What Do You Think?

Just thought I’d share something with all my fans out there.....all few of you!
 

One of our great-granddaughters was delighted to let the Facebook world know that her Great-Daddy looked like the handsome Channing Tatum. I have to admit that I had to go online to find out who he was.....not her Great-Daddy, but Channing. The granddaughters, and now the great-granddaughters have all thought their Granddad/Great-Daddy was HOT/COOL/BAD/SWEET (whatever the latest term was for GOOD-LOOKING) as a young man. His lady thinks he still is as an 83-year-old mature fellow.
 

I think this will delight the granddaughters and great-granddaughters even more. Do you think Channing, Doyal and our grandson, Jordan look anything alike?
 

 

So, girls, it looks like you can expect more handsome "look-alikes" for generations to come!

 

 

 

 

 

And here is what Channing and Jordan can expect in a few more years!

 

 

Still handsome as ever, don't you think?

 

THE REST OF THE STORY

I promised that I would tell you "the rest of the story" and here it is..........

We officially let Mason adopt us on March 9, 2012 by taking him to the vet for the first time. I supposed he was convinced he was ours when we mutilated the poor little fellow by taking his manhood away forever a few weeks later. He didn’t seem terribly upset with us though and still continued to try and steal our hearts. I might add, he is doing a pretty good job of it too.

On his first visit to the vet I asked about his age and his breed. He was checked thoroughly and it was decided he was 6 to 8 months old at the time so we gave him an August birthday to share with our youngest daughter, Sharon. Dr. Karsteter, one of the four vets at the clinic, was sure about one thing; he was definitely Terrier mixed with something else, but didn’t guess what that mix was. Later, when he went for surgery, Dr. Adam Miller also said he was definitely Terrier and was sure an educated guess would be either Pug or Pekingese. Later Dr. Folke guessed Terrier and either Pug or Pekingnese. My guess (actually had I been a betting woman I would have placed money on it) was Pug/Terrier mix. I knew I was right........

　

UNTIL........I saw on TV where there is now DNA testing for dogs. Now, before you start judging an old woman who would spend money on such absurdities, let me assure you that we didn’t ask for help with the expenses, we didn’t take anything away from our giving to the Lord or others.....I just decided to do it for the shear pleasure of it. And.....maybe the old newspaper reporter’s curiosity just got the better of me. I talked with one of the vets and he assured me it was all on the up and up as they also did DNA testing and sent it off to one of the few labs in the nation who do this.

Out came the checkbook to the tune of $85.00 and soon a kit arrived in the mail. Doyal and I felt like we were on one of the CSI programs as we carefully took the samples, placed them in the container provided and sent it off to the lab.

 

It took a few weeks to get the results and we made good use of the time. I sent out an email to all of the family telling them we were having a contest. The ones who guessed his breed/breeds correctly would receive a prize. Here are the guesses:

Baby daughter, Sharon: #1. Terrier/Pug, #2 Brussels Griffon, #3 Affenpinscher (And she added: I read about Affenpinschers and he definitely has some of the looks and the disposition of them. It'll be interesting to find out, won't it?) You can see she wasn’t undecided at all!

Favorite "Dyer" grandson, Joshua sent the following: Boston Terrier + French Bulldog = Faux Frenchbo Bulldog or Boston Terrier + Pekingese = Bostinese (I learned some new words on this entry!)

Oldest son, Allen: Shizu and Pug

Oldest granddaughter, Jessica: Shizu and Pug (I need to give Allen and Jessica a spelling lesson for the first one....Shih Tzu!)

Oldest grandson, Neil: Ferret and Shetland Pony (I thought surely he’d get the prize with this guess!)

Middle daughter, Paula and her husband, Russ: Father, a Mexican Hairless and Mother, a Bull Mastiff. (If Neil’s guess didn’t win, I figured this would be the next closest.) The next day she sent the following; "Mine was a joke yesterday. He looks like he has some Terrier or Schnauzer in him."

Oldest "Ward", now Jarvis, granddaughter, Sarah: Westie and Pug

Youngest Ward granddaughter, Shelby: Yorkie/Pug ...... A few days later she had another guess..."Maybe "Pug/Pomeranian"

Youngest "Dyer", now Lowrance, granddaughter, Mandi: Brussel Griffin and Pug.

