would convince him to do better. After months of beating my head against that same wall, in a fit of desperation, I said, “If you will bring your grades up, I will get you a big dog!” That will teach me not to blurt things out when I’m desperate, because, of course, Benjamin’s grades started steadily improving. He started making plans for his big dog. He wanted a Golden retriever, like our neighbor had. I went online and started looking and could not believe how expensive dogs like that were! Some places wanted as much as $3000 for a puppy!!! I prayed, “God, I promised him one of these dogs! How in the world will I ever be able to afford one?!” God just smiled.
As Benjamin’s grades got better and better, I got more and more panicked. I couldn’t go back on my word, but I did tell him that we would probably have to go to a shelter and rescue a dog. Maybe they would have one mixed with Golden retriever. He agreed, but I could tell he was disappointed. Then, one Sunday night, Benjamin was telling some of the kids at church that I had told him if he would bring up his grades, I would get him a big dog. Three of the kids (siblings), said, “We have a black lab that will need a home in June.” Their mom is a missionary and they were going to return to the mission field in Africa that summer. They couldn’t take their dog with them. (Can’t you just see God smiling and nodding his head? He is just SO awesome the way he works things out!) So here we were, needing a big dog, and there they were, needing a home for a big dog. How perfect is that?!
A couple of weeks later, we went to meet “Sam” (his full name is “Lays’ Big Sam). And he is BIG! But he is the sweetest natured dog I’ve ever seen. Benjamin took one look and fell in love. I think the feeling was pretty mutual on Sam’s part. So, we brought him home. Dots was not real thrilled, but he knows Sam can take him, so he curbed his aggressiveness. Doodlebug, on the other hand, thinks he is bigger than Sam and tries to boss him around all the time. Sam just looks at him and smiles (yes, he really does smile) and tries to put his great huge paw on top of Doodlebug’s tiny little head. It is quite comical to watch them together. When Sam is excited and happy (which is most of the time) he jumps straight up in the air and does this silly little wiggle dance, like he is a tiny little puppy. Makes me laugh every time he does it.
So…we have not one, not two, but THREE dogs. Small, medium and large. Crazy, needy and goofy. Sometimes I wonder if we should change their names to “Larry”, “Moe”, and “Curly”. Whatever we call them, they all three, each in his own way, continue to be of great comfort to me and the boys. But PLEASE…don’t ask me to adopt your dog…three is enough, and evidently I have a hard time saying “No!”.
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