Monday, January 15, 2007

Clarence


Boy...what can I say about Clarence. What can't I say? He is the reason that Mark & I changed our lives so much. He was found stuck in some bramble bushes as a puppy by a co-worker. We took him in, having just moved into our house. He is (we think) a shepherd akita mix. He is very dominant, very pack orientated & very food motivated. We had never had a dog outside of our parents dogs growing up. We did everything wrong with him. He was terrorizing us. I couldn't handle him by myself & was afraid of him because he was bigger than any dog I had contact with previously. We took him to obedience, which actually ended up being obedience for us, not the dog. (Not to get on my soapbox, but just like a child, when a dog it bad...look to the parents). The 3 of us worked so hard to be a family. Clarence wanted to be with us, he just wasn't sure if we could take care of him. We had to prove ourselves to him. Because of him, we started to examine our morals, our ideas. It wasn't ok for me to use my Pantene shampoo, because what made Clarence different from any other animal? It wasn't right for me to eat meat...who were we to say that we were better than those chickens I ate? He's also the reason we keep rescuing dogs.

That aside, Clarence is the best person I know. He's fair, dedicated, smart, loving, and a little cranky, which keeps him from being perfect & boring. He also has horrible leash aggression. But he is his mom's little man!

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