Missy's Story

I really wanted a pet growing up. My mother knew some people who had 2 dogs in a small fenced in area in their back yard. They weren't taking very good care of the 2 dogs. The dogs were both Australian Shepard mixes but had the markings of a Boarder Collie. They both that little stub of a tail. Missy was black and white with brown eyes. Her sister was a beautiful light brown where Missy was black and she had blue eyes. That was the dog my mom had wanted, but the owners said no, take the other one. So my mom brought home Missy.

Missy was very aggressive in the beginning. It got to the point where my mother would go to different pet shops looking at other dogs because she was thinking of getting rid of Missy. But I didn't want her to. Even though I couldn't get close to Missy without her growling at me, I still wanted her to stay. Eventually my grandmother had hired this very amazing dog trainer. I barely remember it, I was maybe 6 years old at the time. I remember my mother told me that during Missy's training she did bite the trainer pretty bad. But after all that was done, she was by far the best dog I'll ever know.

She never left our side. She followed my mother everywhere. She learned to stay and come. She learned bathroom, ball, and rope in sign language (My parents are deaf). She was the sweetest dog ever. She still had some quirks of course. She always barked at the door (which was a good/annoying thing because my mom could actually hear her a little and knew someone was at the door). She was very shy and wary of new people, mostly men. If you came around the house often and she got to know you, she would always be so happy to see you. I remember Missy liked to sleep with my mom on my parents bed. My dad hated it. So whenever he left early in the morning to go to work, she would jump into bed with my mom. She learned who "Nana" was. That was what we called my grandmother on my dad's side. My sister and I would yell, "Nana is here!!!" and Missy would get so excited. It got to the point where sometimes we'd say "Nana" just to get her all excited (cruel, I know). She was very smart.

Missy playing in the snow

 There was one remarkable/scary day, however you look at it. I was playing in the backyard with a water sprinkler. The kind that moves the water back and forth in an arc. My dad was in the front yard working on something. My mother was on the first floor of the house (we called it our basement cause the living spaces were up on the second floor). Anyway, my mom told me if I needed her, I could reach her through the backdoor. Dad had told Missy to stay in the backyard. Every so often Missy would go through the workshop, through the garage, and out to my dad. He would bring her to the backyard again and tell her to stay. Now the water sprinkler had exposed gears on it. I was between 6 and 8 years old at the time. Somehow (I was being curious I suppose) I got one of my fingers stuck between the gears. I became hysterical as the gears grind my finger between them. I ran to the door that leads to the basement and my mother wasn't there. I kept crying and screaming. Missy had started pulling on the water hose and put holes in it with her teeth. When pulling on the hose wasn't working, she then ran out to get my father's attention (because she had to have known he would come back and tell her to stay). My father saw me and was able to quickly stop it. He took me to his workshop where he took the sprinkler apart and freed my finger. Nothing serious had happened. My finger had bruised and turned a little purple. I owe all my thanks to Missy for saving my finger. 

Missy was always such an amazing family dog. There were so many wonderful times with that dog, that it would make this post much, much longer. She lived to be 14 years old. She had a long and happy life.