The first dog I remember having was before I was old enough to go to school. Because we traveled often with the U.S. Navy, we didn’t have another dog until my dad retired. By then my sister, Lydia, and I were in high school, so we took some responsibility for caring for the dog we had, a cockapoo mix we named Poochie. Our younger sister was a toddler and couldn’t say his name and so he was forever called Pooshie. He was a fun little dog, and he went with us to live in the mountains east of San Diego. He had a hard time with all the stickers in the tumbleweeds and so he went back to town to his mother’s home. During college I didn’t have any animals while I lived in the dorm for five years, which included a grad year. The year after I graduated, I had a cockapoo named Fritzi, a very sweet dog. Years later my husband and I started raising rottweiler pairs and we did that until just before he passed away.

Those dogs were incredibly faithful and strong, well-behaved and gentle giants. The neighbors during those decades of dogs had a variety of dogs and we really got to know and cherish their personalities and quirks. I spent a lot of time writing poetry during those days and was inspired to write about The Dogs in the Hood! Enjoy!