Oldest daughter, Claudia: Pug/Chihuahua

Youngest son, Frank: "Gotta go with Neil on this one"....and then the conversation went as such.... Neil: "I'm telling you guys, I got this one......Ferret / Shetland Pony"....Then Frank: "Neil .... Are you sure there isn't a little Guinea Pig in him????" Then Neil again: "Come on Uncle Frank, everyone knows that a Guinea Pig and a Shetland Pony can't mate! The Guinea Pig's cage is waaaay to small for the Shetland Pony to fit into!"

Oldest "Dyer", now Downs, granddaughter, Talsie: "Alright, I'll join in on the craziness. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think he is a pug at all. I think he got the ugly from somewhere else. ;) I will guess Shih Tzu/Terrier." (This wasn’t the first time he was called "ugly" and, poor kiddo, it probably won’t be the last. He looks much like a monkey and I often tell him he is so ugly he’s cute or so ugly only a mother could love him.)

Middle Ward, now Platt, granddaughter, Stephanie: "I think he is a Brussels Griffon/Pug mix. :) I know Mandi already guessed that...so if I can't guess the same, then I'll say Brussels Griffon/Chihuahua mix."

Now that you’ve seen the results of the guesses from the family why don’t YOU make your guess right now before you read any further. Let’s see if YOU can come up with the right mix. I’ll let you know that there are only two breeds in the mix and no one came up with the mix, although both breeds were mentioned. I’ll also let you know that I was shocked that at least one of Neil’s guesses is NOT in the mix. I thought for sure at least one of Mason’s parents would be a Shetland Pony!

We’ve named our pure breed dogs long, interesting (to me at least) names. Some of which were: Ebony King, our small black Chihuahua; Little Miss Annie Buttercup, the Cocker Spaniel I’ve told you about and Sweet Dixie Lailai, the Belle of Boaz, our precious Dixie. I decided Mason needed something regal so at first referred to him as Mason the Magnificent Mutt. Later, after destroying Doyal’s recliner, the arm of his desk chair and several baseboards, I thought a better name/description would be Mason the Mischievous Mutt! And come to find out he really isn’t a true mutt after all.........

Drum roll please...........

Going back three generations one side of his family are pure Shih Tzus and the other side pure Chihuahuas.......surprise, surprise, surprise!

Now you know "The Rest of the Story!"

 

 

Mason arrived in our home a cold, hungry mutt weighing around 7 or 8 pounds. Now, he has gained status by not being only a one-pure-breed dog, but a two-pure-breed dog if that makes sense.  And since that cold, February morning in 2012 here he is today all 12.5 pounds of sass!

 

 

A face only a mother could love!  He's loving being with just the two of us while his brother and sister are being groomed today.

 

Follow-Up as Promised

As promised in my last post I will let you know "what came around."

 

The last post was about my giving a two and a half-pound Cocker Spaniel to Doyal for our 38^th Anniversary after his saying that we didn’t need a dog. He soon found out we might not need Annie but she won his heart the night he arrived home to find her waiting to surprise him.

 

I never, in my wildest dreams, thought he would pull the same trick on me. Well......it wasn’t exactly the same trick, but I did get an unexpected surprise on my 77^th birthday! Imagine this (well, maybe it would be best not to imagine it).....On a very cold, 19 degree, Sunday morning, February 19, 2012 I stepped out of the shower as Doyal stepped into the bathroom with a little black fur ball against his chest. Here I am wrapped in a towel, looking at that little bundle. Doyal, acting a bit like a little boy bringing a new animal for his mother to give the okay to, explained. This was the same little fellow who had been showing up in our yard from time to time. We could never coax him close enough to see if he had identification. I had even reported him to the humane society earlier and they had found his owners and given them a warning. We hadn’t seen him in our yard since that time, but all day long the day before he was running around in the large open space across the busy highway from us.

 

                                                              

 

Here is Doyal with the little "pug looking" dog on that cold February, Sunday when he entered our family.

 

 

That Sunday morning Doyal took our sweetheart, Dixie and Frank and Rosemary’s dog, Lucky that we were keeping for them at the time, out for their morning walk. There in the front yard was the little black visitor. He was so cold and so hungry that Doyal had no problem picking him up and bringing him inside. We took turns warming him up and got him settled with the other two while we went to church. All afternoon we both played with him and cuddled him but had no intention of keeping him. Here we were at 77 and 82 with one dog of our own and dog sitting another (by the way, after going back "home" for a few weeks Lucky came back over here and begged us to take him...not really, but he was brought back and we inherited him). We needed another puppy no matter how cute and energetic he was like we needed an elephant!

