Post by Lannie on Dec 11, 2011 14:23:26 GMT -5
The "T" stands for TROUBLE! LOL!
I mentioned her on another thread, but I thought I'd tell everyone how we came to have yet ANOTHER dog in our house. This place ain't called Love Acres for nothing!
Last Thursday morning, the phone rang. Lo and behold it was one of our part-time neighbors from down the road. Normally they live up here in the summers and do hay, then go to New Mexico for the winters. Last winter they went down there, and decided to start building a house (another one? I'm not sure) and stayed through the summer. They just came back up here Thursday for about a month to take a break.
So, anyway, Lana (the neighbor) said she had a young German Shepherd with her that she'd picked up as a stray, and wondered if we "knew anyone" who would want to take her in. As if she didn't already know. I swear, the neon "SUCKER" sign on my forehead is visible all the way to NM. She went on and on about how sweet this dog was, that she'd found her running the streets trailing a chain, and that she was so skinny, she was just a rack of bones. She fed her and wormed her and she'd started gaining weight, but being transients, they didn't feel it was fair to keep her (that sounds like a good excuse, doesn't it? ) and were looking for a permanent, stable home for her. She knew right from the get-go that we'd say yes. OMG, we're so predictable.
Rich said it was up to me, since I'm the "dog person" around here, so I agreed to take her on consignment, so to speak. I said if for any reason she didn't work out (didn't get along with the other dogs, chased cats, ate the furniture, whatever) that she'd take her back. She agreed. I told Lana that there was a private shelter down in Hot Springs (where we got Cody) and that if she was willing to drive her down there, I'd call and make sure the lady had room. If it didn't work out. A-OK, no problem. Then she said (I've heard THIS one before! LOL!), "If I was a dog, I'd want YOU to be my mommy!" Oh, she laid it on thick, she did, she did!
Lana and her husband showed up around 6:30 that night and we turned Missy (who was named Flocca at the time) out in the yard with Cody and Becca to see what happened. Much butt-sniffing and tail wagging ensued, followed by some snarls and teeth-baring, but nothing serious, so I said we'd go in the house then and see if she tried to eat the cats. I put her leash on and we went in, but I couldn't even get her to NOTICE the cats, much less chase or eat one. It was pretty hard not to notice them because the ones that were upstairs when we came in were three times their size and hissing and growling so loud you couldn't hear yourself think!
But Flocca (now Missy) wasn't the least bit interested in them, so I decided she wasn't a cat chaser, and she could at least spend the night. Lana and her hubby left quietly while I gave the dogs cookies to distract Flocca, and then we sat and pondered this new situation while Flocca raced back and forth between the two doors, whining, looking for her mom. She seemed to be very well behaved and attentive when spoken to, and since she didn't seem aggressive to either the dogs or the cats, we decided pretty much on the spot that she could stay. But we'd have to change her name because it sounded too much like "Becca." So Rich started calling her Missy and it stuck.
Ten minutes after Lana left, Missy hopped up on the couch and laid down (we knew she was a furniture dog, and that's OK with us). So I started teaching her that her new name was Missy and before bedtime, she was answering to it. Smart girl!
The last few days she's been fitting in more and more, the cats have gradually started to reappear from the dark corners of the house, and things are returning to normal. The only difference now is we have this breathtakingly beautiful young lady living with us now. It's kind of a shock to my system, having gotten used to these old, slow moving, wobbly dogs (like me! LOL!). I've been taking Missy out a couple of times a day and throwing a ball for her to tire her out and try to work off some of her excess energy. She's insanely curious, and she's been driving the cats NUTS trying to figure out what they are. She'll chase them if they run, but nothing comes of it. She stops when they stop. She really wants to just sniff their butts, and can't understand why they won't let her! She's going to get a bloody nose from one of them soon, and the sooner the better. She needs to learn that one of the things about kitty cats is they have sharp bits that can HURT you, and you should give them their space. That's something I can't teach her - the cats will have to do it.
Today she tried to challenge me and I had to pull an Alpha Female on her, but she was OK with it. She likes to bite when she's playing, and I don't want her to, and when I hold her muzzle and tell her "no" it spins her up and she wants to bite MORE. So I had to get all mothery on her and put her down, but she'll figure it out.
She discovered the toy box the first night and once I told her it was OK, she started pulling bones and toys out, one by one, and scattering them all over the house! LOL! CHILDREN! They can mess it up just fine, but cleaning it up when they're done? Naaaaahhhh! So it's just another thing I do now - every so often I go along and pick up everything and put it back in the toy box so she can start pulling things out again!
The really WEIRD thing about all this is she's really bonded to Rich. She sleeps beside him, even. I'm the dog person, and I'm covered in cats all night, and he's the cat person, and the dog sleeps with him now. But he doesn't mind - he really likes her, and I think it's a good thing for a boy to have a dog.
I know you're wondering where the pictures are, and I would have taken a bunch, but we had a little operator error on my camera, and couldn't figure out why brand new batteries wouldn't make it turn on. Well, it's because you have to set the date and time first, otherwise it just doesn't work. I claim NO technological aptitude, so I blame Rich for no pictures! I'll take some, though, and post them as soon as I can.
Oh, and she's by no means a German Shepherd. She's marked like one, but she's way too small. If she has any GSD in her, there's more of something smaller. And for all I know, it might be some other kind of shepherd that I'm just not familiar with. But she IS gorgeous, whatever her breeding.
