*Blush. You flatter me! hehe

I think a gold star totally outweighs an honorable mention!;):D

Sigh, you're right. I can only hope that one day, I too, will get star! hehe

Way to go Disney!:cheer::cheer:

That is all we can do, is give ones experiance & advice and hope that maybe it will help another out in a similair situation!

I'm very excited to have given my first piece of advice! Quite a rush hehe

Danielle - it does appear that you love Cody very, very much or you wouldn't be trying to figure this out two to three years in advance. I said this earlier, but I think a great option would be to consider finding a roommate for an apartment nearby campus that will accept Cody. If one of your friend's you have now decides not to go to the same school as you want to, don't forget you will be meeting a lot of really great college students at school too and making a lot of new friends that you might consider rooming with in a couple years. That situation would be ideal, I would think. Sending him to live with a friend for awhile would not be the worst thing and certainly better than being a crate for hours on end during the day, but I have to agree that taking him back after two years may be difficult on him initially. Most dogs adapt quickly, but I have seen some that don't, one of which being my own dog. Of course, my dog had a pretty rough start in life - you probably don't know his story, but many here do. I won't go into the entire long story, but he was a puppy mill dog that I believe was sold to a pet store, who was sold to a lady that was wheelchair bound and was unable to care for him, who gave him to a lady who is now our groomer to find a good home for him, who was given to another lady who claimed she'd take good care of him and gave him back to our groomer four days later, who finally came to me - all within the first 6 months of his life. He has not gotten any taller or longer since we brought him home, but he was 7 lbs when the day he came to live with us and he is 15 lbs today. He had severe separation anxiety and would have massive diarrhea attacks if we even baby gated him in the bathroom by himself to walk 10 steps to our bed at night, which was directly in front of the bathroom door - he could clearly see we were right there. He lost over half of his body weight because of this. Taking him for a car ride was impossible. He refused to get in and out of the car... we had to pick him up and carry him... he would shake all over and clutch onto my arm with his paws and dig his nails into me because he was so scared he was going to yet another home. With a lot of patience, training, and effort he is a lot better now (after 2 years), but even the slightest change in his daily routine, sends him back into his "panic attacks". I'm not saying at all that this will happen to Cody especially since Smokey's story is quite a bit different, I'm just giving you some of my personal knowledge and sharing my experience with you to help you make an informed decision. All in all, while it's good to plan ahead, you still have plenty of time to think about this and there are so many different directions your life could go at this point. You are still in high school and trust me, as someone who is 23 and whose life did not go anywhere near according to how I planned it, sometimes what we think we want in high school changes by the time we actually start college. Situations and things change daily, so my advice to you right now is to focus on school and get the best grades you can so you can achieve your dreams and focus on loving on your baby and spoiling him to death. While it is good to plan ahead, live for today. ;)

Thank-you! :D :love:

I'm lost as to why you came on here to challenge my opinion if you don't care. You have no intention of backing up your opinion, and when challenged you were rude and condescending. You say you care about proving your point, yet when asked to actually post something other than your opinion, all of a sudden you don't care? :confused: Sounds like you're afraid you could be wrong. :rolleyes: Heaven forbid.

*Shrug. Whatever does it for you. I has no interest in 'bantering' with you as I don't enjoy your post and I feel you belittle me and my intellect. I am only here to try and help Cody and Danielle. I will spend my time posting information that can help others and I hope you will attempt to do the same. Adios.

Danielle, like others have said, enjoy your cutie and worry later! :D

GREAT post! :thumbup::thumbup: I am almost 20 and I had sooo many different ideas and plans my junior year in high school than what I'm doing now.

I am the one with that is keeping dogs for our servicemen while they are away,
I can tell you with my experience with these dogs, they do remember their first owners, Millie is is son lab she has been with us for years now Trey came home for visit last week Millie remember him like he had never left her, she was his shadow for 2 weeks he was here she never left his side Millie hasn't seen Trey in year, she is 6 yrs old, Trey is being relocated again and Millie will stay here.
Ziggy is the one that blew my mind he hadn't seen his owner in a few years , when Keith arrive to see Ziggy it took only a few sec. for him to remember him and it was like he had never left, Ziggy owner has one more year overseas and then he will go home for good, Ella owner did not come home and his family could not take her back so she will be with us forever, somewhere in her life was a woman that she dearly love ( I am guessing a girlfriend)
Ella is my husband dog until our youngest daughter walk in and he yesterday news, she will stay sleep and lay beside my daughter until she leaves, ella has nothing to do with my oldest daughter at all, even tho my daughter has tried to make friends with her. Ella was around 3yrs when she came here. Ziggy was the youngest of the bunch he was around 1 1/2 I think when he was left here .

these young men never thought they would have to leave their pets for such a long time, I know my son didn't but their dogs will be here waiting for them like me and the rest of their loves one for the day when they don't have to say goodbye ever again.
another note they also feel sadness, my son left sunday to return to his base, millie is sad she will not fetch her ball, she is just laying around on the porch looking down the long road her owner drove out of, she better today she did get up to see the turtle the others dog found today.

Awwww what a sweet thing to be doing for all those men! My brother is a Marine so they are all so close to my heart. I think it's wonderful!!! :thumbup::)

I got my dog Chi-Chi from a woman on craigslist. when i got this little bundle of joy i was told she was the perfect lap dog.
i found out that she had been hit repeatedly for going potty in the house,she had never been on a leach a day in her life. and she had never been allowed to play or stand or potty in the grass also she was locked in her cage for upwards of 16 hours a day.

when she sees her old owner once a month she still goes crazy and licks her to death she is always so happy to see her and the kids.
how could a dog that has been (in my opinion) abused still be happy to see her old owner but a very much loved dog like cody would be anything but ecstatic to see his mommy