Dog Tales

[gypsylakat]

The kid working the counter seemed a little disturbed at the crazy lady squeaking all the toys until one produced the right sound,

Musta been a new kid, most other employees get used to it after 2 months,

[Lady Mikayla of Phoenicia]

Last night I was watching "Enchanted" a Disney DVD on my personal DVD player in bed with all 4 of the pups.  Towards the end I was crying (heck dog food commercials make me cry) anyways, I'm crying away and Blackjack, my lil black Italian Greyhound crawls out from underneath the covers, lands himself right on my heart and starts licking all the tears away...     ahhhhhh I love my boys...

including that really big Pyratey one coming to see the Pack & I next week!   

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

We got our now-gone collie Dusty when he was 3 years old in 1993.  He was a rescue who lived with a family whose kids were into every sport imaginable.  For the first 3 years of his life, he lived alone in the back yard (Florida) because every night and weekend, the kids were either practicing or playing every sport.  After 3 years, the parents decided to give him away, so we were put in touch with them by a rescue society.  He was the most docile, loving, well-behaved boy, and we took him home the same night.

The next morning, I was the only one up, very early.  So I went in my pajamas into the (fenced) backyard with Dusty and a tennis ball.  I threw the ball at him, and it hit him in the face.  He didn't know how to play.  So I pretended I was a dog, throwing the ball a few feet, on all 4's running to it and picking it up.  Eventually, he got it, so I started throwing the ball a little farther each time.

Finally, when he was running after it and bringing it back to me nicely, I turned around and really threw it in the other direction across the pool, onto the other side of the yard.  Dusty liked this game and proceeded to run like mad, not stopping when he reached the "blue grass."  And promptly fell into the pool.

He didn't know what to do, and was thrashing around, sinking, getting frantic, so at 5 a.m. I jumped into the pool in my pajamas and swam to him and guided him to the stairs and helped him to get out.  Needless to say, he never played ball again, and whenever the family went outside for a swim, he retreated into the house.

About 2 weeks after we got him, Steve's parents came from England for a visit.  We don't usually drink a lot at night during the week, but on this particular night, Steve and his dad were in the family room watching tv with the kids, and Mum and I were sitting in the living room chatting.  Steve brought us both a tall vodka & tonic.  The living room was sunk down 1 step, and I was sitting on a chair near the step and put my glass on the tile floor on the step, totally oblivious to anything except talking with my mother-in-law.  All of a sudden she points towards me, is speechless laughing, and just keeps pointing.  Dusty had come in, saw my glass, and stuck his long collie nose down it.  That's how we found out the dog absolutely loved ice cubes.



Dusty is on the right (age 13).  Cody is on the left (age 3).  This picture was taken in 2003 right after my kidney transplant, and that's how old they were then.  Dusty passed away just short of 15 years old.

[Tipsy Gypsy]

My critters love ice cubes, too. It's one of their favorite summertime treats. So are tomatoes, which milord didn't believe (he thought it was birds or rodents getting them), until I pointed out a small tomato forest popping up in a part of the yard where they frequently poop.

[Trillium]

Our bigger dog, a lab/border collie mix, loves ice cubes also.  She thinks she is getting away with a treat when one drops on the floor...

Our old dog, Drizzt, who passed away last year, used to run off with frozen broccoli if it fell on the floor. 

A funny story about Drizzt...
When we were getting ready to move back to the mainland from Hawaii, we had a bunch of aloha parties and were given tons of leis, some of which had candy, plus several boxes chocolate covered macadamia nuts.  We had packed it all up and the day before we were going to fly out had gone out with friends.  When we got back, we found the boxes with the candy all knocked over and rummaged through.  Our darling dog ate an entire box of chocolate mac nuts, plus the candy out of several lei's.  Way too much chocolate for one dog!  We freaked out and called the vet at 5:30pm as they were about to close and was told to force feed him peroxide in hopes of it making him throw it all up.  If he didn't, we would have to take him to an emergency clinic.  So we spent half the night watching over him and cleaning up afterwards...  Thankfully, he did throw it all up and we were able to leave the next day.  We were exhausted but an 8 hr. flight is plenty of time to catch up on sleep.

[Ferret]

My critters love ice cubes, too. It's one of their favorite summertime treats. So are tomatoes, which milord didn't believe (he thought it was birds or rodents getting them), until I pointed out a small tomato forest popping up in a part of the yard where they frequently poop.

