I kissed a lot of dam frogs but by the time I met a man that I would have children with, my body was too old. Therefore, my maternal instincts were shifted to caring for our dogs but I treated them as though they were my "babies". I had a German Shepherd when I met my husband who had our German Schnauzer...they were both very territorial and "we think" they were very territorial and would kill each other - We tested a couple of times and didn't trust the Shepherd. We had a fear that he would kill the little Schnauzer. We lost the Shepherd in 2008 who had a very rare disease, Bulous Phimpigoid or something like that where his own body cells were killing him. When our Schnauzer started to decline, it was just too much. My husband is ready for another dog, but I'm not ready. I think the next time, I want to get two dogs, so they will always have a buddy and never be lonely. OK, that's all.
That sounds like a good idea, getting two. I'm sorry you lost your babies...it's so hard!
I don't have kids either so my dogs are my babies. I had my golden retriever Bunny for 14 years and six months after Bunny died, i got Mimi (see avatar) and she's 12 and a half.
Mimi was bitten by a neighbor's German Shepard once. The German Shepard was off the leash, and as I was stepping off the porch to walk Mimi, it came around the corner growling.
Mimi started growling and I started pulling her head toward me with the leash so I could pick her up. That saved her life because the German only bit her thigh right before I picked her up.
Its owner was way down the block and running toward us and screaming as all this was happening.
I knew these neighbors a little, and liked them....but it had always bothered me the times I saw it out roaming around.
They paid all the vet bills. I was nice about it but I did tell them
That if I ever saw their dog off a leash again, I was calling the cops.
Found out a week later it had bitten another neighbor's small dog months earlier. Yoikes!
That was years and years ago and thankfully Mimi was fine. Vet said I was very lucky mimi was on a leash and I was able to pick her up. Mimi doesn't know how big she isn't and would likely have been killed because she was aggressive back and not becoming submissive.
Whew, I say!