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Tim and I mostly had cats during the first twenty-plus years of marriage. Our first cat, Gray Kitty, was selected a few days after our wedding from a litter my good friend Renee was giving away. We had her for 18 years. Our second cat, Cassie, saw us through another 18 years. When we got our third cat, Zelda, I expected the same. Alas, she died suddenly at about 7 years of age. We'd also had a couple of dogs, adopted as adults, when our children were younger, but I didn't grow particularly close to either of them. I thought of myself as a "cat person." When Kelly left home for college and we had an empty nest, Tim decided I should have a puppy. It was a complete surprise, and I thought he'd lost his mind. Nutmeg (so named because her mother was Sugar and her aunt was Spice) was a full-blood beagle without papers. A coworker of Tim's bred beagles for hunting. Tim paid $25 for her and surprised me with this little bundle of energy on my birthday. We called her Meggie or Meg, and loved her dearly for 17 years--almost as long as a cat! Meg was true to her breed. Her two favorite things in life were food and following a scent. If she escaped from the yard (also a digger when she was young), she could follow a trail for miles before being found. But she was so sweet! She loved us almost as much as she did her dinner. I read once that beagles will eat anything that looks like food, and a lot that doesn't. So very true for Meg! When we adopted a border collie mix puppy to be company for her a couple of years later, we ruined Meg's life. The cute little furball we named Snickers was very exciting to her for a while. When Snickers grew up bigger than Meg, she became the alpha dog, and Meg lost her standing. Dogs learn their place in the pack quickly and there's nothing we can do to change it. Poor sweet Meg lived the next fifteen years of her life in Snickers' shadow. I hadn't expected to grow so attached to Meg, but she gave me a chance to practice nurturing and mothering skills that were appreciated on a different level, without all the drama of child rearing. She was always so happy to welcome us home--even if Snickers stood between us. I do miss that pure kind of love. --Janice
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January 2022
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