A Dog in Our Life
by John Chase
(Washington)
Having a dog in the house is something we considered, but didn’t finally look into, until retirement.
Living in a 55 and over community is good but there are policies governing noise that would be problematic if we both worked. Should the dog, left alone, start barking, he could conceivably annoy the neighbors and create issues. This would mean having to leave work in the mid-day, an inconvenience at best, to run home and quiet our pet. Of course many of the people around us are hard of hearing, so problem probably solved.
However, there are rules and there are rules, so we waited for retirement to search for a dog. Looking for a smaller, older animal was at the top of our search list. We approached several pet rescue organizations and were surprised at the inquiries they made about us, our lifestyle, our home environment, etc. I understand that they want to find a good home for their animals and not have them end up in a dog fighting ring or some such thing.
We finally landed on an older, Maltese mix who weighs about nine pounds. I say older as he will be ten years old this spring (about 70 in human years, so we’re a good match).
He’s relatively housebroken and does bark at strangers occasionally. But I believe he does this to gain attention and certainly thinks anyone he comes across is potentially the bearer of dog treats. He also does it to assert his manhood but it’s comical because his bark is a bit raspy and sort of sounds like an ex-smoker.
His name is Murphy, and if anyone reading this happens to be his previous owner, rest assured that Murphy is well and enjoying his new home life, sitting on my lap!
Enjoy the retirement life!
