When people ask if we have children, John and I always say, “We have canine kids.”

Since my pops trained sentry dogs in the Air Force, I quickly became fond of German shepherds. I grew up with Major. Coincidentally, when John was a boy, his family dog was a German shepherd named Sergeant.

When my husband and I moved to Umatilla, I had difficulty adjusting to the rural lifestyle. One night when I came home in tears, John said we should start looking for a pet-friendly place so we could get a dog. Several months later we moved and got a German shepherd.

And a couple of years later, we added an Airedale terrier to the pack. Since then, we’ve been a two-dog household, including several more German shepherds.

We’ve had Biko, a 3½-year-old Siberian husky/German shepherd, since March 2021. And Zeke, a German shepherd mix, joined the Malgesini Pack less than two weeks ago, just in time to celebrate his first birthday on March 30. We adopted both from Mikey’s Chance Canine Rescue.

Medical and mental health professionals tout the benefits of being a pet owner. I read an article on WebMD that said animals can help with lowering blood pressure and reducing anxiety. I agree — except for the time one of our dogs chewed up three different remote controls.

The hardest part about dog ownership is they don’t live long enough. However, each of our dogs has brought us great joy.

There’s something about having a pair of happy faces bounding to the door to greet me after a long day at work — it almost makes me wag my tail.