Happy Birthday Pie!

It is hard for me to believe Pie is only turning three years old today. To me, it seems she has always been part of my life. But in reality, she's only been with me two years, today. I think a lot of people know her general story. The confusion of whether or not she was still in the shelter, me sending a non-dog friend to bail her out, with out me even seeing her in person or doing a basic assessment, her out of control behavior and then me deciding to keep her, rather than just foster her as I planned.

I don't think I'll ever forget the first walk I tried to take her on. I kept a death grip on her leash, trying to keep her from gaining the necessary momentum needed to pull me onto my face. I tried to distract her with treats or toys, I changed direction with every step to keep her guessing, but nothing worked. I made it down the driveway (it was a long driveway!) and down two houses and gave up and went home.

A few months after that I mentioned something to my mom about showing Pie in obedience, but she commented that she did not think Pie would be my next obedience prospect. Not that I enjoy proving my mother wrong, but Pie entered her first novice show, earned her CD in three tries, her CDX in four, and her UD in 6 (I think) in under six months. Eventually I want to get her UDX but we are in no big rush. In Mom's defense, it is possible that Pie falls under that category of "Obedience Dog, but not obedient dog." She was probably right after all.

Pie is my first Belgian and she makes me feel safe walking at night and living alone, even if I am not convinced she would actually see a danger and take action. But the bad guy doesn't know that.

Pie sleeps with her feet in the air, carries the "dog water" on hikes, pulls supplies home from the hardware store in her cart, and has very noisy dreams that wake me up at night.

She is going prematurely grey, she has learned if she puts her head on my lap, I can't resist petting her, she makes inappropriate advances on strangers, swims whenever she can, (wades if the water isn't deep enough,) puts her nose places it does not belong, tilts her head back and forth when I ask her questions, "helps" me type, and has learned that if I put a sock on your nose, you leave it there until I remove it.

I'll never know Pie's story (unless somehow I get really lucky) but I have my ideas. I also will probably never find out her lineage, which is too bad, because I would love a Pie clone.


So with all these memories and reflections on Pie, I wish her "Happy Birthday!" I wonder what we'll be up to next year at this time?