For the Love of Jasmine.....

      Well, it all started with, "I want a dog," "I want a dog," and "I think we should get a dog for the kids."  "But I don't want a dog right now," I said.  "I have enough to do, with the children, without raising a puppy too!"  Several weeks later, I was driving home with an adorable, Black Lab puppy, who whined and cried all the way home from the farm, where we bought her.  The farm was over 50 miles from our house.  On the way home, I asked the children what they wanted to name her.  I tried to steer them away from "Ebony," "Night," "Blackie."  I wanted to at least give this dog a really nice, pretty name.  I thought, "Black dog, black dog, what would be a really good name for our little, black dog?"  (That was the one distinguishing feature she had.)  "Jasmine!  It's an exotic, night-blooming flower!"  "Mmmmm.....how am I going to sell the kids on 'Jasmine?'"  At the time, Disney's movie, Aladin, was out, so I said, "How about Jasmine?  It'll be like she's named after Princess Jasmine!"  They immediately knew what I was talking about.  "Well, I like 'Ebony,'" said my seven-year-old daughter.  "She'll be 'Princess Jasmine,'" I said.  "Weeeeell, O.K.," she said.  So, for the next week, we were awakened every night by a very homesick, little dog named Jasmine.

       Being summer, it was very easy to stay outside with "Little Dog," as I called her.  Oh, I may have fondly called her "Little Dog," but I was definately keeping my distance emotionally.  I had had to get rid of my little, black, miniature Schnauzer, Natosha (Baroness Natosha Von Schwartz), six years earlier, because she had bitten my nine-month-old, daughter.  Tosha had been my "baby", and I was not getting attached to this dog.  Besides, we had read and read and learned and learned about dogs before we bought Jasmine, and I knew all about pack dominance.  I was going to be the alpha female, so I stayed aloof from Little Dog.  I didn't want her to think she was dominant over any of us and risk her hurting the children.  It could be very dangerous, considering she was a much larger dog than Natosha was.  That dog was not coming in and messing up my house, either!

      Well, that was four years ago - almost four and a half.  "Little Dog" is now over 90 lbs., and she is the sweetest, most well-behaved (my husband took her to Puppy Kindergarten - we ALL learned!), gentle, well-trained, family dog in the whole world!  I love my "little dog," and I will recommend Labrador Retrievers to anyone in a second!  She was never going to hang out in the house; there is short, black hair all over my house AND in my food!  She was never supposed to go into the formal entry-way; she lays inside by our front door.  I was never going to love her or care; now, I'm worried that she's quite depressed, because no one walks her regularly any more.  (We really are going to take the time to; Jasmine really is depressed because we don't.)  Oh, she did chew off one of our grapevines almost down to the ground, when she was a puppy.  She's dug up my plants, as a puppy.  She's chewed off my irises and our small, Japanese Maple, as a puppy, and she won't leave my pond alone!  (I know I have a water dog.)

      When I said, however, that  she is well-behaved and well-trained, I meant it!  Loving the little, quail that have always come into our yard, as well as loving all the little birds, I trained her when she was a puppy NOT TO BOTHER "MY" BIRDS!!!  Jasmine, to this day, does NOT chase, nor bother, the flocks of birds that come into our yard (her yard).  We even had a set of male and female, Mallard ducks live, briefly, in our pond this summer!  She does not jump up onto people either.  I'm so proud of her!  She's a lady!  I think I've figured out that the only reason she dug up my newly-planted plants, when she was a puppy, was because I was her example, and she was just learning from me. :o)

      Oh, one, really cute thing that Jasmine does is smile.  One evening, I was lying on the couch, dozing, when someone let Jasmine in from outside.  She came wriggling and wagging her tail over to the couch, to me.  She had this big smile on her lil'doggy "lips."  Well, I looked over at her - down at her height - saw this big, black dog with big white fangs showing and jumped out of my skin!  LOL!  What a dog!  

      Now, don't write me nasty e-mails about this next one; my daughter already got mad at me and told me, "No!"  This past spring, I thought it would be really funny to plant catnip in the back yard, behind the swing set/fort.  That way, the cats would come in after the catnip and not be able to see Jasmine approaching, because the swing set/fort would be in the way.  What fun Jasmine could have had with that!  She hates cats, because they run along the top of our six-foot fence and tease her.  I must say that I do prefer dogs' undying love and devotion over cats' cool aloofness, but I would NEVER hurt a kitty-cat!  I love animals, period.  It was just an amusing idea. :o)  Please excuse me; this unattached, unemotional, dog owner has to go hug her Little Dog now. :'o)