Fluff about Dallas and Bama

As I  have been perusing different posts that have been written by my friends and relatives, sometimes I wonder why I do not get more comments from the people that are reading my blog. Now if it sounds as if I am whining,  you would probably be correct.  I am just one of those people that loves to know that my writing is enjoyed, read, skimmed, thought about, hated, or even mediocre.  I find though that comments are left on blogs when the blogs are not of a serious nature, what I call fluff.  In light of this, I have decided to write about something of a "fluffy" nature.  Maybe I am just too serious of a person, actually I know that I am.  

Here goes:  

Most of you that know me know how much I love my dogs.  I walk them everyday, groom them, take care of them, pamper them, and completely spoil them.  I figure I can spoil my dogs, but not my kids.  Dallas was diagnosed with a heart murmur a couple of years ago, so I really spoil him.  Although, even though they have said he will not live as long as he would normally, we really let him be a dog.  He walks, runs, and swims just as much as he wants to.  If I didn't take him out the door with us on outings he would whine the entire time we were gone and work himself into a frenzy.  I figure it would be better for him just to go with us, and live and enjoy living as a dog as long as possible.  Sometimes if he sees a cat or some other kind of critter on our walks in the woods, he takes off like a bolt out of the blue.  Then he occasionally will slow down, stumble around and have to recover slowly.  He walks it out and in a few minutes he is back at his usual pace.  A few times in the last two years he has actually passed out after this burst of speed and adrenaline.  That's when I really get concerned and baby him all the more.  I grew up in Dallas, thus the name. 

Our puppy is named Bama.  My husband is a huge Alabama fan and grew up most of his life in Birmingham.  We have regional dog names in our family.  My oldest daughter Katie has a dog named Addis.  Her and her husband met in Ethiopia near Addis Abba and so even they have joined in the chorus of city and regional names.  Addis is a black lab that also loves to swim, and every so often we have three dogs to love on.  

Back to Bama.  She has turned out very different from Dallas.  She is smaller, thinner, lighter in color, and very much "girlie."  I do not mean that to denigrate my gender in any way, but she likes conditions to be just right.  When you transport her in the car she gets car sick, when she is sitting watching you eat she drools, she will swim in our lake, but only if she can walk in and not jump off the dock, and she constantly dominates and pushes Dallas around. Dallas is always giving her what she wants.  If Bama wants a toy, he gives it to her, if she wants the stick he has, Dallas gives it to her, Bama eats and then Dallas eats and on and on.  She completely freaks out on the Fourth of July, running as far away from the fireworks noises as possible and shaking for dear life.  

I love my dogs.  I really can't imagine not having a dog.  They are one of life's simple pleasures that God has given us to enjoy.  

Don't tell Ken, but they are both on the bed with me right now!!

*To be honest, the above pictures I took off of Flickr!  I will put pictures of the "real" Dallas and Bama on the blog when I find them.