I had a dog years ago that loved tomatoes. She'd sneak out into the garden, and she could spend an hour going up and down looking them all over and selecting the perfect one. And eat it. And get sick. And anyone with a dog knows they are amazing critters. You put one pound in, you get two pounds out. She'd do it every day. I had to watch over her. As soon as she got a chance she'd be in the garden shopping for the perfect tomato. She never figured out that they made her sick. It was tough keep her away from them.
Ferret

[Dayna]

I've got a tomato eater too, and carrots, and peapods, and broccoli, and cauliflower, and field greens.  It's gotten to the point where I make her a small salad when I make one for me, and she eats it, with a drizzle of lemon juice.  Crazy dog!

[Tremayne]

I've got some stories about doggy "esp" or heightened senses anyway.

For 15 years I had an Elkhound, Wicca. All of these incidents took place in about the first year of her life. When she was a puppy, I took her in the evening up to Blue Mtn outside Missoula, MT for a short outing. We hadn't gone very far, just out of a treed section of trail and into a meadow when the little fur ball stopped and stared. And stared and stared. I could see nothing as hard as I looked. I could see nothing out of the ordinary (and this is back when I had good vision). But I decided to believe my puppy and turned around. Dark was falling anyway. On the way back through the woods about 50 ft behind us the whole way, the birds set up a racket, birds I couldn't even tell were there when we walked by. I expect it was one of two things, either a mtn lion (we'd seen a paw print only a week before) or a wildly camoed army reservist (they were supposed to be out there that weekend).

About a year later, I was on a camping adventure that was to last an entire summer. We were in NW Montana's Bull River area. The bulls are bull moose, marvelously robust ones. This was in the spring and we'd seen whole families dining in the shallows of the creek.  One afternoon I went for a short hike and the next morning visited the same trailhead intending to go further. I got out of the car and let Wicca out. I headed toward the trail and noticed that my dog was heeling. There's something wrong when a year old dog who knows she's about to go for a walk, and who ran on the day before, decides it's prudent to heel. I got to where the trail entered a brushy willow area. I looked and looked and saw nothing. I smelled nothing. All seemed peaceful. I kept inviting Wicca to go forward with "Go ahead." But she stayed right where she was as if to say, "No, you go first." Neither of us went first. We got back in the car.

The next day, we chose another trail altogether. A lovely hike, up, up, up, until we came to a flat area of boggy cedar forest. And darn if Wicca wasn't suddenly heeling again. Again, I saw nothing and couldn't resist going to look over what looked to be a cliff. Once that was checked out, we turned around and headed back down as the trail died out there. It was a lovely grove, though, and I would have poked around more if my dog weren't behaving oddly. So down we went, Wicca happily trotting or galloping along in front. She'd gotten on ahead when I heard a great crashing and saw a cow elk bounding into a thicket below me with my little dog in sort of confused pursuit (as though she realized it might not be the best idea but instinct was compelling her). I called her off (those obedience lessons worked!). And caught something out of the corner of my eye up a level higher than myself. I never got a good look at it since as soon as I turned my head, it turned away itself to disappear. But it seemed to be white and blonde. But what wouldn't want to be seen? Not likely another person. A deer probably wouldn't have come to the edge of the cliff to check out the noise and would have bounded off. Again, I'm guessing a mtn lion. They're very known for shadowing people. Though these tales probably make me seem very cautious, I actually sat around for a while to see if whatever it was would appear. No such luck. So I took my lunch-sized dog (she was about 40lbs) down the rest of the mtn on a leash and thwacked at bushes with a big stick (which aggressive-seeming behavior is recommended if you think a mtn lion is getting too curious with you).

[Lady Nicolette]

My dog, Angus, would eat anything.  Even bananas.  Even the peels.  It eventually caused his undoing when he developed pancreititis from taking steroids to help with his flea allergy.  His final meal was a pilched one from a neighbor's  trash can.  It proved too much for his system, unfortunately.  Otherwise, Angus was a fine beastie, an Airdale Shepherd mix.  We called him Albert Einstein since he resembled the scientist with his wild grey hair wafting about on the top of his head.  Another name was Angus McFangus The Noise Making Ubangus.  Most of my favorite things end up with a multitude of nicknames!

[Lady Nicolette]

I've got some stories about doggy "esp" or heightened senses anyway.

Always good strategy to listen to what a sensible dog is seeming to tell you!

[AnyuBoo]

We have two mutts that we got from the Humane Society.  The first one, Brandy, is a Shepherd/Husky/wolf (?)/whatever else mix.  She latched onto hubby.  He's HER puppy.  Anytime the opportunity presents, usually when she's on the couch and he's on the floor in front, she'll start licking him...face, ears, hair, wherever she can reach.  And if he tries to move away, she'll place one paw on either shoulder to hold him in place.  If he still tries to move, she'll dig those claws in, hard, until he sits still.     At night, once she's allowed us onto her bed, to be allowed up also, she'll offer up a "sacrifice": one of her toys.  She'll search till she finds one, deposits it on the bed, and looks at us till we let her up.  Of course, if we wait too long, she'll decide she's waited long enough and jump up anyway. 

