The Love of a Dog

Okay, I'm a dog freak! I LOVE dogs. If the truth be known, and if I could, I'd have one of every breed. Ever since I was a little girl dogs have been a part of my life and they will be until God calls me home. I can't imagine not having a dog by my side.

I've had a beautiful Springer Spaniel named Sport, a darling little miniature poodle named Judae and two Great Danes, one was Shelby and the other was Megan. My current dog is a German Wirehaired Pointer whose name is Joey. His long "legal" name is Misty's Von Joey. We had two German Wirehaireds until last fall when we had to put one to sleep due to a very serious illness called Cancer. A very sad time. But, I still have Joey and he makes me smile every single day.

This lens is about my Joey. Why I love him and the love he gives back to me.

Here's the thing about dog's that I just love and it's the unconditional love. A dog just loves you no matter what. He doesn't care that I should lose a few pounds. He doesn't care that I sometimes snore at night. He doesn't care if I am having a bad hair day. He doesn't care if my clothes are older than the hills and no longer in style and he certainly doesn't care if I tell a joke poorly. He just loves me for me.

Dog love is a crazy kind of love. You can be gone 5 minutes, 5 hours or 5 days and he greets you the same way...as if you have been gone forever. He is so happy to see you and it's a genuine happy. My dogs whole body wags, from his head to his tail. You can scold a dog for being naughty but within 2 seconds he is all over you asking for forgiveness. My Joey doesn't like it when I am angry with him and pesters me until I tell him everything is ok. Yes, that's a dog's love.

And here's another thing you just have to love about dogs and that is how they just seem to know when you are not feeling well. Now normally Joey will pester me all day about taking him out for a run but a few months back I was quite sick and he just seemed to know. What did Joey do? Well, he didn't nag at me to go outside...no, he climbed up on that bed and laid close to me all day long. I just love that dog.

He's smart, cute and fun to have around

This is my Joey. The only dog I know who can't catch anything in his mouth. Seriously, this dog can't catch a frisbee or even a tennis ball in his mouth. If you throw it he will retrieve it but he can't catch it in his mouth.

His talents lie in the hunting realm. He is a tenacious hunter with skills you can't even imagine. Once in the field to hunt he is one very focused dog and nothing distracts him from his quest of Pheasant. His other hunting talent is retrieving the bird to the shooter. He can be in the field with 4 or 5 hunters and he will retrieve the bird to the man or woman that shot the bird. How he knows who the shooter is, we will never know but Joey does. This is such fun to watch.

If Joey were human he would be a comedian. He is so funny and he loves to make you laugh. When he sees you laughing at something he is doing he keeps doing it to get you to laugh even louder. Which of course makes you laugh louder and longer.

Joey also likes to play hide n' seek. He will grab one of his chew toys, drop it at your feet or in your lap and then look at you until you pick it up and hide it. I made the mistake of hiding his toy under our bed pillows and he threw all the pillows off the bed while finding his toy. He doesn't hunt by sight he hunts by smell and there is no place you can put that toy that he doesn't find it.

Joey just makes me happy and I love having him around. I made the mistake of kissing him on the top of his nose while he was still a puppy and now to great people he wants to be in their face so he can get the top of his nose kissed. Evidently he thinks this is how you greet humans. This doesn't work out so well because most people don't want to kiss the top of a dog's nose and of course, once you are at his level he will give you one of his famous sloppy wet kisses.

Do you love dogs? Maybe cats are your favorite. It's time to find out....take this poll.