If I Could Blog Back Thursdays - #1 First Pet

So I have been following Lola over at Lola's Diner and I decided to play along.. If you want to join in on the fun make sure and go see Lola's Diner and sign up..

This is my first time blogging back thursdays under jugglingteens I usually write it over at Shaunispeaks but this time I decided to include the blog over here.

Today's Topic First Pet

We weren't allowed pets when we were younger as my mom just was not a dog person. My ex on the other hand grew up with them and had this rather large dog when we met(Peaches and she gets the honor over at Shaunispeaks but right here I am going to write about the first pet my children owned and that was Kato

Kato was a keeshound and a better family dog you could never imagine. We got Kato when Hair Boy was 6 mo old that very first Christmas. We were supposed to not spend a lot of money as we were moving into our first house on New Years but the ex came home with this adorable expensive furball that he fell in love with in the pet store. Honestly he was the absolute cutest thing I have ever seen.

We later found out that keeshond's were actually recommended for families with small children and I would have to agree, Kato's tolerance for abuse (term used figuratively) was relative to how high you were from the floor when you stood up. He would let Hair Boy all but manhandle him as a baby.

Kato was a perpetual puppy, he never really grew up and it still amazes me that when he died he was 16 years old. He loved to run and jump, we had this running leash set up in our yard, he would run the entire length of our yard in moments and everyone could tell that he loved every minute of it. The best thing would be when I would call him in, he would be at the back fence and race towards the house reaching the perfect spot he would leap and fly through the air landing on the porch at my feet (we had a Chicago Bungalow style house and the first floor was about 5 feet of the ground). It was pure poetry in motion.

Kato loved to growl, I swear he had this version of ADHD (whenever you speak sharply to ADHD kids they get defensive so you need to always use a calm tone of voice.. yeah right but that is a subject for a different blog) so when Kato would growl, if you snapped at him he got all snarly but if you spoke softly and lovingly he came running. Of course the ex would growl back. One time I was shaking my head and calling Kato a dumb dog, my dad looked at me and with a totally straight face said "I don't know seems pretty smart to me, he taught Ron how to growl"...

When we moved Kato became an outside dog and I know that was very hard on him.. in a way the divorce was the best thing that ever happened to him because we had to give him to a friend. Kato was 10 at the time and still thinking he was a puppy. I gave him to a friend of my son's and that family adored that dog until the day he died.But I was still mom.. whenever I would show up he was all over me and Hair Boy said it was the same for him..

He was a great dog, the kind that my children will hold deep in their hearts and probably become dog owners themselves because Kato was so wonderful. I still miss him and I know the beasties do as well.