This Man's Best Friend

In my recent posts I've doted on my mom, sister, brother and sister-in-law. I feel I've been remiss in overlooking some very valued parts of my family. The dogs. To date none of my siblings nor I have had any human children, but I am still "Uncle Chris" to an ongoing brood of animals. At present (correct me if I'm wrong sibs) I am currently Uncle Chris to 3 dogs, 10 cats (counting my extended family) and one squirrel. All of these belong to the sibs as I do not have pets of my own because my work has me travel far too often for a pet to be properly cared for. I firmly believe that a pet is family, and not an accessory.

I do want to do an extended, immediate family "ode to my dogs" but that will require pic scanning and proper story telling so don't think that you won't get to meet them. But right now, I'm talking about one dog. The dog that was my best friend growing up. He came into my life when I was 10 and passed away not long after I turned 24 or 25. (can't remember, but he was quite old) Roller had lived the life of Reilly and knew, more than anything I'm sure, that he was loved. He was a pure-bred boxer (his mother, Tink was my family's first boxer) and exuded all the best traits of the breed (and some of the worst..boy was he a fart blossom!) He was my last dog and the desire to have another boxer has never left me.

You'll meet Roller soon, but for now, in honor of Roller, I wanted to share a site that I ran across yesterday. Boxer Rescue LA.

Rescue shelters of all types are to be commended for the work they do. Watch this video that BRLA put together that tells about what they do, but more importantly, where their dogs come from. http://presentdaypictures.com/brla

What I guess I'm getting at for the rescue is, if you're thinking of getting a dog (or cat, or horse, or bird, etc) check out the pounds or if you're one of those who prefers a pure bred dog, Google these rescue centers with your preferred breed. They're out there and there are plenty of dogs, mutts and pure, that are great dogs and need good homes.

Now if you have a dog (or cat, or horse, or bird, etc) of your own, go find him/her and give them a big ole sloppy smoochie for me! (well, just wave at the cats for me, I'm allergic)

PS. The picture at the top of this post is a sweetie named Breezy. She is currently up for adoption at BRLA. I wanted to put a picture at the top of the blog post and the look on her face caught my eye immediately!