Remembering the Batgirls

Here's 3 more dogs from my past. The yellow lab is Buddy. Found as a stray on East Miami River Rd by my daughter and her friend, we fostered and trained him for 6 mos then found him a wonderful home. The 2 black dogs are the Batgirls.

Sisters found at a flea market by my daughter and her then boyfriend. Shepherd mixes rumored to be part coyote. Not sure of that but when I heard them bark, howl and yip, I couldn't be too sure.

Their ears look like batwings hence the name. They were close, probably closer to each other than to us. It was so neat because when they heard something, their heads would turn in sync. Started out in the same crate, later when we tried separate crates, they raised such a ruckus, we put them back in the same one together.

Sisters through and through. They would play and play and fight and fight. Usually not serious. One liked to cuddle with stuffies (Janie the smaller more calm, shy one) and one like to rip stuffies apart (Cheba the bolder, more assertive one).

Janie loved the water and would play in a 5 gallon bucket of water and jump into the baby pool. She also would catch anything you threw in midair. I taught her many things but High Ten was her best. She would jump up and put a paw in each of my hands. Janie was the more affectionate one.

Cheba on the other hand hated water, would chase things rolling on the ground and didn't do as well with tricks as her sister. Cheba was more independent.

They both hated fireworks and one 4th of July they got startled suddenly by a loud boom and crawled way under the deck. My daughter's boyfriend had to shimmy under the deck and pull them out. So ever after I would take treats out with me and practice desensitizing them to fireworks. As soon as one went off, I'd throw treats up and yell happily "Fireworks! Yay!". It really helped these two batgirls.

Sadly Janie passed away suddenly one evening. No warning. Left for training classes one evening and returned and she was gone. Cheba was left alone sisterless for the first time in her life.

I bought her some new stuffies to help cheer her and amazingly enough, she cuddled with them instead of ripping them apart. ??? She also took on a lot of her sister's traits like catching objects thrown and playing High Ten with me.

Very odd but I read that it is common for dogs that live together. When one passes on, the other will take on some of the deceased dogs traits. Interesting.

Cheba lived several more years. I tried to spend more time with her.  I know she missed Janie and now they're probably playing and fighting again in doggie heaven where every day is the very best day. 😇
I love my batgirls! ❤