Barney................

Description: Houndog, loyal, farmdog, ornery, friendly, cantankerous, faithful, resilient, independent, overall dam good dog.

When we were expecting our last child, there were two things that seemed to be really important to my husband at that time. One, our child should have a dog to grow up with and two, our child was not going to grow up watching that ridiculous purple dinosaur, Barney! We had a dog, but she was an old dog. We wanted our child and a pup to grow up together. We started looking for a pup. In the papers, on the vet's bulletin board and of course, no one had any pups for sale. As we waited for our child and the right pup to come along, we talked about what we would like for a dog and dog names. We already had child names picked out.

Barney & Frodo

(a bottle lamb that lived in the house for 3 weeks)

I saw an ad in the local paper one afternoon for "mutt" pups in Dresden, NY, free. A hike for us but for free what did we have to lose? We headed out Saturday afternoon, trying not to have expectations so we wouldn't be disappointed if we came home empty handed. What greeted us was this bedraggled female dog with a dozen of these scrawny little pups. They were just 8 weeks old and just rolls and rolls of skin. The Papa was nowhere to be found and the owners had no clue who he was or what these pups were. They were so homely, they were cute! Didn't take us long to decide to take one home. For some reason, this pup just looked like a "Barney". Steve wasn't thrilled but he had to admit that it fit this little fellow.

Barney's retirement spot

Barney has been with us now almost 14 years. Up until 2007, Barney always lived outside, which was his preference, and has been the "watchdog" that we needed on the farm. He stayed near and watched over Tyler from the time he was a little boy in the sandbox. We weren't always sure where he was but we always knew he was around, keeping an eye on things, day and night. Last year we built a new modular home. They delivered it in two sections. As I cut the plastic over the door to go inside, Barney bolted in before I did. This was so unusual for him but we didn't think anything of it at the time. He hasn't moved out since! Apparently he thought it was time to retire. He has a sheepskin near the woodstove where he lies by the sunny window most of the time, collecting his retirement check and enjoying his old age.

Barney's Pups

He's been a great dog - he's only wandered a time a two in all these years as you can see by the photo above. There have been times when his disposition could have gotten him tossed off the place but hey, who doesn't have bad days? He's been loved by this family for all these years and hopefully for many more to come.

ps...Tyler did grow up watching that purple dinosaur, Barney :0)