#phoebe dog

[madnessmadness]

Do you have pronouns and morals?? Yes you do! You're a good girl!

[whyhellosims]

Happy Holidays from the Aldriches (and tired little me)! It’s probably fine!

[mpstolen]

Papa rinsing Phoebe’s feet in Turtle Lake, the Hegge’s farm, Polk County, Minnesota, June, 2017.

[mayes-the-fox]

Thing is, even if Eve got another dog, she will never find an animal as good as Phoebe. Pheebs was just something incredibly special. 

She was part-staffy, and staffies are sometimes called 'nanny dogs' because of their wonderful temperament towards children. Phoebe had this trait in spades. 

One time Eve's partner's grandson wanted to walk her. He was 3. Now usually you'd be hesitant about letting a toddler walk a 45lb dog, but not with Phoebe. She was so patient and so well-behaved, she walked slowly next to him the entire time, making sure she didn't pull him. She normally didn't walk right to heel like that, she was being extra careful to take care of the little kid. 

Another time I walked her to the park and these three little kids came up and started patting her. They didn't ask if she was safe - I'm not actually sure they even spoke English, I think they were speaking Romanian?  - they just came right over and started patting her. Usually when you were down on her level and rubbing your hands all over her she got silly; she'd flop onto her side and roll onto her back to beg for tummy rubs and wiggle around, just enjoying the fuss. But as if she knew that might alarm these little kids, she sat very very still the entire time while they surrounded her and rubbed their little hands all over her face and chest. 

This last story is the real jewel in the crown of her patient and maternal behaviour. When my littlest cousin was a wee bab, still in nappies and just starting to walk, he was about as troublesome as human larvae that age are. Phoebe was sitting on the floor near the fire and the cousin was down there with her, and the rest of us were talking and more or less ignoring him. I looked over to see Phoebe sitting very very still with a pained expression, letting out the softest, smallest whine ever, because cousin was grabbing her face then lifting his feet off the ground repeatedly. The baby was hanging off her face. How many dogs would put up with a kid using their face as a jungle-gym without so much as even trying to pull away? 

Good dog.