Love of a Dog


I am not a fan of Valentine's Day. But then it occurred to me last night that Valentine's Day is when we got Leia. Today marks the one year anniversary of Leia Skywalker joining our family. Mr. W was dead set on getting a dog.  I was less than thrilled. The last thing I wanted to deal with was a puppy.


The original plan was that our 2nd dog would be a German Shepard. We soon realized that no way would a hairy, large dog fit in our RV, The Wonder Wagon.  Thank God! We went camping and saw the perfect dog for us, a Swedish Vallhund. Picture in your mind a "low rider" German Shepard, same coloring but only smaller.  Perfect temperament and size for our family after online research. The downside was puppies were extremely expensive.  Mr. W came upon a Swedish Vallhund website and saw that there was a breeder in our area who had a Cattle Dog/Swedish Vallhund mix puppy for free. It took Leia and I a few months to bond. She was Mr. W's idea but she has ended up as my dog. Yes, she loves Mr. W but Leia and I have a special relationship. We attended dog training classes  together for 10 weeks. She is an extremely smart dog. Her personality is mellow and timid.  She loves to go for rides in the car and adventures in the Wonder Wagon. Our late Pomeranian, Rudy kept Leia in line.


Leia has one downside. She likes to dig holes. Impressive holes when left outside unintended. She gets nervous when she is not with her family-us. She has become my consistent companion, even more so since Rudy has passed. She can always be found by my side. She has a lot of energy as she is herding dog. I asked our vet a few months ago about running with Leia. She gave me some pointers and suggested that we start slow. We started running on quiet side streets building up our milage. I had to work her up to being able to run along a busy highway. We had freak out moments where she would be scared of garbage cans, boat trailers and large delivery trucks. She loves to chase birds so we had some near misses of me hitting the pavement when running near the ocean, with the large group of resting seagulls.

We are up to seven miles for our long runs with her having as much energy at the end of the run as when we started. Don't let those short legs fool you. She knows exactly what is happening when I come out of my bedroom with my running shoes on. She gets so excited when I asked her "Leia, you want to go for a run?" I am so glad that Leia came into our lives, with the recent passing of our little Pomeranian Rudy, Leia has filled my heart with love. From now on Valentine's Day has new meaning. Leia and I celebrated with a five mile run along the ocean today.

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