Cabo

I’ve been catching up on my friend Marie’s personal/family blog this week. I stopped at a post she dedicated to her dog Cabo. It reminded me again of what an impact our dog(s) have on our lives. I asked her if I could share it and she said of course!

CABO
by my amazing friend Marie

She has a grey goatee. She barks when anyone comes near the house. She has been known to eat a diaper. She loves parmesan cheese on her dog food. She leaves doggie hair ALL over the place for me to clean up daily.

She has saved my life.

Andy and I went and saw Marley and Me, and laughed so hard we were crying. Not only because the movie is funny, but because it was like watching Cabo in a movie. I have blogged about Cabo before, but now I do it with the intent to express my feeling about how much I truly love this dog.

After she came into our lives (via the shelter)….I didn’t like her at all. I DID NOT LIKE DOGS. But, we figured it was a pre-cursor to baby…so I gave it a try. I didn’t like being near dogs, the smell of dogs or anything dog-like. But to make a long story short, I fell in love. She had pneumonia within the first week we had her, and to see her suffer in the vets office melted my “dog hating heart” into a pile of goo. I called the vets office every few hours during the middle of the night that first night to make sure she was still alive. After that, she slept next to me…and still does.

Here are a few little known facts about Cabo:

*She has eaten through drywall and wood. We were told by a trainer to put wasabi, yup folks, wasabi on the part she was eating to keep her from chewing it. She licked up the wasabi like it was a fresh bowl of water, and kept on chewing.

*She ate through a Costco size box of Ziploc sandwich baggies. I came home from work to see thousands of baggies not only gone and digested, but in shreds all over the bathroom floor. Along with about 10 rolls of toilet paper.

*She has eaten duct tape and money. I won’t tell you how we found out how.

*She ate a whole chocolate cake while we were at church. She threw up for 2 days. Andy had to sleep on the deck with her. This was not her finest moment.

*She ate two cubes of butter…again, I’ll spare you the details.

There are a lot more funny stories about her…but I’ll just finish by explaining why she has saved me.

Andy and I had a rough go of it our first years of marriage. We didn’t know what we were doing, we were both selfish and needed to grow up. We were learning how to communicate with each other but it was coming together slower than we thought. When Cabo came into our home she became my buddy that loved me unconditionally. She was happy to see me and we understood each other in our own secret way. She has to be within 3 feet of me at all timesb and she made me feel secure. Who knew we could save that $300 an hour on marriage therapy and just get a dog with a few “issues?”

But from her unconditional animal love…she taught Andy and I to be kinder to each other. She taught us to keep our voices lower because it bothered her. She is our great defender and sweet puppy.

She is crazy and unruly and we love her.

Marley’s got nothing on her.