Hey, everybody! Reader here.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about home.

There are days that I really miss being home on the farm. The pace is slower, it’s so much quieter (if you don’t count the cattle, crickets or frogs), and you can just roam around the yard, pasture and fields without a care in the world. And often, if I want to roam around, I’m accompanied by our family dog, Lexi.

She’s our faithful German Shepherd, that we’ve had for a couple of years now. For the most part, she’s a great dog, though, much like humans, she has the odd bad habit. She likes to be right underfoot when you’re trying to get work done. She likes to back at the coyotes all night, as they venture close to the house. (I guess that’s good for a watchdog, but it doesn’t make for the best night’s sleep!) And when we play fetch with her, she’s great at the “fetch” part, but not so much at the “drop” part.

Overall, she’s a great dog, though admittedly, her listening skills could use a little work.

And she loves to give kisses, though sometimes, depending on what she eats during the course of her travels around the farmyard, you might not necessarily want her giving you kisses!

It’s kind of funny, because my Mom loves her to bits, and though he might not always admit it, my Dad does too, though he gets a little frustrated with her when she doesn’t do what she’s told. Kind of a “good cop, bad cop” kind of thing!

My nieces and nephews love her, too! When my brother Curtis and his family come to visit from Balgonie. their Frenchton, Rolley and Lexi get along famously and play all day. It’s a little different when my brother Ward and his family come to the farm from Saskatoon. Their Golden Doodle, Teddy isn’s so eager to play. He’s a little older and maybe just doesn’t have the interest in running around with Lexi, who is a constant ball of energy, who is always “go-go-go!”!

Sometimes, Lexi will misbehave a little, but it ever lasts too long.

A few months ago, she decided to run the mile into Conquest, while I happened to be home on vacation. Fortunately, her tag has Mom and Dad’s phone number on it, so the fellow that found her got ahold of me and I zipped into town to pick her up.

Ultimately, she’s a pretty great dog, one of several we’ve had over the years.

Growing up, until I was about 14 or so, we had two dogs – a German Shepherd named Sarge, and a little grey Heinz 57 mutt named Tubby. They were great pals, yet they could have some nasty scraps, too. (No different than me and my brothers, I s’pose!) But when Tubby died, Sarge was pretty bummed, as he lost his best pal.

Like Lexi, Sarge liked to make the trip into Conquest, too. Often we’d all be outside at recess, and all of a sudden, Sarge would com strolling onto the school yard. It was one of the few times I was cool at school! (“Yeah, that’s MY dog!”)

After Sarge died, we had a succession of Shepherd-Collie crosses, by the names of Champ, Shep, Killer and Jaws. The first three didn’t have the longest lives, but we had Jaws for quite a few years. He was a great dog, though he had a habit of wanting to make sweet love to everything he came across, including the cushions of patio furniture, rolled-up tarps, and even people (as I learned once the hard way, when I was crawling around helping my Dad do some work under the house!)

Finally, the last dog we had before Lexi was a Golden Retriever named Mike. Now Mike was a couple years old, so he was the first dog that we didn’t raise from a pup. His listening skills left something to be desired, but he was still a great dog. He could get a little pungent sometimes, as he’s the only dog we ever had, that didn’t like the water. Our other dogs would happily go for a swim in the dugout, but not Mike.

Oh well, we all have our own little quirks.

I know I’m not the only one who loves my dogs. They become a part of our family, just like I’m sure they do for you, too!

Someday, I’ll have a place and the space to have a pup of my very own. I can’t wait!