Shiloh

It's 6:00 am and the phone starts playing music very loudly. "You ready to get up?" I ask Shiloh, after turning off the loud alarm. He looks up groggily from his dog bed and yawns a big yawn. I stand up from my bed and kiss my husband, who is going back to sleep. "Come on big boy" I say to Shiloh. He stands up in his bed and stretches. Shiloh and I are going to wake my son for school.

As we enter Donnie's room, I locate him in all the covers. I lightly pat the bed and say, "come on." That is Shiloh's cue to jump up on the bed and wake DIt's 6:00 am and the phone starts playing music very loudly. "You ready to get up?" I ask Shiloh, after turning off the loud alarm. He looks up groggily from his dog bed and yawns a big yawn. I stand up from my bed and kiss my husband, who is going back to sleep. "Come on big boy" I say to Shiloh. He stands up in his bed and stretches. Shiloh and I are going to wake my son for school.

As we enter Donnie's room, I locate him in all the covers. I lightly pat the bed and say, "come on." That is Shiloh's cue to jump up on the bed and wake Donnie. "Oh Shiloh" Donnie mumbles as Shiloh starts licking his nose.

Shiloh is our nine-year young Boxer, since my son is in high school, he is momma's baby. We have had him since he was six weeks old. Talk about a spoiled rotten fur baby. Shiloh loves to sleep in bed with me, but my husband doesn't allow it, for lack of room and Shiloh snores loud enough to raise the roof. Shiloh and I have our own bed. If he starts irritating my husband at night, we go get in our bed. Shiloh is my first boxer and I love him so much; I know I will be in trouble when his time comes.

I talk to him all the time., I know science claims that dogs cannot understand language and words only tone, but I beg to differ since I get a response from him all the time. If nothing else, he can feel all of the love and he knows he is cared for. I will say “come here” and he does. He can sit and stay. He knows quiet, get em boy, and be gentle. He knows the word treat. I think that I am other only one that he will let put their hand in his mouth and down his throat. I had to do this one time because he had gotten ahold of a chicken bone and was in the process of swallowing it. Tisk, tisk, we can’t have that. I think had it been anyone else, he may have sunk his teeth into their arm. That may have been a bloody mess. He lets me take a Milk bone and put it between my lips and get right in his face, then he takes it barely nibbling. It is my opinion that if anyone else tried it, they might get bit.

Oh well, what can I say? Off topic it makes me think of a joke that I saw: This man was walking down the street when he saw a boy with a dog. The man asked, “Does your dog bite?” The boy answered “no”. The man reached to pet the dog and the dog bit him. The man looked at the boy and said, “You said he doesn’t bite”. So, the boy replied, “That’s not my dog.” Hah too funny. Back on the topic of my baby Shiloh. Yes, he snores very loud, is a bed hog and has some mad gas, but I love him dearly. I call him a puppy; my husband calls him a moose. He is laying on the couch snoring as I type this.

He loves to run. We take him to the park and let him run on the tennis court if they are empty. I am always sure to take a bowl and some water with us. When he was younger and I would let him out to use the bathroom he would get loose sometimes, if his collar slipped off. He would take off like a streak of lightening. Not so much anymore now that he is pushing ten years young.

He knows what momma is saying and what is wrong. If I cry, he comes to me and protectively stands by.

At the end of the day when bedtime rolls around, I’ll say “come on baby, lets go to bed.” There he is walking right beside me.