When I was fourteen, my sister and her fiance took me out for a drive one Sunday to a destination that was a surprise to me. I had recently lost the dog of my childhood and was terribly lonely; little did I know they were taking me to a kennel to look at puppies. At the time, my dream dog was a cocker spaniel and although there were cocker puppies there, my sister led me away from them to a group of puppies that were terriers. We were told that the puppies we were looking at were Cairn terriers and although they might have had Cairn in them I know that they weren't pure bred. The kennel was what we would now refer to as a puppy mill even though it was somewhat clean and the dogs looked healthy, there was every breed represented. We ended up getting a scraggy looking puppy who stayed by himself at the back of the run and although I wasn't sure at first, I fell in love with him quickly. I named him Aristotle, Ari for short. My friends laughed at his messy look and even the dog trainer at our obedience class laughed at him and thought he'd never learn anything. Boy, did Ari show him-he quickly became the star of the class and we even graduated early because he was such a quick learner. I taught him agility before anyone knew what it was-except for service dogs. Ari was so devoted to me and vice versa; he was a typical terrier in that when I left for a weekend he would stop eating. He didn't like children, probably because he wasn't around them. When I would go on bike rides I would have him heel next to the bike and he loved it. I was very insecure and didn't have a lot of friends but I always had my sweet Ari to keep me company. He would play hide and seek with me; as long as he was with me, life was good. When the first Benji movie came out, I couldn't believe that Ari looked just like Benji. Ari lived to almost 15 and it was so hard to make that dreaded decision. There have been many dogs in my life and I have loved all of them but there are three that really had my heart~my Ari,Sammy and our Sadie. I am thankful for each dog that we've had, for they've all taught me something.
Sweet Reggie continues to hang in there with no signs of any brain tumor; we will continue to watch & monitor his behavior but for now we just enjoy his devotion.
Have a wonderful weekend friends.
Noreen
