I am a terrible blogger, I really am. You actually have to blog if you are going to have a blog and I have only made three posts since I made this in March. I need to do better. I shall try my best. So, on that note, I am going to blog about the love of my life: My Dog. Yep! I have a toy poodle named Navi (pronounced with a short A, not long like Navy). Navi is a grey female poodle who is spoiled to no bounds whom I love to death. We have always been dog people, not once in my life have I ever lived and we not own at least one dog (usually many more than one). The thing about that is, you never have one of your own, they are always just family dogs. I love dogs, and having family dogs is great! But one day, four years ago, I got in my head that I wanted a dog of my own. Not long after this thought, a Saturday in May that year, my parents came home with a dark colored, fluff ball in their possession. My very own dog. Not only that, a poodle, my favorite breed of dog. I was ecstatic, to say the least. My mom said when she went to go look at a group of puppies a lady owned, this one just stood out to her and she knew it was the one. She had no idea how right she was. At first Navi was a bit quiet, natural for a young puppy in a new home and with strange people. It did not take her long though to adjust; within about three days, she was as hyper and rambunctious as ever. My biggest problem was a name. I am known to be the biggest worst decision maker ever, not that I make bad decisions all the time (hopefully), but that I am terrible at actually making the decision. I take indecisive to a whole new level. Not only that, but I have an odd obsession with names (I even own a baby name book just because I love looking through it). Names are very important to me and I always want them to be good. So having to make a permanent name for this dog was quite a dilemma. I had always been fond of the name Lacy and thought it would be a cute name for a dog, but this dark-colored poodle did not look much like a Lacy. After scrounging through my baby name book and driving my family crazy asking for suggestions and in my indecisive mode every minute, I finally narrowed it down to two. The Legend of Zelda video games are some of my most favorite games there are. In one, there is a girl named Midna, in another there is a fairy named Navi, and thus those were the decisions. (Yes, I can be a geek at times.) I thought Midna seemed like a pretty neat name, but it sounded a bit more harsh than Navi and not quite as cutesy. So, after much quandary, I settled on Navi. My parents to this day still do not like that name. I do not think they like all the made up, fantasy-type names that I love. But I had finally made a decision and wanted to stick with it. Navi would not be Navi without being Navi. Hehe. Only within probably a few days of having her, Navi became known to be the “Navi Monster” for she was most hyper and often appeared to be a fuzzy little monster. As one friend put it, “She is sweet but bad.” That was Navi for you. Adorable and very sweet and cuddly, but she was also not trained yet and could make a lot of trouble if she set her mind to it. Nevertheless, I loved her with all my heart. As time went on, her bad habits went away. She proved to be very, very smart and really did not give me any more trouble. My love for her only grew more and more. We became bonded. A bond so close I did not even know it was possible for a human and dog. She came to be known by many different nicknames—Nav, Nav-Nav, Navi Monster, the Navigator, Navi-gator (like an alligator), the Navi-gator under the bed, ect. When she was little, she used to sleep in a crate in my room. I do not remember when the change transpired, but after a while, the crate was put away and my bed became hers. I had always loved the idea of sleeping with a snuggly dog all my life, and I finally had one. Navi still sleeps with me every single night. I cannot even sleep well if she is not there. Eventually, the dark hair started to lighten. Growing lighter and lighter the older she became. Finally, the little Navi Monster became a lovely silvery poodle, rather dainty in her ways. With her long legs and somewhat feminine ways, she often made us think of a deer. She really became quite beautiful. I was very pleased with her color, having not really seen many grey poodles before. They were apparently somewhat rare, so her color was a pleasant treat. Navi’s personality did not take long to grow. First of all, she became so spoiled that I refer to myself as her slave instead of her owner, and enjoy every minute of it! For example, each night around 8 or 9 she takes on a paralyzed state, as in, she refuses to move and walk to bed and instead I must carry her to bed, which, of course, I acquiesce to every time. As mentioned before, she sleeps in my bed, usually taking up more room than I do somehow, and my room is often referred to as her room. Navi’s strongest and most amusing trait is her deep, deep, deep passion for food, our food in particular. I am Navi’s most loved person, but when there is human food within her reach or someone is eating it is as if I did not exist. It is hard to put into words how much this ridiculous dog loves food. Come meal time she is sitting right next to us giving her puppy dog eyes, very, very intently. Her concentration cannot be broken while food is nearby. This dog has literally learned how to squeeze tears out (or perhaps they are real tears…) while begging for food. Her begging methods are like no other…and it always works. Usually a third of my meal ends up in her stomach and not mine. Food is almost always her only train of thought, chicken especially. I have never seen anything she will not eat save for one, A1 steak sauce. For some unexplained reason she cannot stand A1 steak sauce. But she sure makes up for it with her love for everything else. Navi’s life consists of sleeping, eating (lots and lots of eating), and being petted. Barely ten minutes of the day goes by without Navi being petted and pampered by one of us. It is a common thing around here to say, “Oh, I wish I were Navi.” Like I said, spoiled. But I would not have it any other way! The strange thing about Navi is her hatred for everyone else. She loves all of us just fine, but whenever a visitor comes she gets very upset. She cannot stand others. She makes me look bad because she is so mean to other people. No one knows how wonderful she really is because she is so untrustworthy of others. I find it odd since all she knows is humans that love her. I would assume she would see others as slaves to pamper over her as well. That is far from the case though. We all decided after Navi had grown older that she was not a dog at all, just a human trapped in a dog’s body. We had never seen a dog that was capable of being so expressive. She could say so much with just one look; it is never any question what she wants or is trying to tell you, you just know. She is also very intelligent and, I believe, thinks herself to be the queen (of course, she probably is). She has taken on a status of one of the family and not just a pet. Every night we all pray together, and when our parents call us to came pray she is the first one up, having learned the words, “Time to pray.” She eats with us at each meal time (of course), and is just all around the fourth child. Although I, being her owner, am her ‘mother’ while my brother and sister are the ‘uncle and aunt’, and our parents are of course the ‘grandparents’, and we often refer each other to such when Navi is around. We talk to her like any other human (me especially), and you just know she is listening, and often it seems like she is responding. So no, Navi is not just a dog in my eyes. I love Navi so much just her scent fills me with a sense of comfort. She is like my child; I never knew it was possible to love a dog so much as I do her. And my love for her is very much returned. Navi has this way of being perfectly snuggly and sweet. When we pet her she responds with love of her own. She makes me feel so very loved. I don’t know how I ever survived without her.