The Best Friend I Probably Didn't Deserve

I started writing a completely different post last night, hoping to finish and post it, but I ended up getting side-tracked by some previous comments... I could write about my dog, Lacey, forever. But I'll give you the whole story, and maybe some pictures at the end.. she is quite photogenic, after all.

A few weeks before I got out of the military, I started looking for a dog. I knew I wanted one immediately when I got out of the military because I had never really had one of my own, and you can't really have one in the barracks, so I had been waiting for this day for a while. At the time, I wanted a German Shepherd, but the apartment complex I was about to move into didn't allow animals over 50lbs, and even though I knew a puppy wouldn't be that big, eventually they'd outgrow the living requirements. I worry about things in the future often, it probably would've never been an issue, but I decided to find a different type of dog instead. I'm pretty sure I found Lacey on Craigslist, she was at a foster home with her brother, and I think she was around 6 weeks old when I saw pictures of her. I knew I wanted her because of her markings, she's got white paws, a white tip on her tail, and the white snout leading to a line up between her eyes. She was adorable as a puppy, still is, and she's still a puppy to me. I lift her up into my truck, and she's a little princess, all the time haha.

Anyway... the day I got out of the military, I had all my stuff packed up, met the foster parents that had been holding onto Lacey, she became mine, and we were about to take a 35 hour drive to the other side of the country to pick up my stuff, enjoy my month or so of Leave, and then move everything back across the country. That's a whole story in itself, but as we hit the road, I put Lacey in the passenger seat. If she laid down, she might've taken up a third of the seat, I think I got her when she was about 4 months old, maybe closer to 5, either way, she was just a little pup. She didn't warm up to me at first, I was driving a diesel truck with a bench seat, she had the freedom to move around a bit, and come to me when she was ready, but she didn't the first day at all. She just stayed of her side of the truck and slept most of the time, waking up only to go on walks and use the bathroom when we stopped.

When we pulled over for the night, I think we were in Colorado or somewhere in the mountains, it was cold wherever we were. I wasn't paying for hotels on the way home, I've slept in my truck plenty of times and I saw no reason not to. I fit fairly comfortably in the back seat, and I put down the center console so Lacey could move around to wherever she was comfortable. I guess she realized this was how we were living for a couple days, I felt her paws on my chest as she made her way from the front seat to the back. She climbed over the top of me and tried to go down by my legs, couldn't get comfy, so she stood on top of me and walked back up to my chest. She made herself at home on my chest, I could understand why.. I put off so much body heat around my torso, always have.. so she curled up on my chest, butt facing my face, and farts inches from my face. How could such a foul smell come from such a small, cute puppy? Haha I wanted to open the windows, but this was her getting comfortable with me, so I just held my breath and pet her a little bit.. she was already crashed out, and I wasn't long behind her.

Day 2, she was warmed up without any issue. Moving back and forth across the front seat, walking on my lap, standing on my lap to see out the window, sleeping on my lap, stepping on my groin while I was driving, yep. Just puppy things. We were inseparable for month after this, which looking back on it was probably a bad idea at the time, when I did start having to leave her alone, she got separation anxiety really bad. After a few months at home visiting my mom and finishing out the rest of my leave, Lacey and I packed things up again and headed another 35 hours back to where my new apartment was. Yeah, I know, sounds dumb, I'm sure.

This was my first place, our first place, and I was so excited to finally be on my own with my dog... Until reality set in. This was a really tough point in my life, I started school about 2 weeks after I moved back. The GI bill was supposed to take care of both my schooling and housing financially, which I thought it did, but over a couple months I realized that I wasn't breaking even and I needed to pick up a job on top of it. Lacey was a handful, every time I got home from school or work, she had tore something up and generally relieved herself all over the carpet, she was still young, I know she didn't know better. But with some discipline and as she got older, she learned. I always showed her what was right and wrong too, I wouldn't have done it any differently either, she is well-mannered, listens well, and knows when I'm serious, and when I'm joking with her. She's crazy smart, when she wants to be..