Meet Drake

I decided to write down some of my funny (and not so funny) memories of Drake.  Drake has been my baby for the past 9 years and I really can't imagine life without him.  Sometimes I tell him I should have named him Shadow because he follows me everywhere.  I have been thinking of him a lot lately knowing that we will be having a real baby in our house soon.  Drake will be such a good and protective big brother and I'm looking forward to seeing how he acts around our baby.    He's so darn funny with his expressions and habits, and yet other times he makes me want to pull my hair out!  Here are some things that I never want to forget about Drake:

* He has had an appetite for more than just food.  Some of the things he has eaten over the years are: shoes that he was not able to digest (that was one expensive and scary vet visit!!!), a leather binder, baby toys (three so far within the past month-I hope he saves some for the baby!), batteries, a DVD, all the trim in our apartment up to the point where he couldn't reach, the carpet down to the cement in our old apartment, and the basement stairs/bottom of door in our house.  Apparently with the stairs/doors, he was trying to let us know that he was ready to be roam free in our house.  And he was - we didn't have any problems after that! 
* He can be such a good watch dog.  When Chris is away overnight on hunting/golfing trips, Drake tends to sleep in the other bedroom where the window overlooks the street.  It never fails, he always manages to give me a heart attack in the middle of the night by barking at something.  Funny how he never does that when Chris is home.  When we lived in our old apartments, I can think of two times where I felt safe because of him.  I always took him on a walk on Friday nights when I got off of work at the Y around 10pm.  One night we were walking and he suddenly spun around and started barking his head off.  I didn't even hear the person approaching behind us.  Thank goodness Drake sounded and looked ferocious - we power-walked home after that!  There was another time where the door was unlocked and Chris heard someone opening it, but the second Drake started to bark, the door slammed shut. 
* Even though Drake is big and his barks sound mean sometimes, anyone who knows Drake knows that it's not his personality to be the tough guy.  The funny thing about this dog is that he's afraid of the dumbest things!  He's scared of flies and bugs, he's afraid of the timer, he's afraid when our oven beeps when it's heated up and don't even get me started on the smoke detectors when they beep!  This dog will shake for hours if he hears that.  We actually had to turn a show on tv the other week because on the show, the smoke detectors were beeping and he wouldn't stop shaking.
* Drake is gun shy.  Yes, he's a lab and they are supposed to be excellent hunting dogs.  Apparently Drake is "special".  Chris has tried to take him twice and the results were not fun for Chris.  The first time Chris took him, Drake dropped and rolled over scared the first time the gun went off.  Chris had to carry him back to the truck.  He thought he would try again, but Drake wouldn't have anything to do with it.  When the gun went off, Drake ran back to the truck and barked his head off until Chris let him in.  I'm ok with him not being a hunting dog - he's a mama's boy anyways!
* Drake seems to be in love with my dad.  He can't get enough of him and won't leave him alone when they come to visit.  I hope it makes my dad feel good - Drake must have a special place in his heart for my dad.  Normally I would be jealous, but I know I return to his #1 person when my dad leaves, so I'm ok with it.  :)
* Drake is hilarious.  I remember walking him past a road construction sign once and he thought it would be fun to play tug of war with the sandbags holding the sign down.  I'll never forget the looks of people leaving work that day and laughing at him.  And he's flipped Chris twice while playing catch.  I would have loved to have seen that!  And we did try and take him camping once.  This dog loves to swim.  We finally had everything packed up that morning and I was trying to get him in the car.  He looked at me and then looked at the pond.  Of course, I could tell what he was thinking and sternly said "No Drake".  He looked at me one more time and took off towards the pond.  Needless to say I did not enjoy the wet dog smell all the way home.  Silly dog.
* One thing that absolutely melts my heart about this dog is his loyalty.  I was having some health issues for about 2 1/2 weeks last year due to fertility treatments.  I spent the first week and a half not being able to get off of the couch.  He never left my side.  Out of the two weeks, he only went upstairs once for a few minutes and spent 24/7 next to me or on me on the couch.  I guess he knew I needed him and I really felt loved by him because of that.  :)

So, I know this is a long post, but Drake deserves the dedication.  He may not be a dominate dog when around other dogs, he may stare down the treats every time he comes inside because he thinks he deserves one just for going out, he may have severe and expensive allergy problems, he may get me up about 2/3 times a night to be let out and he is up the second he hears my alarm click to off (yes, he knows the difference between the snooze button and the off button) and yes I may be saving every receipt to total how much this dog has cost us, but I have to admit, having Drake as a part of my life is PRICELESS!!!