So you want to know about the dog...

The summer after we moved into our new house this little solid black stray puppy came wandering by. Abandoned animals are not unusual out in the country but I did not plan to try to take care of any of them. To discourage the pup I chased it with a broom around the house...and around the house... and around the house. Though it was scrawny and pitiful looking, that pup beat me. I could not catch it. It ambled over to the lawn mower shed and smirked.

My middle child had always SAID that she wanted a dog. (As her parents, we did not entirely believe her promises about the care of such.) My husband had made a grand promise when attempting to reconcile her to the impending move, which would result in a change of schools. Yes, he optimistically had said, when we had more room outside, at the new house, then she could finally have a dog. (Just how forgetful did he think she'd be??)

So after carefully not giving ANY encouragement to this stray dog, I came home one day to find my daughter and my husband in cahoots. They had FED the poor thing. Well, that was the end of my hopes of ever chasing that dog away.

They named her Midnight - for the obvious reason (solid black coloring). She seems to be a mix of Lab and Chow plus whatever and is a very good tempered darling. She can run down rabbits with the best and absolutely hates woodchucks and UPS trucks. But she won't fetch anything!

She thinks I'm the leader of the pack (i.e. family), so I guess she's pretty smart!!

---

Update: April 1998

Midnight had to be put to sleep this month. Sadly she developed a general weakness and paralysis of her legs that just got worse and worse. At the end she couldn't even raise her head herself to eat. We miss her very much. She was 9 years old.