My first pet was my dog Lady. I loved her very much. She was a black and white collie and terrier mix our dad adopted from the local shelter in Texas. The day we got her I’d gotten my ears pierced and I’d spent the afternoon crying because it hurt so bad, but when I got home I saw this cute 4 month old puppy already trained and standing at our backyard door. My father had been around racing Greyhounds since he was a kid and had dog behavior nipped in the bud! But I can’t give him all the credit, Lady was extremely intelligent. When I saw her the first time I was so filled with joy. As time passed on, my sister and I loved to take her to our neighborhood park to show her off to everyone. We did not have dog training, and somehow Lady knew how to play “tag” and we were “it”. We chased her, she dodged, dove and well, we could never catch her outright. Lady’s weakness was food, like nearly all dogs. Using anything from melted vanilla ice-cream to sandwich meat to left overs we finally caught her every time. She licked our faces, as if to say, “Good job girls,” in our victory. She was both friend and teacher and she has a fond place in my heart.
