My wife and I have always been dog lovers, so-much-so that we have never been without a four-legged-friend our whole married life. They have been a source of happiness for us and our children as well as sadness when you inevitably have to say goodbye to your beloved pet. Most of our dogs have been strays that have just turned up at our house. It’s as if we have a neon-sign out the front saying “Come on in, Great home for the homeless”.
We once had a beautiful little Bull Terrier called Digger. He was an amazing little dog, but again, a stray. Our oldest son was walking to school one day when this black-and-tan-terrier started to follow him. Now Daniel, our son loves dogs, so I am pretty sure he would not have shooed him away. The dog “Apparently” sat outside the school waiting for Daniel, then followed him home. When I arrived home from work there were two dogs waiting to greet me, we already had a German Shepard cross.
Some months later we were all heartbroken when our shepherd “Kiff” suddenly passed away, this was doubly upsetting because it was on our daughter’s birthday and sadly she didn’t get the chance to say goodbye. We had Digger for some years when once again I came home to find a rather large Mastiff-Dane cross waiting for me in the laundry. “Sorry dad” was our youngest son’s reaction to my obvious shock, “it was here when I got home from school, I don’t know where it came from”. The gigantic pooch, who we decided to call “Scooby” had enormous feet, which we all knew he would eventually grow into.
So as you can see, dogs have been a bit part of me and my family’s life’s forever. Like most dog lovers, we would let our dogs sleep on our beds on occasion. There were some mornings were my wife and I would find three kids and a dog asleep with us, not a lot of room when the dog was a Mastiff, let me tell you. I am sure that we are not the only people to let our dogs sleep with us.
But have you ever though what our furry-friends might be carrying on their bodies? The television program “Inside Edition” decided to investigate just what potentially dangerous diseases mans-best-friend has hiding on them. They had two case studies to work with. One, a 19-year-old-girl named Leah, and the other, a woman named Shauna. Leah has three dogs who she lets sleep with her every night, Shauna has two dogs and also lets them sleep on her bed. The investigating journalist took swabs from all of the dogs to have them tested in the laboratory.
The results of these tests will have you thinking twice about letting your much-loved-dogs share the same bed with you again.
