Ginger was part English Bull dog and part Chinese Bull dog. We bought her when she was a about 6 weeks old from a family with little girls who were in charge of taking care of the litter of pups that they were trying to sell. The little girls appeared to love the little dogs very much, but I don't think they had any idea of how to care for the puppies. Ginger - called Ginger because of her color - was filled with fleas. I don't think there was even 1 square inch of her which did not have more fleas than any dog deserved in her life.
We fell in love with Ginger. Around this time it was discovered that I had prostrate cancer, and had to have an operation (several it turned out). After I came home, I was to be in bed for a period of time, and my abdomen was very sore. Ginger had always slept with us, in the bed, and it was very hard for her to not be on the bed while I lay there resting or sleeping.
It did not take her long to see the problem, and without permission, she got on to the bed so softly that she could not be felt. Then she crawled on her stomach like a soldier crawling across a battle field, pulling herself forward with her front legs, very slowly, very quietly, but very determined. It took her a while just to make it up the short mattress to where my head and shoulders were, but after while she very quietly managed to put her head on the crook of my arm and stayed with me while I slept or watched TV - or whatever I did during that time.
I have never forgotten her drive to take care of me.
We got K. C. from a man a little north of us who lived on a farm, and who had Bull Mastiff dogs and Rotweillers. Casey was a mixture of the two breeds. Ginger was already in the family, and went with us to decide if we should buy this dog. Ginger seemed to approve because the two of them always got along well together. We couldn't come up with a name for this beautiful dog. No name seemed to go well. At some time we said aloud well let's call him Casey but spell it K.C., the initials of the city where both Martha and I were born and where we lived and went to school. K.C. was a fine pet. He weighed about 120 or 130 pounds, and like most big dogs did not live to be a really old dog. When Ginger was young, she had serious problems with her rear legs and we had to have her undergo a serious and expensive operation (cost 1000 USD back then). And K.C. had a similar problem but because of his weight, the veternarians recommended that we not do the operation. So both dogs has weaknesses in their rear legs. And eventually K.C. just could no longer move his back legs and had to be put to sleep. Ginger too had serious problems moving her back legs well, but on top of that she lost her vision and her hearing. We had moved to our new home in Warren enough before she lost her eyesight that she had become accustomed to the house and could make her way around it.
Martha and I have always had dogs. All through our childhood and married life we have had dogs as pets. Once we had 5 dogs (one for each of the people in the household). So after the two dogs - K.C. and Ginger died, it was not long before we wanted another dog. We had met some people who rescued dogs from bad situations and then tried to find them good homes where the dogs would be safe and protected. We decided to talk with them and see about getting a dog through that agency. But Martha wisely put her foot down. We can not have any more big dogs. No dogs over 30 pounds and it would be better if they were 20 pounds or less. Her reasoning was that as we get older and older, if the dogs get sick (as K.C. had) and had to be put into the car to take them to the veterinarian, who would be able to lift them into the car or get them there? Well, of course logic was on her side. But I don't like some little dogs, so Martha was a little reluctant to start looking around. But we did anyway.
The the first little dog we saw was this very cute 13 inch beagle. I fell in love with the little guy immediately, and of course Martha did too. By coincidence, the little guy's name was Casey, the exact sound alike of K.C.. Casey was frightened of men, and also frequently had an upset stomache. It eventuated that he had been in a home with a woman who loved him, but the husband must have been a wife abuser, and he hated the dog. She was afraid to leave the dog alone with her husband, for fear that he would kill the dog. If I raised my hand too fast when reaching for something, the dog would react with obvious terror and with barking. He would get into a sort of defensive attack position. We took the dog into our home and hearts immediately. But for many months we cooked special foods for him, until finally his stomach calmed down.
Not too long after we found Casey, we decided we would like to get a an even smaller dog. I had been on the internet looking at the web for this rescue league with whom we had contact. An there were some cute little chihuahuas. One showed up that we thought we should see, but when we called, that dog had already found a home. However, it turned out they had one that had not yet been listed on the net. Would we like to see it. Kiki was brought to our house, and it was one scared little pooch. She didn't like people trying to pet her, and she pretty much had to be left alone to get acquainted on her own.
The story was that he had lived with a woman who had an illness such as Multiple Sclerosis that forced her to stay in bed most of the time. Kiki would stay with her constantly, being petted and held by this almost entirely bed-ridden woman. However, the woman got very much worse and had to go to a nursing home where no dogs could be, and the family of the woman did not want the dog. They couldn't handle the dog, and so they turned him over to an animal shelter. The people there found that that could not handle this little gal because she would snap and growl and bark and generally carry on. Well, finally she ended up with the rescue league. When we saw her, we fell in love immediately, The woman who was with the rescue league was a very strange woman who was very nervous, and had a number of funny ideas about dogs. She wanted to keep the dog, but she realized that the dog did not really like her very much, and so she let us take her. We followed along with the idea of being cautious with the little girl for the night - until maybe around midnight - and then we took hold of the dog and firmly told her that she was going to stay with us and held her for a long time until she settled down and went to sleep. The little girl just wanted someone to take charge of her and not to be afraid of her (a little 6 pound girl). We also did not care for the name Kiki, and before many days went by, we changed it to Pepper.