Dogs of My Life – Sparky

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This series is in honor of the latest addition to my canine history, Sydney, a Shetland Sheepdog or Sheltie pup that will be joining our family on October 17th, 2015. As I approached this date I thought it would be neat for me and hopefully you to see and read about all the dogs in my life that proceeded Sydney. 

The next dog I want to tell you about is the first one that came to my home while I was not still living there. I guess I was, in fact, still considered a resident, but it was while i was away wrapping up my bachelor’s degree. My brother Kevin was the main beneficiary of this canine-human relationship. He bonded with the dog from the time it was a puppy and did all kinds of things with him.

Sparky as a pup 

Since I was not at home when my parents and brother got the dog, I was never really sure exactly what breed he fit into. I saw some German Shepard tendencies, but Sparky was not the size and did not possess the temperament of the police dog breed. He was very social until he began to age and had moments where he was actually pretty comical.

Sparky with my brother, Kevin 

As I said, the bond between my brother and the dog was pretty special. There is a little convenience market within sight of my home place and they have a custard machine. It was very often that Kevin bought Sparky a cup of vanilla custard and Sparky would consume it in short order.

I could really tell the passing of my brother left Sparky wondering what was happening. All the sudden his best buddy just did not come around any more. How do you explain this sort of thing to a dog when you just really do not understand it yourself? I think seeing Sparky reminded my mom of my brother because she seemed to be less interested in fooling with him after this happened.

Sparky and my son in 1996

Sparky was the first dog in my son’s life. It was a few years before we had our first dog at our home and my son was just too young to fill the shoes of my brother as Sparky’s playmate. I am sure Sparky was not the only dog to ever lose their master prematurely, but it seemed kind of unfair to him.

This is number four in the Dogs of My Life series. If you need or want to catch up you can read the previous posts here:

Snoopy

Puff

Master