Look at This Dog

Fly - Best Dog in the Universe

Yes, this is hands-down, the best dog in the universe.  Her full name is Fly McDougal Fleabitis Jones Smith-Beare (she decided to hyphenate her name when I got married b/c she is an independent woman-dog).  Fly is pushing 12 years old now and we got her from the SPCA in Dallas when she was about 11 months old.  We almost didn't pick her.  She was super quiet and shy and didn't seem to have much personality.  My husband wanted a feisty dog so he picked out a terrier-looking dig named JayBird.  We completed all the paperwork were about to walk out the door with JayBird when they asked us if we had a cat.  I answered yes b/c we did at the time (said cat has since passed on to the big litter box in the sky) and we were told we couldn't have JayBird b/c he was a "cat killer."  Great.  My husband (impatient as always) wanted to just leave but I said, "No, let's go back and look at that shy, little black dog again."  The SPCA had named her Optimus but we changed it to Fly b/c she reminded me of the sweet motherly dog in the movie Babe.

We ended up taking her home and we're so glad that we did even though the first thing she did was take a dump in our apartment. Turns out she was very shy.  She wouldn't even sit in the same room with us for two weeks.  She never barked for over year. We posit that she had probably been abused as a pup.  To this day, if you put on a large hat, she will run away from you and hide behind the dining room table, shaking in fear.Most days you can't tell she's shy  because if you knock on our door, she will bark her head off at you and then wait for you to pet her and scratch her ears.

She's getting old now.  She sleeps a lot.  Her snoring is unbelievably loud, too. Moose-like is what I call it. She has a limp thanks to some hip surgery a few years ago, she's getting arthritis and her eyesight isn't quite as good as it used to be.  However, she can sniff out a piece of deli turkey meat in an instant. Love this dog.