Suzie (1968-1981)
This is Suzie, our family dog. Mom and Dad had decided to let us have a puppy when the neighbor's dog, Boots, had puppies. Boots used to come to all the neighbors' houses and everyone used to feed her (in the days before every back yard was fenced).
We picked a puppy out and waited for him to get old enough to come home with us. One day, Mom and Dad awoke to a squealing noise in our backyard. Boots, it turns out, had made her adoption choices on her own. She had taken a puppy to every home that had fed her over the years. This was not the puppy we had picked out, but since Boots brought her to us, we kept her.
As it turns out, all of Boots' other puppies died. Suzie was our faithful friend while we were growing up. She was a great dog. Mom said she was a "Bird Beagle."