When we saw the photo there was no doubt that this dog would get the spotlight of our weekend feature Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap.
The dog is Jessie (actually Jessica Marie) who was caught snoozing by her human Lisa Holcomb.
”This is one of my three dogs, Jessie, snoozing in Her Chair,” Lisa wrote.
Where is Her Chair? Jessie, Lisa and her hubby Matt live in Amarillo, out in the Texas Panhandle. Back to The Story of Sleeping Jessie.
”All of my dogs are rescues,” Lisa says, “But Jessie is the rescue that kept bouncing back to me. She was rescued in 2000 by a trucker, who found her half starved and dumped in the country. He brought her to the Amarillo SPCA, where I was volunteering, and I fell in love with her, and took responsibility for screening her [new] home. I eventually chose a home for her with a family in a nearby town. She lived happily with them for about five years, until the parents decided to divorce.
”They were willing to keep Jessie, but only as an outside dog. My ironclad rule with any animal I place in a home is that if it doesn’t work out, EVER, I want the animal back. They are MY babies, no matter where they are or how much time has passed. And my babies do not live outside.”
[Larry aside: Can we get a vigorous AMEN on that? And, oh, yeah, I just noticed the shadow of a duck’s head on Jessie’s side. At first I thought “pet duck.” And then I realized the very talented Jessie is making a shadow puppet with her ear. Now, back to the real story…]
Lisa continues, “Now, picture this scene. I had been married for less than two months, and my husband and I were eating dinner when I got the call that Jessie needed me. I made plans with the lady to retrieve Jessie, and hung up. I was busily finishing dinner, when I realized that Matt was frozen with a fork in midair, staring at me. He asked mildly, ‘Did we just get another dog?’ (We already had three dogs at that time.) My response was, ‘Oooo, yeah, I guess I should include you in these matters’.
”To be fair, I was happily single until I was 35 years old, and marriage took some getting used to! Thankfully, I married a Perfect Man!
”I spent the next year trying to re-home Jessie, but not everyone is intelligent enough to want a wildly hairy German Shepherd mix in their house that loathes small children (I can’t really hold that against her, because I’ve never met a toddler I liked, either!).
”Jessie went to a couple of homes, but it never worked out (through no fault of Jessie’s -- it was always freak circumstances). For instance, a wonderful older couple adopted her, but they found out very shortly after they took her home that the gentleman had terminal cancer. They were concerned that Jess would get shortchanged with all the uproar in the home, so she came back to me. That was the last time I tried to adopt her. I cried and cried when I went to pick her up, and I told my husband that I just couldn’t give her up again. He smiled and told me to bring her home for good.
“So I did. She is a delight. I call her the Secretary of Defense, because she takes her home security duties seriously. She is currently engaged in an archeological expedition in the backyard with her Basenji mix sister, which is probably going to collapse our shed sooner or later. She loves to go to Sonic for ice cream cones, and she’s learned that the rattling of cookie sheets likely means I am baking dog treats. Not that she gets out of her chair for the treats, mind you--she knows I will bring them to her, so all she has to do is raise her head to get the goodies.
“Anyway, I love her dearly and would not trade for her. She makes me happy and I believe she is happy. I thank God every day for her.”
[To nominate your sleeping dog, napping cat, dozing dingo, etc., for Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap, send photo and info to [email protected]. We’re proud to show off your slumberers to the rest of the world. Remember, no matter what time zone you’re in around the globe, there’s an insomniac who might be reading this feature.]
--- To comment, click below. ---