Abby. Anyone who knows me knows that the name, “Abby” is a very special name to me. You see, Abby is my black lab.
She came to me when my son and husband went to “look” at the last of the puppies of a litter. When they arrived, she was playing around in the yard by herself. You see, she was the runt. And because she was, the mother AND the father would have hurt her and possibly kill her.
It was the 27 of June and I heard my husband’s truck coming down our road. When it stopped, out came my son, Patrick, age eleven holding her under the belly as he struggled to step out of the truck. The grin on that child’s face was one I will never forget! He was in love. We had never owned a dog for the past twelve years so he was very excited to have his own dog. He told us her name was “Abby” and there was never any discussion about it after that. Abby would be her name.
Abby was ten weeks old. This little black ball of nothing. She was the cutest thing I had ever laid eyes on! She was a little frightened, (as you and I would be if everyone around us would want to finish us off) and wouldn’t stray far since she was such a young pup. The smell on that dog, however, was one I never want to smell again. Apparently the people that owned her lived on a big farm in Connecticut, bred dogs for a living and saw no reason to interfere and thought that Mother Nature would take care of things. They would allow the dogs to be with their families, and never intervened in any way. God, I wish they had intervened.
Abby romped around the yard with us until dark that first night. But even with the smell, she was my new baby. She was afraid to leave the yard, afraid of our back steps, and just in general, very happy to be with us. I remember the puppy kisses and the puppy breath. Neighbors came to see her and she acted like she had lived with us forever. She almost acted like she owned the joint!
As the weeks went by, she got more and more comfortable with us. She still would not climb a single stair, which I couldn’t understand. She did the typical puppy things that all puppies do in a day. She’d pee. She’d poop. She’d run and play until she was completely exhausted and she would collapse. I was a stay at home mom and wanted to see my children get off the bus, so I stocked Hallmark cards at a local supermarket at night so I could be home during the day. My God, my nights were long working at that store. It was like I had a newborn who I didn’t see at night. I would get out of work at about 11 and be home by 11:30. I would race home and I couldn’t wait to see that puppy. I’d burst in the back door, and find her asleep in her crate. The house was quiet-but not for long. I’d gently wake her just to sit and hold her. Eventually she would wake up and start to play. My kids would wake up and join us in the kitchen. A couple of balls and toys and she was off. My husband’s job means having to be up at 4:30 so we tried to go through the motions (at one in the morning) of keeping quiet as we played. Soon enough, we would all poop out and it was time for her to go back to her crate, and us to our beds. This did not last long.
She trained in a few months and the next thing I knew, she was in bed with us—my husband and me! Snuggled right in between the two of us. She’s still there today. May I say that I never allowed my children to sleep with us so...what’s wrong with this picture?
