where's wally?

I didn't grow up with a ton of animals. Other than pigs.

I mean, I did attempt to baptize my four rabbits as a child, and my pointer Gracie was my BFF until she chewed through her chain link fence and ran away. 

Come to think of it, Gracie may have had some issues. 

But if you offered me a dog or a hamster or a snake, I wouldn't haven't been your person. 

So when Chris and I picked up a Great Pyrenees to guard the house and me from any sketchy characters - up to and including coyote packs - and to be the dog that stayed at home with me while Blackjack races after Chris to the dairy every day, I wasn't sure how this would go.

{Side note: Blackjack runs about 25 miles an hour . . . right on the heels of Chris's truck . . . because he likes to live dangerously. Apparently.}

But then it turned out that Wally was actually a really good dog. He didn't jump or bite. He wasn't crazy. He was, in fact, a really good dog. 

He and Blackjack snoozed next to each other, chased each other around the yard, followed me everywhere, and barked at everything that went bump in the night . . . including themselves. 

But big ole Wally went missing while Chris and I were in Iowa last weekend. We're not sure if he got hit by a car or wandered off (which is unlikely since he never walked more than about five feet without falling down on the ground in a big pile to keep an eye on things) or if someone nabbed him because, let's face it, he was awesome. 

 I miss my big ole dog and his big ole paws and the way he'd put his big ole mitt on my leg when the cows came by, like he was protecting me. 

If there's a silver lining in it, it's that I've gotten to meet our neighbors while checking around for Wally and that they very sweetly ring us up every time they see a dog out running around (even if it's the size of a piglet instead of a small wooly mammoth). 

Heck, we even got to tell one set of neighbors that their lost dogs were staying over at the other neighbor's house! 

This, I suspect, is part of farm life, but heck, if I don't miss seeing that big galoot fall down the stairs when his puppy excitement couldn't keep up with his adult size body. 

And if anybody out there sees a mini polar bear-esque dog wandering around, send him my way. 

He's my guy.