Her name was Lola

"My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet" ~ Edith Wharton

I have five pets, three cats and two dogs. They make me laugh every day and each of them brings something special into my life. I love them all very much. But, out of all of them I have a very special place in my heart for Lola, our pug-chihuahua puppy. She is a handful, she likes to chew on things and was a nightmare to potty train. But, as she is coming up on her first birthday, she has truely turned into a delightful dog. I looked up spunky in the thesaurus and every single one of those words describes Lola..active, animated, bouncy, energetic, full of life, full of spirit, peppy, snappy, zesty, and zippy. Every word a perfect picture of what Lola is all about.

She greets me every morning with her snout upon my shoulder, her ears perked up. If she could talk I know she would be telling me to get up and face the day. She hops around on our bed as our real life alarm clock, more than ready for us all to get up and enjoy the day.

She snuggles into my neck at night, before we are ready to put her in her crate. She and I, and the rest of the animals sometimes, will get into bed and turn the tv on or read a book. She curls up next to me and rests her head on my shoulder. I can hear her breath as she falls asleep. It's one of my favorite times of the day.

She wags her tail a mile a minute when I speak to her, or when my husband speaks to her. Her cute little ears perk up as if she understands everything. But she is so dingy sometimes and it always makes me laugh to watch her being a silly puppy. And her smile, oh her smile. She has a bit of an underbite and her upper lip sometimes gets stuck on her lower teeth.

She is also my shadow. When I had my surgery in July and was stuck in bed for a few days she hardly left my side. She brought her toys up on the bed so that she could be close to me, or sometimes she wanted me to play tug-o-war with her. When ever I got up she was right there with me. As crazy as she can be, she can also be so calm and just be there for me when it seems I need her.

I try not to play favorites with my pets. Well, between the dogs at least. The cats don't need my approval or my attention, they let me know when they want something from me. But, Lola is my little girl and I'm so glad that I have her in my life.