 

 

 

These two pictures were taken of the same two "boys" at the same place exactly one year later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I called Monday morning early to the shelter to see if he had been reported missing. "Nope! " Called again in a day or so and asked...."No, and if they come to your house looking for him don’t give him up until you call us as we are going to give them a citation." Oh my, I wanted none of that! So, we just kept walking him in the front of our house for all to see and I kept looking for posters that he was missing. Nothing happened. So on March 9 we decided to get his shots. The vet told us he was legally ours since we had had him that long and no one had claimed him. And.....poor guy......a few weeks later we had him "fixed."

 

 

March 6, 2012 after his first professional grooming.

 

 

 

I had told Doyal when we got our Shih Tzu from the South and named her Dixie that if I ever got a Northern dog I would name it Mason and we’ll call it Macy. That’s how Mason got his name. No one in the family wanted to call him Macy though as that sounded like a girl. Now there are the three of them....Mason, Dixie and Lucky. We gave Mason our youngest daughter, Sharon’s birthday since the vet said he was between 7 and 8 months old. His birthday is August 26, 2011. Dixie’s birthday is April 23, 2009 and poor old, and I mean old, Lucky is now 14 years old!

 

 

 

Yep, this little fellow has a car seat just like his sister, Dixie.  the bad thing about it is that he escapes from the seat belt AND the harness.  That was $$$ down the drain!

 

 

 

 

Pretty boy makes himself comfortable on the back of our sofa.

 

 

He fits right in when it comes to sharing my breakfast each morning.

 

 

I haven't finished telling you all about Mason but will leave that till another time and that’ll be "the rest of the story."

What Goes Around, Comes Around

I suppose "what goes around comes around" as the old saying goes. It certainly did with us.

 

 

I had wanted a house dog for quite sometime and every time I mentioned getting one Doyal would have the excuse that he would be retiring "soon" and we would travel. A dog would not be a good idea as we couldn’t travel with one. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me as I figured a small dog would be an ideal traveling companion. But, being the good wife that I am, I put a dog on the back burner.....at least for a short while.

 

 

And then the question arose......"What in the world can I get the most wonderful man on earth for our 38^th anniversary" (this was in 1991).

 

 

Back then I always read the classified ads and, wouldn’t you know, right there in front of me was an ad for Cocker Spaniel puppies for sale. It must have been "meant to be", don’t you think? Well, maybe not, because remember I’d been wanting a house dog for awhile.

 

 

April 3, 1991 I drove miles and miles and picked out the cutest little puppy ever. She came home with me and was waiting under a towel on the kitchen table when Doyal came home from work the day before our anniversary. I was so excited and rushed him in to "open" his gift. Just as he got ready to lift the towel it moved!

"Is this a dog?" he inquired as he frowned and lifted the towel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These pictures were taken the night I brought Annie home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all it took! Who couldn’t fall in love instantly with a fluffy two and a half pound, 7 week old, active puppy! Soon her name was Annie (named because she was an anniversary present.) She became his dog and continued as such until her death in 2008. A very long and happy life with a few glitches now and then. Someday I’ll tell you about her adventures with Clancy, our Golden Retriever, as well as other events in her life.

 

 

Clancy in the huge fur ball and Annie is the tiny blond pup introducing herself.  He accepted her right away and they had many adventures throughout Clancy's life.  He took her on several neighborhood jaunts before we found their escape route.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Annie when she wasn't even a year old.  She loved the grandchildren and they loved to play with her.  You can see how much Stephanie enjoyed it as well.  By the way, Stephanie is expecting her first child, a little boy, in March.  I wonder if he will have as much fun with the dogs we have now as his mother did with Annie.

 

I have many more pictures of our sweet Annie but won't post them here.  She had a long and full life.  She traveled more miles than many humans.  Some of her trips took her to Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma.  She survived much as well.  I think had she been able to speak she would have agreed her 17 years and 4 months on this earth were about the best any dog could ask for.

 

One of these days I might tell you about her last day on earth and her death and burial.

 

My next post will be all about the title of this post......"What Goes Around Comes Around."