It’s been brought to my attention that there’s one member of this family who has not had her moment in the blog limelight.

Ginger is our 11 year-old Legal. That’s a cross between a Lab and a Beagle. She has the lab fur mixed with the beagle physique and bellow. We rescued her from a shelter when she was about six months old. We suspect that she was mistreated – because she does not like men. At all.

So here’s the Good, the Bad, the Cute and the Ugly on Ginger.

The Good

• She loves us. Well, make that Hannah and me.
• She visits me every evening for lovings.
• She went to doggy obedience school and knows how to “kennel up.” Some of the time.
• She’s a good watch dog  – very protective of us.
• She knows she’s not allowed on the furniture and never hops up on the chair when we’re looking.

The Bad

• She snores.
• She complains, grumbles, and groans under her breath when you’re making her do anything she doesn’t want to.
• She’s a wanna be lap dog. 40+ pounds puts her out of that range.
• She’s afraid of storms. She’ll pace, and pace, and pace around the bed, nails clicking incessantly on the floor until you let her up on the bed with you.
• She will get into the trash given the opportunity.

The Cute

• She’s afraid to chase the cat out of her own bed.
• She has puppy dreams.
• She’s got the command “sit” and “lie down” confused.
• She has multiple nicknames including: Ginger Baby, Doggy-Do, Gingy, Ginger Beast, and Psycho Beast (thank you, Paul).
• She is alpha dog, completely protective of our property. Until we go on vacation. When we take her someplace else with us, she seems to know that she’s not on the clock any more and is a reasonable well-behaved dog.

The Ugly

• She has no sense of humor.
• She has few manners with company and has to be exiled to the garage.
• She takes on porcupines when presented with the opportunity – To the tune of $90 per episode to have the quills removed.
• When given the opportunity, she chases cars. She chased me all the way out to the highway one day when I was off to do errands. I had to to turn around and drive home so she would chase me back to the house.
• For about five minutes every evening she goes berserk. Totally nuts. Around the bend. That’s why Paul named her Psycho Beast.
• She takes her job protecting the house so seriously that she’s chewed the trim of one of my windows trying to get at the UPS man.
• She will eat things out of the kitty litter box. Even when her bowl is full of doggy kibbles.

Why is it that my beloved puppy’s Bad and Ugly list is quite a bit longer then the the Good and Cute lists?