A Girl and her Dog

I realized something this morning. It began like this. We have a dog. Her name is Corrah and she is a 3 year old collie/shep. cross. There is nothing fancy about Corrah and, like most of the animals on our farm, she was born on a Mennonite farm. We picked Corrah out of a litter of 8, in a large country kitchen for $75, 3 years ago. Actually, almost to the day.
I like Corrah. She does what she is meant to do. She barks when an unfamiliar car pulls up our driveway, keeps all of those pesky squirrels and rabbits out of our yard, no longer harasses our cats and wrestles with the neighbour's dog. When we got Corrah it was somehow assumed that she was Troy's dog. Whether that was just because he was 'man of the house' or simply because she was mostly Troy's pick (I'm a LabX girl myself) he assumed responsiblility of training Corrah. I was simply the enforcer. Roughly $800 worth of leather boots and shoes later Corrah is very well trained. She will sit, lay down, shake both paws and roll over (in that order) and never needs a leash. I even took her to our new farm yesterday and after a quick sniff around the barn she had no problem sticking around the new yard with no supervision. She is a really good dog. Well, she has her flaws like we all do. She does bark at the stroller wheels (as you know) and the odd time will rummage through our kitchen garbage as a midnight snack (as you also know) but at least she doesn't touch my boots.
This morning while we waited for the bus I let Avalee out of the stroller to wander around. She seemed very concerned about Corrah's where abouts at all times. Avalees speaks only handful of words that are recognizable and "Orrah!" is one of them.
Corrah likes to zig and zag up our road in both directions. We live on very low-traffic street. She sniffs the air, the shrubbery in the ditch line and our mail box where the neighbour's dog pees on a routine basis.
Well, Avalee was having a absolute fit trying to chase and call after Corrah. In her mimicking way, of Troy and I , she stands and smacks her hands together shouting "Orrah!" over and over again. I can tell that Corrah is listening by the way her ears cock during her frantic sniffing spree. I have to keep asking Avalee to stay off the road but all she wants to do is follow the dog around. Not her sisters, not me, but the dog.
Once the girls are safely on their way to school we make our way back up the driveway (Corrah being her annoying 'freaking over the stroller' self which has Avalee thrilled and in stitches) After I toss some hay to the horses we go in the house.
Year round I spend a lot of time telling Corrah to 'Get outside!' This is exceptionally easy in the summer because our storm door no longer has a screen in it so Corrah can easily hop through the closed door in one graceful leap. This morning for some reason I let Corrah in the house with us. Even though the grass is all dewy and I know that she will leave wet doggy prints all over my clean kitchen floor. I go about my business, do the breakfast dishes, fix my pony tail and turn around several minutes later to see Avalee kneeling on the floor beside Corrah. We keep our dog food in a bottom drawer of one of those rubbermaid 6 drawer storage units. Avalee had pulled open the dog food drawer and Corrah was happily munching on her kibble. Avalee was also munching on Corrah's kibble. (After two years I've accepted the fact that Avalee enjoys the meaty flavour of dog food so this scene doesn't shock me.)
I take a glance at my kitchen floor and not only are there wet paw prints scattered everywhere but just as many wet toddler slipper prints. This gets me thinking. When my older girls were Avalee's age they had each other, 24/7. They left two sets of little wet foot prints on our old kitchen floor. Or muddy ones or sticky ones.
Avalee doesn't have a close sibling to play with 24/7. Corrah is her 'sibling' 24/7. Her 'someone' to play with, to chat to, to cuddle with, to share her sandwich with. That makes SO much sense to me now. So now I see Corrah in a bit of a different light. She's not just 'the dog' or 'Troy's dog' or another 'something' to have to clean up after. She is a very important part of our family. She protects us, she unconditionally loves us, she babysits for us and she does it all for little in return.
As the years go on I can only wish to have a connection with a dog like the one Avalee and Corrah share and I wish for the both of them a long and healthy friendship.

Kind of a random blog but one of those enlightening moments that brings tears to my eyes! Now go hug your dog!