Shasta

I found this draft today of a post that for some reason never got posted.....Not sure why. It's a few years old (Shasta is 9 now & has gray hair on her face) but the sentiments are still the same. Sadly not much progress has been made on my part - I just keep trying.


Those who know me well know that I am not an animal person...never have been! When I relented to getting another dog I made it clear I wanted something small that wouldn't shed allover the house. Instead, I came home one night to find Shasta. She was 6 months old at the time, but was already bigger than the size dog I was thinking of. And it didn't take more than a couple days to learn that she sheds like crazy -- dog hair gets absolutely EVERYWHERE! It makes me NUTS the amount of dog hair that always seems to be in my house.

Shasta is 5 now. She tries so hard to make me to love her. She gets sooo excited when I show her any affection. I feel so bad for her sometimes. She's a good dog. Well behaved. A good protector. And she really is cute. I feel safer having her around, especially when Brian is gone at night. But it still grosses me out when she tries to lick me, and I feel the need to scrub my hands after I've pet her even a little. And the way she follows me around sometimes is really annoying. But she keeps trying.

Some days, when I see how much her hips bother her when she gets up or down, or she looks at me with those sad, sweet eyes, or walks up and plops her head in my lap, I almost want to wrap my arms around her neck and kiss her...almost. I just can't quite bring myself to go it. But she's the first dog I've ever wanted to be able to show affection to...and I hope that counts for something. And I hope somehow, as she lays at my feet tonight, she knows that I'm trying.