Cooper.

This is my daughter's dog, Cooper. McCall and Jared lived with us for a few months after they got married, and they decided they wanted a dog. Now I am not necessarily a "dog person" so I had a little bit of a problem with that. I had told my son-in-law, that if he wanted to have a dog at my house and was willing to replace the basement carpet when they left, that was okay. (He forgot that I said that, I think.)

So, one day, this puppy showed up to begin the path of destruction (as do most puppies) and messes on the carpet - all over the house, particularly the stairs in the house. He was only about 7 months old when they brought him home. His name was Bandit Pooh Bear, his parents names were something like Teensy and Giga-bite, and he was a pure-bred yorkie ... or so was the claim.

The name had to immediately go - Cooper suits him SO much better - and then he started to grow, bigger and bigger. Not quite as big as Clifford, the red dog, but he got mighty big for a "pure bread yorkie." We started to question the pure-bread-ness of it all when he reached 15 pounds, and wasn't done growing.

He was naughty for a really, REALLY long time! Longer than we thought puppies should be naughty - what did WE know? But Cooper was so cute that you just couldn't help but love him ... we all got attached pretty quickly. (And he does have a particular fondness for me, so that helped him out a LOT!)

After McCall and Jared moved, it was kind of sad for those of us left behind - we actually missed him and looked forward to being his doggie day care when they needed us.

Coop got pretty used to our neighborhood (and running around), and all of the surrounding neighbors got used to him. My neighbors directly across the street have two big dogs and Cooper was always running over to their house. Unbeknownst to us, he would go around to their back yard, scratch on their door and they would let him come in for a little while. He would drink their dogs' water, eat their food, chill for a while and then scratch to get out and come home.

One day, McCall was pulling into my driveway with him and the dad across the street came over and said, "I'm taking my dogs to the park for awhile, can Cooper come with us?"

She was a little suprised at the request and said, "But he runs away all the time."

Then Scott said, "He comes when I call him, he'll be fine." So off they went for a little outing. How funny is that???

Everyone loves Cooper and Cooper loves everyone. When he stays with us, I will be taking him on a walk and he has just GOT to run up to anyone he sees. Not to bark, or sniff, or be annoying - he just likes to run up, tilt his head, look at them as if to say, "Hi. Nice to see you. Nice to have you see me." And then off he runs! (And I don't even have to use a leash anymore. He stays with me ... I love that.)

I gained such an affinity for this little dog that "puppy" is now a term of endearment for me. I was tending one of my nieces babies, he was crying, and I was trying to talk sweetly to him saying, "Its okay little puppy ..." I didn't even mean to. I've called my little grandbaby puppy too - and its a good thing! :)