According to the voices in my car radio this morning, "On This Date" in 1950-something, Elvis introduced his new Album, Hound Dog, on the Milton Berle Show.
Showing posts with label Dogs I Have known. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dogs I Have known. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Friday, March 3, 2017
Dreamboat Annie
The Elfen Niece needed to beef up her resume' so it would be more competitive when she applies to Vet School and that required volunteer experience at a Vet Office, Animal Shelter or Farm. Shortly after we learned that, I happened to have cause to drive within sight of the County Pound so I stopped in to pick up an application. While I was there, I asked to see the inventory.
Many dozens of dogs were barking, snarling, jumping up on their cage doors and doing all the things dogs do in jail but there was one that was different.
She looked like a beagle that had been stretched in every direction. Long body, legs for days (four of them) and big ol' elephant ears. I'm no expert on actual Hounds but she was definitely a Hound of some sort. The thing that made her stand out from the mongrel horde wasn't so much her appearance as it was her attitude of complete indifference to me. It reminded me of the way TEN cold-shouldered the Johnny Bravo salesdude in Gooseburg a few months back. She looked at me, turned around and walked out into her little fenced dog run without making a sound.
Archibald Rutledge said of the Hound:
"He invariably seems to me to belong to an older and a wiser generation, which regards the behavior of all other living things as an exceedingly juvenile performance. A hound is the only dog that can make me self-conscious of my own ridiculousness. Fixed by his appraising eye, I shrink into my true stature."
And so it was with me.
I went on about my business but the dog kept haunting me. It finally dawned on me that we hadn't heard anything back about TEN's application so it seemed reasonable to go check on it the next time I was out that way. The office is only twenty minutes from the pound so one could argue that being at the office was, constructively, out that way. I had the argument with myself so it was easy to win and I went back a week after first being snubbed by the beast.
The second look was much the same as the first. Amidst the cacaphony of yips, yaps, barks and snarls, the big galoot just stood there silently as I looked her over.
Her chart said she was a Treeing Walker Coon Hound. Fifty percent off adoptions that weekend too. Oh My.
Call me Uncle Versey. I ain't hunted coons in years.
Tossed and turned all night alternating between half dreams of getting the dog and bleak reality of The Lovely Bride having a cow. I devised a sinister plan: I would ask her permission. I've never used such an underhanded tactic before. I'd have the element of surprise.
That Saturday Morning, I asked TLB if we could have a rational discussion about an important subject. She allowed that we could and told her that I found a dog that I liked, the dog was heartworm-negative, snipped and chipped and the pound was having a sale. She said she wasn't against it and that was close enough for me. I Christened her Ann, after Bugle Ann, a dog in an old book and movie and brought her home.
The poor thing was gaunt and famished. After we bathed her, she ate three bowls of food. Then she took over the dog bed and promptly had a seizure. I was thinking that maybe I should change her name to Hillary but the seizure ended before I got through listing all the reasons why I could never do that to anyone, much less a dog. She recovered quickly and has not had another.
Ann turned out to be an inadequate name. Her personality called for at least two syllables so she quickly became Annie. Just as quickly, she won our hearts. She simply doesn't get tired of being playful and affectionate.
Annie has broken all the rules and never gets in trouble. The small side of our sectional couch is no longer mine. She just took it for granted that the couch is hers and somehow it is. She sleeps in The Elfin Niece's bed when TEN is not around. She gets away with begging. You name it. She is the pretty girl that gets away with everything because of her charm.
So now we have Bullet, the business-like GSP; Abbey the mixed mutt that we inherited when the Father in Law went into the ALF and Annie, the Dog Pound Coon Hound. Its a bit more of a pack than is optimal but the dogs are adjusting and its nice to have someone around that's always happy to see me when I get home.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Old Friends
I went through some more boxes of old pictures this afternoon and found some of a few long-departed friends. The pictures themselves aren't that great because they are cell-phone pictures of the pictures in the albums.
Skipper. My first dog that was my own dog. He's the one on the left. That's my sister on the right. Skipper was a Lab-German Shepard mix. He jumped the fence one day and was killed in the school cross walk following my brother to school. How you manage to run over a dog when you're going 20 miles per hour in a school crossing is beyond me. I mean the crossing had a Police Officer directing traffic and making sure nobody was speeding.
Duke. My brother's first dog that was his own dog. A Beagle -German Shepard mix. Duke was actually about a year older than Skipper. When the Police Officer brought Skipper's collar to our house, he told my Dad that Duke wouldn't leave Skipper until the City man came and picked up his body.
I know. Skipper is kind of a dumb name for a dog. My turtle was named Giligan. What can I tell ya? I liked the show. I was about eight years old so cut me some slack.
Rest in peace old friends.
Skipper. My first dog that was my own dog. He's the one on the left. That's my sister on the right. Skipper was a Lab-German Shepard mix. He jumped the fence one day and was killed in the school cross walk following my brother to school. How you manage to run over a dog when you're going 20 miles per hour in a school crossing is beyond me. I mean the crossing had a Police Officer directing traffic and making sure nobody was speeding.
