A Dogs Life-#4

A Dogs Life-#1   A Dogs Life-#2   A Dogs Life-#3

 

I am currently the somewhat and some days proud owner of two dogs, two VERY different creatures. Let me describe them for you. Dog number one is a Rhodesian Ridgeback, basically an African hound dog. I got him at the dog shelter as puppy with very BIG feet. I had told my wife I was going to find a little dog. I didn’t really lie, I brought home a little dog that just happened to grow into a five foot tall dog when he stands on his hind legs. He is a beautiful animal, very regal looking, and calm, for the most part. He loves his family, loyal and territorial to a fault.

He is what we refer too as a leaner, he leans on you when you are around him. For me, not a problem, but for the 100 + pound women in my family, he will push them over. This boy hates the cold and loves the heat (remember Rhodesian). On the hottest day, when his four-legged sister is panting in the bushes he is sprawled out in the middle of the yard under a blazing sun. It is an amazing sight.

As beautiful as he is he is not very smart or as I describe him “dumb as a bag of rocks”. If he were in a beauty contest I would hope they would ask him an easy questions. I guess we all can’t have beauty and brains. He is my friend. Always curious about what “Dad” is working on, always happy to see me and at the ready with a lean and a lick.

Dog number two is special. She was a stray that showed up with her two brothers at our friends house in the mountains. I wanted the two brothers. They were cute with lots of playful energy. They would have driven dog number one crazy which would have been fun to watch. But alias, the wife wanted the shy, homely little girl and I do mean homely. She is not pretty, long body, nose and tail, big ears, short legs, white and black like a Holstein cow. We have no clue what she is a mix of, like I said she is special.

When we brought her home and put her in the backyard with five foot tall, 100 pound dog number one she took charge and has never relinquished that control. This chick, though ugly is brilliant, always thinking, always scheming. She patrols the yard non-stop, on alert for anything and everything. My garden is fenced so she can’t chase the squirrels in there but if they make a mistake in the open yard, they are toast. I watched her tree a squirrel one day and she sat for three hours under the tree waiting. The squirrel eventually took a suicide leap from the top and made it over the fence by the length of its bushy tail. Though she eats non-stop, all day, she is skinny as a rail. We aren’t sure she sleeps much. She is always jacked-up about something or someone. Honestly it is exhausting but I love her just the same, the absolute pest that she is.

They are interesting couple, these two family members of mine. All of my kids have left the house, except not really, because I have two five-year olds in my backyard which makes for an interesting and tiring experience at times for this old man.