Stories About My Dogs Reesy's Story I am Motown’s Reesy Peanut Butter Pup. I am a Shiba Inu. I came to live with Terri as a matter of happenstance. I was living in a kennel with a lot of other dogs. I was happy there but I sensed that there was more to life. One day a lady came to see my owner. The lady had another Shiba Inu with her. My owner and the lady were talking about her Shiba Inu and the lady was not exactly happy. I later learned that the dog was Simba. The lady desperately wanted a show dog and she found out that Simba was not going to be that dog. Time had passed and soon the lady named Terri started to get me out of the kennel and take me for walks around a big place called a campus. You see Terri was going to this place called college and she was learning lots of stuff. She was also learning about me and how to be with me and all my little quirks. I could tell she loved me a lot. She talked so softly to me and she introduced me to many, many people who loved me too. Terri brushed me and made me look handsome. I loved being with her. I started calling her Mommy. Pretty soon we started to go to competition events called Conformation Shows. I love to show off my “stuff” so this was the perfect place for us to go. I didn’t like when the judge looked in my mouth though. Mommy was patient with me and eventually I learned to tolerate what the judge was doing. Time went by and eventually I became an American Kennel Club Conformation Champion. Mommy was so happy her feet didn’t touch the ground for a very long time. I was her very first champion and Mommy's dream came true. My original owner said that I could go live with Mommy Terri and that made me very happy. She takes me for walks. I am groomed on a regular basis and was taught so many new things like sit, lie down, heel, sit and down stay. I am very glad Mommy spends so much time with me. I love her and I give her so many kisses on the nose it makes her giggle. This is the only way I have of telling Mommy how much I appreciate her and all she has done to make my life worth while. Simba's Story Please take some time to read this story. Sometimes what we need to learn about life we learn from our dog. Sometimes we have high expectations in life and something happens to open our eyes and see things in a different light. This is such a story. As you read this it may appear to be boring and pointless. I don’t share this story for sympathy but for the hope that each and every one of you know your dog or bitch intimately and don’t treat them as livestock. Simba may have saved my life. It is with gratitude and honor that I write this and share SIMBA’S STORY. I am Royal King Simba and I am a Shiba Inu. Eight years ago I was born in the scenic rural area of Carbon County in Pennsylvania. I had two other litter mates. One was a girl and one was a boy. My sister and brother went to homes before I did. I was lonely and my breeder put me into a pen with lots of chocolate Labrador Retrievers. They were bigger than I was and people came to look at us I had to bark loud to get anyone’s attention. Lots of those dogs left before I did. Luck was with me because one day a lady came to look at all of us puppies. I was so excited I peed when the lady picked me up and cuddled me. I didn’t like it very much to be cuddled. I just wanted to run free. I did like the lady though. I licked her ears and her eyes and her lips. She put me back down and I barked and yelped and cried. I thought I would not go anywhere that day. Twenty minutes later the lady came back and picked me up and we went for a strange ride. I remember throwing up in the car. The lady was okay with that and laughed and laughed. We went right to the store and she bought me a collar and a food bowl and lots and lots of toys and chew bones. I knew I was going to a good home. She was going to spoil me rotten. When we got home I peed on the floor. The lady didn’t like that and training began. We went to training every Saturday for a long time. My new mom was very careful to socialize me to a lot of different things I had never seen before. Before I knew it the lady was very pleased with my behavior and eventually I became a Canine Good Citizen. Then I became a Therapy Dog. We went places and made other people happy. I really didn’t care if I was one of those or not but it made my owner very very happy because she worked hard to teach me to behave. We went lots of strange places but each time we left a spot I could tell my owner was very content. Eventually, I became too grumpy and we didn’t go make people happy anymore. My mom was sad. Then we learned something called Conformation handling. It was okay but I was very bored. I stood in one spot a lot and ran around a stupid ring. A man or a woman would check and see that all my parts were in place. That tickled and I jumped when they checked some spots. My owner wanted me to get my Championship. I didn’t know what that was and didn’t care to get it but my owner wanted to go so off to shows we went. Sometimes I sat in the crate for a long time and sometimes it was so hot I didn’t want to move around the ring. I was starting to mature by now and I was getting very grumpy at shows. I really hated going and didn’t like the other dogs. They all stared at me and made me nervous. I couldn’t look at them and protect my owner. I protested a lot and eventually after getting only three points, my owner didn’t make me go anymore. I was so glad. I got to lie around the house and go on walks and chew on bones. My owner kept training me but I became more and more unhappy. My owner was unhappy too! We went for ride in the car and arrived at my vet’s office. My mom left me there and they put me under anesthesia to sleep. When I woke up I was minus a few parts. I didn’t feel good and slept a lot. Eventually I started to feel better and better. I wasn’t so grumpy and after about a year I was my old lovey dovey self. I was very happy because my mom left me sleep in her bed by her feet. This went on for some time. One night I noticed that something was very wrong with my mom. She smelled different to me. Her feet smelled okay and so did her legs and arms. But her left breast smelled funny. Her right one was okay. But something was definitely not right. I wanted to tell her so bad that something was wrong. But how was I going to tell her? I couldn’t tell her with words. I became more restless and didn’t leave her side for weeks. Everywhere she went I went with her. I thought maybe I could show her. So when we went to bed I laid at her head instead of her feet. She surely would know something was wrong because I always slept at her feet. She just wouldn’t GET IT. I thought and thought. Finally, it came to me and when she lay down at night I slept at her head and put my head on her left breast. She found that to be very annoying and yelled at me to go to sleep. I got up and jumped over and over her chest night after night. She was so annoyed she put me in my crate. OH NO! Now how was I going to tell her what I knew? I got to sleep with her the next night. I put my head on her body again. I could tell she was upset. She didn’t know that I knew that she had found a big lump on her breast. Finally, I got my point through to her. She was upset for a long time: maybe even months after she found the lump. One morning she left the house very early and when she came back she didn’t smell funny anymore. Thank goodness. Whatever was wrong with her had been fixed. I succeeded in my mission. SIMBA didn’t know that I had cancer. Dogs don’t know what cancer is. Simba and I have a wonderfully close relationship. I was simply heartbroken when I had to neuter him. I agonized over the decision for a year. But, like any good owner and trainer, I did what was right for the dog and neutered him. He was much happier. Everyone around him was happier. The point to this story is that had Simba been kept outside and only attended to for my hopes and dreams of being a Conformation Champion he may not have been so adamant to tell me what he knew. I was very disappointed that he had to retire from Therapy Dog and that he didn’t get his Championship in Conformation. The fact that I kept up his training throughout his difficult developmental years and stood by him and was patient with him enabled me to learn how to interpret Simba’s language. I am extremely proud of him for communicating with me so diligently. I love him for who he is. What I have learned from his time in my house so far is that you can’t ever push anyone or anything into doing what YOU want. Either it happens or it doesn’t. Because my breast cancer was found early, my survival rate is greatly increased. I will have many more wonderful years to spend with my best friend, Simba. I will be around to make many more people friends and dog friends. I would like to publicly thank all those people who have so unselfishly supported me in this frustrating time. Without you all, this whole ordeal would have been a nightmare. Sincerely I thank you.