While waiting at the veterinarian's office to have Klondyke's long overdue dew claws looked at, I was thinking of the responsibilities of having a dog. Klondyke was Amy's dog from her CA days and when she moved to St. Louis, he moved, too. When she moved to the Chicago area to work for a large company and travel a lot, it was not so easy to keep him with her. He had been staying with us while the move was going on - three months or so. And we fell for him. He is a Husky with great characteristics: friendly to people (not at all a guard dog!!), fairly good at following directions (Bob says he has no loyalty though because if he sees another dog and isn't on the leash, he is gone), loves to go for walks (keeping us fit and active) and eleven years old (fits well in our - dare I say it - aging household).

A number of years back we lost our twenty pound "pound puppy" named Checkers. She was a great dog for our young household. But she did have reputation with our friends and neighbors. I used to joke that her nickname was "Checkers, don't pet the dog, Wilcox" and everyone came to know what that meant. She was a nipper. Looked rather angelic, but she was a bit dangerous with company.

We had pretty much decided not to get another dog. You know, traveling, activities, work, etc. But then Amy needed assistance, so what do parents do? They assist. Ando so, we have an almost eighty pound, furry (really furry!!) dog who needs care and attention. Not such a bad thing, unless the care needs slip past us. His dew claw nails have been growing in circles for a little while and I always said I would get him in soon. Well, today he was licking and licking and I finally took a hold of his paw -- he growls when you do this so I don't do it often! - and it looked like blood was involved. Such guilt... I took him in and the nail was growing into his pad! So they clipped it out and clipped all his nails and he is on antibiotics. Or I tried to put him on the medicine. He just played with the pill. I have talked with Amy and he likes it with cheese!!
So responsibility, all the time and not just for the fun things....and we wouldn't have it any other way.