~Lannie
I mentioned her on another thread, but I thought I'd tell everyone how we came to have yet ANOTHER dog in our house. This place ain't called Love Acres for nothing!
Last Thursday morning, the phone rang. Lo and behold it was one of our part-time neighbors from down the road. Normally they live up here in the summers and do hay, then go to New Mexico for the winters. Last winter they went down there, and decided to start building a house (another one? I'm not sure) and stayed through the summer. They just came back up here Thursday for about a month to take a break.
So, anyway, Lana (the neighbor) said she had a young German Shepherd with her that she'd picked up as a stray, and wondered if we "knew anyone" who would want to take her in. As if she didn't already know. I swear, the neon "SUCKER" sign on my forehead is visible all the way to NM. She went on and on about how sweet this dog was, that she'd found her running the streets trailing a chain, and that she was so skinny, she was just a rack of bones. She fed her and wormed her and she'd started gaining weight, but being transients, they didn't feel it was fair to keep her (that sounds like a good excuse, doesn't it? ) and were looking for a permanent, stable home for her. She knew right from the get-go that we'd say yes. OMG, we're so predictable.
Rich said it was up to me, since I'm the "dog person" around here, so I agreed to take her on consignment, so to speak. I said if for any reason she didn't work out (didn't get along with the other dogs, chased cats, ate the furniture, whatever) that she'd take her back. She agreed. I told Lana that there was a private shelter down in Hot Springs (where we got Cody) and that if she was willing to drive her down there, I'd call and make sure the lady had room. If it didn't work out. A-OK, no problem. Then she said (I've heard THIS one before! LOL!), "If I was a dog, I'd want YOU to be my mommy!" Oh, she laid it on thick, she did, she did!
Lana and her husband showed up around 6:30 that night and we turned Missy (who was named Flocca at the time) out in the yard with Cody and Becca to see what happened. Much butt-sniffing and tail wagging ensued, followed by some snarls and teeth-baring, but nothing serious, so I said we'd go in the house then and see if she tried to eat the cats. I put her leash on and we went in, but I couldn't even get her to NOTICE the cats, much less chase or eat one. It was pretty hard not to notice them because the ones that were upstairs when we came in were three times their size and hissing and growling so loud you couldn't hear yourself think!
But Flocca (now Missy) wasn't the least bit interested in them, so I decided she wasn't a cat chaser, and she could at least spend the night. Lana and her hubby left quietly while I gave the dogs cookies to distract Flocca, and then we sat and pondered this new situation while Flocca raced back and forth between the two doors, whining, looking for her mom. She seemed to be very well behaved and attentive when spoken to, and since she didn't seem aggressive to either the dogs or the cats, we decided pretty much on the spot that she could stay. But we'd have to change her name because it sounded too much like "Becca." So Rich started calling her Missy and it stuck.
Ten minutes after Lana left, Missy hopped up on the couch and laid down (we knew she was a furniture dog, and that's OK with us). So I started teaching her that her new name was Missy and before bedtime, she was answering to it. Smart girl!
The last few days she's been fitting in more and more, the cats have gradually started to reappear from the dark corners of the house, and things are returning to normal. The only difference now is we have this breathtakingly beautiful young lady living with us now. It's kind of a shock to my system, having gotten used to these old, slow moving, wobbly dogs (like me! LOL!). I've been taking Missy out a couple of times a day and throwing a ball for her to tire her out and try to work off some of her excess energy. She's insanely curious, and she's been driving the cats NUTS trying to figure out what they are. She'll chase them if they run, but nothing comes of it. She stops when they stop. She really wants to just sniff their butts, and can't understand why they won't let her! She's going to get a bloody nose from one of them soon, and the sooner the better. She needs to learn that one of the things about kitty cats is they have sharp bits that can HURT you, and you should give them their space. That's something I can't teach her - the cats will have to do it.
Today she tried to challenge me and I had to pull an Alpha Female on her, but she was OK with it. She likes to bite when she's playing, and I don't want her to, and when I hold her muzzle and tell her "no" it spins her up and she wants to bite MORE. So I had to get all mothery on her and put her down, but she'll figure it out.
She discovered the toy box the first night and once I told her it was OK, she started pulling bones and toys out, one by one, and scattering them all over the house! LOL! CHILDREN! They can mess it up just fine, but cleaning it up when they're done? Naaaaahhhh! So it's just another thing I do now - every so often I go along and pick up everything and put it back in the toy box so she can start pulling things out again!
The really WEIRD thing about all this is she's really bonded to Rich. She sleeps beside him, even. I'm the dog person, and I'm covered in cats all night, and he's the cat person, and the dog sleeps with him now. But he doesn't mind - he really likes her, and I think it's a good thing for a boy to have a dog.
I know you're wondering where the pictures are, and I would have taken a bunch, but we had a little operator error on my camera, and couldn't figure out why brand new batteries wouldn't make it turn on. Well, it's because you have to set the date and time first, otherwise it just doesn't work. I claim NO technological aptitude, so I blame Rich for no pictures! I'll take some, though, and post them as soon as I can.
Oh, and she's by no means a German Shepherd. She's marked like one, but she's way too small. If she has any GSD in her, there's more of something smaller. And for all I know, it might be some other kind of shepherd that I'm just not familiar with. But she IS gorgeous, whatever her breeding.
~Lannie