I love both my dogs and I think I’m pretty good at sharing some of their traits that make them so endearing to me.

So what’s with the Delilah centered post you ask?

Well, last week Jan at Wag ‘N Woof Pets had a post, Pure Love – 10 Things I Love About Sheba. I so loved this post and thought it might be fun to showcase each of my dogs.

AND since last Thursday was Delilah’s nine year “Gotcha Day” and I totally spaced on it, I thought I’d start with her.

Of course it’s about me, isn’t everything?

1. Lovingness – Delilah does not take to people right away, in fact, it took her a very long time to even warm up to me, hubby and the rest of the family. She’s been failed by humans before and this has made her cautious, she doesn’t want her heart broken again (who can’t relate to that?) But once she trusts you, you’re golden in this girl’s eye. Where once she would tolerate pets, today she actively seeks them out and enjoys them. It’s proof that love and patience really can work miracles. Nothing makes me smile more than to roll over in bed and have her roll onto her back so you can rub her tummy.

2. Protectiveness – She is not aggressive with people by nature, but she will protect her people to the death. There is no doubt in my mind that this dog would give her life to protect me without even thinking twice.

3. Intuitiveness – I’ve always heard of dogs being in tune with what’s going on with their person, but I’ve never experienced it to the degree I have with Delilah. Delilah is totally in tune with me, and if I’m feeling down, or sad, she is right there, inserting herself into my space and supporting and comforting me and licking my tears away. If Hubby and I are excited about something and talking animately or raising our voices slightly, she gets incredibly upset and will run up to you with her little tail tucked between her legs and shove herself into you looking for comfort.

4. Silky Fur – Delilah has the softest, silkiest fur I’ve ever felt. Stroking her fur is so calming and soothing. I dare you to stroke her fur and not feel a sense of peace and calm wash over you. And when she groans because you’ve rubbed her ear, just the right way, it definitely tugs at those heart strings.

5. Cleanliness – Yeah, she smells like a Frito Corn Chip, but don’t hold that against her, she is the cleanest dog I’ve ever had. Her little belly is so pink and anytime you move any fur around on her body, all you see is milky white skin.

6. Zest for life– or as the French say, “Joie de vivre” – this dog’s zest for life is contagious, you cannot be around her and not feel that she is grateful to be alive. Hubby always says, “She knows we saved her from a high-kill shelter and she is thrilled to be alive.”

7. Athleticism – She is such an amazing athlete, she makes everything she does seem so effortless. I’ve seen her run practically straight up an almost vertical boulder, clear piles of brush eight feet wide, by two feet tall and jump? She can go from a sitting position and jump onto a three foot high wall as smoothly as a cat.

8. Silliness – She is one silly dog, and makes me laugh just about every day. Why just yesterday she went into the den and pulled an empty ice cream container out of Hubby’s trash can in there. (Shame on Hubby for not putting it in the kitchen trash!)

9. Fearlessness – Delilah is not afraid of anything…except sewer grates, she has a healthy respect for sewer grates. Human or animal, obstacle or object, if it’s in her territory, she’s going to find out what it is. Remember the Llama farm and the stand-off she had with the donkeys? She also had a standoff with a deer on the other side of our fence. I missed it, but Hubby said that deer was pawing the ground and puffing itself up. (I was running for my camera.) ;-(

                               I’m not sure what you think you’re doing, but this is MY yard.

10. Learnability – Delilah has learned to get what she wants by watching how Sampson operates. For instance, if you go into the bedroom when you come out, she will be waiting in front of the door and roll over onto her back so you can rub her tummy or her ears.

I could probably find a few more things I love about her, but the list says ten, so I’m sticking with it. Have you ever wrote down the things you love about your pets? I’d love to read them!

It’s been a while since I’ve written about something crazy that Delilah did. Truthfully, most of the things she does that makes us laugh (or pull our hair out) isn’t typically caught on film.

Sometimes I don’t have the camera handy and sometimes I have the camera but I can’t take the photo because I have to stop her from what she’s doing.

Hubby and I have talked about setting the Go-Pro camera up, but as of right now, we haven’t done it.

One of the things I struggle with in walking the dogs, is keeping Delilah from eating anything she finds. Most of the time it’s things like crab apples, bread (from the people that don’t know that birds aren’t supposed to have bread!), all kinds of food crap that people drop in the road, or that animals pull out of the garbage and poop.

Yum, yum, what’s on the menu today?

Most times I can keep her from eating stuff by saying, “Ick” or “Leave it”, but in order to do that, I have to see it first

And she’s fast. She’ll be sniffing about and then all of a sudden she dives and boom, she comes up with a ‘treasure’.

Sometimes she’s slick about it. Which is exactly what happened on Saturday. We left the house and headed up the street. Sampson was in front of me but Delilah was lagging behind.

Something made me turn around. I’m not sure if she gave me a subtle sign, if I sensed it or I just wanted to encourage her to move along, but I turned around and she had something in her mouth.

I wished I’d had the Go-Pro on because she looked like she was smiling.

Yeah, she had a whole (nasty) banana in her mouth.

She was doing her best to munch it down, but still trying to walk at the same time.

I toyed with the idea of snapping the photo first, but I was afraid she’d scarf it down in the time I managed to pull the camera out.

I picked the banana up on the way home and tossed it out in the poop bag. Now it really tastes like shit. 😉

The banana is mild compared to some of the stuff I’ve pulled out of her mouth. What’s the craziest thing you’ve taken away from your dog?