Our second dog, Spektre, is a black Lab/Dane(?) mix.  At 27" at the shoulder and 100 lbs, he's a big boy, but he still thinks he's a lap dog.  He's appointed himself my protector (possibly because I'm the one who picked him out).  Aside from hubby and the kids, there's only one male who can come into this house without a problem, our best friend.  With anyone else, Spektre has to be held back till they've been let in, then carefully supervised till he realizes they're ok and he doesn't have to keep warning them.  Ladies, he's fine with.  The only potential problem there is that he likes to give hugs.    
He gave us some rough days at the beginning as he used to have separation anxiety.  Anytime we left the house, even though he has Brandy with him, he used to tear the house apart.  And he's big enough to reach an awful lot of stuff (including a knife out of the butcher block...he managed not to cut himself, fortunately; and a container of syrup...).  Thankfully, he's gotten over that, we just have to make sure now not to leave food anywhere within his reach.
He also knows a word.  Ask him what's on top of the house and he'll tell you: A-ROOF.   

And speaking of canines, I'd better go feed my above-mentioned mutts.  Spektre is sitting at the top of the stairs, letting out the wussiest, whiniest barks that he can manage.  lol  On a dog this big, they sound just silly.

[Tipsy Gypsy]

Tremayne, I had an Elkhound once too. She was a 65-lb teddy bear that didn't have a temperamental hair on her whole body. We had her for 8 blessed years until we lost her to cancer. When it was time to let her go, she told me she was ready by coming to me and pressing her forehead against my leg. She'd never, ever done that before, and so I knew. Divorce was easier than doing that, but we knew we owed it to her.

[Tremayne]

Tipsy, Wicca was very mild-mannered and well-behaved too. There was one time though that she absolutely would not respond to anything I said. It's another wild animal incident. I was working at a store on the edge of a wilderness area. There had been a black bear bothering a cabin and it was caught in a bear trap and brought by the store to wait for removal elsewhere. I decided to let her out to get a whiff of him as a sort of doggy education. She must have smelled bear plenty of times before but we certainly never had met one. So I let her out and she goes up to the cage leaving one foot stretched very far back behind her. Then she began circling and barking at the cage. Continuously circling and barking and barking and barking. She would listen to no command and would not let me near her. She probably couldn't figure out why we idiotic humans weren't catching on to the present danger. Finally I got the bright idea of opening the door to the store again. The second I did, she made a beeline for it and not only shot in but up the stairs to the living area and then turned around to look at me as much to say, "S---! Close the door! There's a bear out there!"

She was a wonderful companion who traveled many trail miles with me. Losing her was the greatest grief of my life.

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

Our first dog in our married life was Lady Lucinda of Surrey, who came from the RSPCA in Chobham, Surrey, England.  She was a mixed breed, Border collie/whippet and the smartest of all of our dogs so far.

She loved to eat and would eat anything, except 1 thing.  She didn't like celery.  We gave her all our leftovers, the kids gave her chocolate (before people knew it was bad for dogs), but she had an iron stomach and never got sick and wasn't overweight at all.

She even ate salad, which she really loved.  But when Steve would make a salad, he would throw half the refrigerator in, so we had huge salads full of everything.  We always gave some to Lucy, and she would eat every bite.  Except she picked out each individual little piece of celery and left it in the bowl.

We brought her over from England, and she moved around with us in all of our home moves.  She spent the last 3 years of her life in Florida.  When we went swimming in the pool (the same pool that Dusty fell into, see post up above), Lucinda felt that she needed to save us, so whenever anybody jumped in, adult or kid, she would jump in, swim over to them, gently take their arm in her mouth -- never a tooth mark -- and doggie paddle them over to the steps.

She had a red frisbee that we would toss into the pool, and she would leap in from the side, swim to pick it up, and bring it back to us.  We would get tired way before she did.  When the red one finally broke, we bought her another frisbee in a different color.  She wouldn't touch it.  So we found a red ball.  She would jump in, just like for the frisbee.  When the ball finally disintegrated, we bought another ball, not red, there weren't any left, and she wouldn't go after it for love nor money.

[Jack Daw at Work]

I travel too much for business to be fair to have a pet at this point.  But, I love dogs, particularly German Shepherds, and I had two at different times as a boy.  Both had distinctly different personalities.  Dutch was playful and Eddie was more protective.  They perhaps may have emulated me at different stages in my boyhood, I don't know.  Anyway, Dutch used to like to chase butterflies in the spring and it would never fail to make me laugh.  I listen to a classic rock radio station sometimes and when I hear Heart do "Dog and Butterfly" I remember Dutch and my boyhood very fondly.