Not Sophie's Choice

Two red dogs and a heeler

My son plays PeeWee baseball, and the season has just started. Our team is doing well so far. It’s strange – I recently noticed that wherever we go to play ball, without fail, our team has – by far – many, many more dogs in attendance than the spectators from the other teams. Almost every family has a dog or two – and all the dogs come to the games. Of course, our  two tripawds (Sophie and Roxie) always draw a lot of attention – which they love. Buster – the Golden quadpawd – just basks in the glow of anyone looking his way. The dogs particularly like it when there are foul balls that go off into the bush. If the little kids aren’t fast enough to fetch the errant balls – who better to get them than a retriever!? So the balls come back a little slobbery.  🙂   The umpires generally encourage the little kids to get the foul balls. Go figure.

Kids, balls, snacks, and sunshine – it’s doggie heaven. So much better than hockey season.

Thank goodness we don’t have too many ball diamonds near bodies of water ! All this talk about swimming – as much as I love the “joie de vivre” – the “live life with complete immersion” mentality of the golden retriever – there is something to be said for those dogs who walk around the edge of the pool, or the lake – viewing the body of water with suspicion. Sophie and her step sibling/dogs take every opportunity to wade into whatever tiny bit of water they find and, if possible, swim – if not possible, just lie down. Never a second thought about what kind of wet it is – or how smelly it is – or how green it is – or what may be floating in it … oh yeah.

And on a totally different topic …. because that is how my mind works these days … you know how when you’re dieting, for example, you see food everywhere you look? It’s like you can’t get away from it. Or, you’re trying to get pregnant, and you see pregnant women everywhere? Well … now that I am the unexpected mother of a tripawd … I am seeing tripawd dogs everywhere ! I see them walking down the street when I’m driving – I see them when I’m at the ball games – I see them at the vet – they are everywhere ! I never noticed before – in fact, Roxie – Sophie’s black heeler cross step sister/dog – was the only tripawd dog I had personally known – before. Weird. Today I was taking out the garbage – two ladies were walking by my house with three little dogs. Of course I asked if I could meet them … and it wasn’t until I had been petting one of them for a minute or two that I noticed she was a tripawd. She had almost the same ampuversary date as my Sophie, and her name was Sophie, too !

I met a man at the vet’s where Sophie goes for her chemo  – he has a huge dog named Ben who is a tripawd. Ben seems to be on the same schedule for treatments as Sophie – they’ve been there every time we’ve been there. Last time we were there, we met a beautiful older Golden who was with her dad and grandma. They had just been told she had cancer and were going through that awful decision-making stage that we have all been through. I told them about this website, as a friend had done for me.  It seems that I meet people so often now who are in this same situation. Tripawd-ness is becoming common-place in my world. Or maybe I am becoming common-place in the tripawd world.

Sophie and Buster waiting in the car

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