Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Petlife.
HOW WE MET ROSCOE
It was two days before Christmas, my daughter and I left work early that day so we could finish our Christmas shopping, our main focus was to find a puppy for dad. Well for all of us really, but dad was in recovery from a broken arm. We made out way to a couple of stores bought a few things and headed to the shelter, ready to adopt. One shelter down no luck we wanted a puppy or maybe even a one-year-old, nothing older, a well-tempered easy-going dog, one who would bond with us. A 10-week old puppy would have been perfect but if you want a specific breed it usually costs more. We checked out a puppy place in town only to find out the owners had been forced to close due to shady business practices, so no puppy here. On we went to another shelter, where we found a possibility, a black Lab mix only 9 months old, I was ready to visit with her and find out if we were meant for each other, but as we went to ask about her she was taken away to her visit with her possible new family.
By Claudia Rodriguez4 years ago in Petlife
Buck Shy
Free-range dogs weren’t that rare in rural Maryland in the 1970s, but the idea of it made me nervous. Moose and Mimi, my dogs growing up, never wore a collar. I remember how they ran alongside our family’s three-wheeled golf cart. My father and I would drive into the forest near our house to do some target practice with empty cans. The dogs would keep up, their tongues hanging out. I worried about their feet getting caught in the tires, and I worried about them getting lost.
By E.E. Cunningham4 years ago in Petlife
The Untold Story
by kimberli wong Ming Mei was my childhood Rottweiler; we got her the summer before my senior year in high school as a puppy. We got her with me knowing that I would only have one full year to spend with her before I went off to college. Even at seventeen, it’s hard to understand what that means. I’d never had a dog, so I didn’t know how much they can love you, and how every moment with them is a precious opportunity to create a memory that will stay with you forever. How you are raising a life, and how that life becomes a part of you. A dog is a member of the family.
By Kimberli Alisa Wong4 years ago in Petlife
My Lord Freyr By: Danyel Fields
I was 32 years old when I picked out Lord Freyr from a litter of puppies of my sister's American Eskimo which was bred with a American Eskimo/ Chihuahua mix. Out of six puppies he was the one that warmed up to me first and would listen to me over any of her other dogs. This is what started building the bond he and I had.
By Danyel Fields4 years ago in Petlife
Not Just A Day
My parents hated dogs. Probably about as much as they hated happiness. That's not to say that I had never had a dog. There had been times over the years of my childhood that something came over them, and they indulged. I know my first dog's name was Socks, but I remember neither what he looked like, nor what became of him. There were two sibling puppies one time-Sandy & Randy. The story there is the same. No real recollection- just names to something I know had existed. There was Blizzard, the Great Pyrenees with whom they were obsessed with because of his massive size and gentle temperament. He eventually got the mange, and I was told he just wandered away, although looking back now, I doubt that was the case. Then came Lila. They were all about getting this dog. Encouraging, talking it up. "Border Collies are so smart." "She will be a good dog." They liked that I had picked the name, "Delilah," as that was a "Biblical Name," and for whatever twisted reason, that carried some sense of importance and meaning to them. My last memory of Lila is of her being forced to wear a dead, rotting cat tied around her neck-my cat, Geoffrey- for weeks, because he had been killed, and she kept dragging him into the yard. So this was my father's solution. Pets were never around long enough to get very attached to. That is, until I was 16 years old, and a gift from my boyfriend became my closest friend who kept me through the darkest days & a cornerstone for my transition to adulthood.
By Raquel Yarbrough4 years ago in Petlife
Wading
Before my father was born, his older brother, just barely old enough to walk, toddled down a fishing dock and fell into a cold Wisconsin lake. My mother’s baby big brother also toddled and tumbled, falling into a blood-warm Floridian blackwater river. My father’s family had a collie-dog named Angus who, like something straight out of a Lassie episode, went streaking into the lake and heroically dragged the child to safety. Little Uncle Tim coughed and gasped, and was once again embraced by the protective boundaries of solid land. My mother’s family, though, had a cat. Uncle Denny drowned.
By Chris Hansen4 years ago in Petlife
Little legs, big hearts
Six inches is all that separates Cadogan and Carson—pembroke welsh corgis—from the ground beneath them, but when out in nature, they will trundle along any path before them, sometimes with extreme difficulty, but always just as doggedly as pooches three times their size. Felled trunks blocking the way? No problem. Sometimes, their small stature is even an advantage, allowing them to find paths through which their bigger brethren cannot follow.
By Zach Leathers4 years ago in Petlife
Acrophobia
“We will be going right by the Gateway Arch! We should definitely stop and see that,” I announced to my family as we figured out our plans for the next destination on our map. We had traveled from the frozen snow packed roads of our Alaskan home down through our neighbors in Canada and were making our way across the lower 48 states experiencing so many wonders.
By Viltinga Rasytoja4 years ago in Petlife
The Coyote and the Hound
Dogs are our best friend, but very few ever had the freedom of Elmer Fudd, the red bone hound. He is a ranch dog like no other, truly a hound of hounds. I would say he’s my dog, but really he is his own dog. I am just his bud that he lives with that provides food, water, and access to his bed through a dog door, when he feels like it. He often chooses to sleep outside hanging with the horses, his other friends who somehow have learned to love him, after making a game out of him chasing them. Sometimes he even herds them to me when he knows I am trying to find them in the woods to go for a ride, although he started out doing the opposite. But even that isn’t his favorite game. His favorite game is to race cars down our remote dirt road driveway as they leave, reaching speeds up to 30mph. It terrifies anyone new coming to the ranch for the first time thinking that he is running away, but everyone used to him has fun racing him out of the driveway. He always gives up as soon as he reaches the neighbor's driveway to head home, sometimes bringing the neighbor dog back for a date at the food bowl. He is in love with her, but fortunately their date never progresses beside him bringing her inside to the food dish.
By Jessica R Faunce4 years ago in Petlife
Lucci' Unleashed
Lucci’ Unleashed Lucci’ Ano’ Barker is a 4-year-old Maltese Mix. Some people have said he looks like a Maltipoo, and others have said Maltese/Dachshund. Nevertheless, he has a way of reaching into your eyes and capturing your soul. But, at least for me, when I saw him, it was love at first sight from the first day. Although my words said NO, he is going back, my actions said, “look at my new little boy.”
By Shaun Gaston 4 years ago in Petlife
