I was just speaking with my sister and she’s off for another holiday! I’m green with envy. I need that holiday too.

Any way, this reminded me of how my husband and I used to take care of one of her dogs when she’d go on a family vacation every winter years ago. She had this dog called Shreddy. Shreddy was a German Sheppard Doberman mix. She was bigger than most Shepard’s but she had long hair rather than the short hair both of her parents had. Shreddy looked like a big fluff ball. LOL

My husband was always afraid of her. Well he’s afraid of all dogs. Shreddy loved to sit at his feet in our apartment. He’d lean over and pet her and every time he’d stop she’d growl. One day he called out to me sounding quite afraid “I’m tired of petting her but she keeps staring at me and growling every time I stop!”. I had to explain to him that she wasn’t really growling – she was begging for more. It took a while for Chris to get over his fear of her even after he understood that she was just sitting with him because she loved being pet.

Remember I mentioned her long hair? Well every summer my sister and her husband took Shreddy to the dog grooming salon to have her fur pretty much shaved off. She’d get way too hot in the summer without the haircut otherwise. She looked so funny with her hair shaved off. The short hair was gray instead of being the black and white shades that it had been when it was longer. It also made her look more like a puppy.

After she’d get her hair cut she’d hide for a couple of days. She knew she looked different. Once she got used to her new look though she’d have a burst of energy. Maybe that contributed to us thinking she looked more like a puppy when her hair was shorn off.

Shreddy is no longer around and I miss her. One of our neighbors has a dog that looks a lot like she did and I always think of Shreddy and what a great dog she was when I see our neighbors dog.