Duke. My brother's first dog that was his own dog. A Beagle -German Shepard mix. Duke was actually about a year older than Skipper. When the Police Officer brought Skipper's collar to our house, he told my Dad that Duke wouldn't leave Skipper until the City man came and picked up his body.
I know. Skipper is kind of a dumb name for a dog. My turtle was named Giligan. What can I tell ya? I liked the show. I was about eight years old so cut me some slack.
Rest in peace old friends.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Sunday, January 27, 2013
The Fugitive
Getting ready for church this morning and discovered that the dog had dug out under the fence. Looked in the usual places then got in the car to expand the search. It was foggy when we started and the fog got denser as the morning grew older. By 9:30 we couldn't see a hundred feet.
The Lovely Bride dropped me back at the house so I could log onto the AKC site and report the dog missing and also call the local animal shelter. I got tired of waiting for her to come back so I requisitioned all the lawn mower gas and put it in my car so I could look too. By that time the fog was burning off but there wasn't a sign of the dog anywhere.
Met up with TLB and decided to leave my car at the house and search in one vehicle so at least one of us wouldn't be distracted by having to do the driving. I kept thinking the dog had gone North so we started working in that direction. About 2 miles from the house we decided to shift to going West and headed a mile or two that way until we got to a six lane highway. At that point, I advocated turning left but TLB made a U turn instead. I figured maybe she sensed something so I didn't complain. We drove all the way back to where we had started working West and there he was.
The dog was loping down a 4 lane highway. He crossed the intersection headed home maybe a hundred yards from us. I told TLB to hit the horn to get his attention thinking he'd come to the car. She stood on it and he stopped but wouldn't come. I got out of the car so he could see it was me and he decided that meant we were hunting. I got within thirty yards of him and he bolted. I lost sight of him for maybe four seconds as I rounded the corner because there's an embankment at the corner. I got there and he was just gone. I looked into the woods and across the street but there wasn't a sign of him. TLB drove past, stopped the car fifty yards down the road and got out. I had to hoof it down to her just to find out if she stopped because she saw him. She hadn't. She had just stopped way the hell down there and gotten out of the car for no particular reason. On the way back to where I had last seen him, I chatted with a helpful retired couple who asked if the dog was ours. They had gotten him out of the traffic and to the side of the road. He had been even further North than we had searched. They said they'd look for him.
West seemed to be the only direction in which he could have disappeared so quickly so I climbed the embankment and picked my way through the barbed wire fence. I found myself in a wooded corner of a pasture full of cows. I found a dead cow skeleton just like in the movies when someone is lost in the desert but no dog. I sent TLB a message suggesting she go home in case the dog had already gotten there but she didn't get it. She drove up to the fence to get me and we decided to head West again. The dog had to have headed West after he saw me. We got about half a mile and saw the dog at the edge of the woods. I told her to drive right up to him and when she did, he came to the car. Just hopped right in when I opened the door.
When he had seen me the first time, he had gone up the embankment, through the barbed wire fence and out of sight before I could get to him. He had continued casting about while I was getting to the car and talking to the retired couple. By the time I got done with all that, he was through another fence and into the woods.
Got him home, repaired the trench where he dug out and hooked up my old electric fence. He already has a collar that zaps him when he gets too close to the fence. The difficulty with that is that TLB doesn't put it on him when she gets up and lets him out first thing in the morning. She waits until the second time he goes outside. Seriously. That's why he got out in the first place. He wears a regular collar 24/7 and she puts the shock collar on him when she lets him out for the second time every day. His shock collar was on the kitchen counter. That's not a small detail. That's pretty much fundamental. The logic escapes me. Why not put the collar on the first time he goes outside? Why is it better to wait and put it on the second time he goes outside? I seriously do not get it. I suspect that If I understood crap like that I'd either be rich or in an asylum somewhere trying to untie my sleeves.
With the real electric fence running, the dog will hit a real electric fence wire when he tries to get out. Won't matter if its the first or second time out in the morning either. The wire is between the fence and the wire for his shock collar so he won't get hit unless crosses the "invisible fence" wire. This way, the shock collar will actually keep him from getting zapped by a much stronger shock. Who knows, maybe that will be incentive to put the collar on the first time he goes outside.
When I plugged the electric fence in, I walked the whole fence line to clear pine needles, twigs and leaves off the wire. I brushed up against it and it stung me enough to notice. I kept on doing what I was doing until I got near a crepe myrtle tree near the gate. At that point I could smell smoke. Turned out that the wire was contacting the tree and it was burning itself into the tree. It had stung me enough be uncomfortable even though the wire was half-grounded through the tree. I cut a piece of PVC pipe to insulate the tree and it arced like a spark plug when I moved the wire. With that ground gone, its going to be a hell of a jolt when somebody hits it. I remember it as being something like the sting of a very large wasp.
Next we headed to Gander Mtn. to get a GPS collar so we could find him the next time he gets out. Naturally they had exactly one on the shelf and there was no price on it, the shelf or the display. At the register, we asked the girl to tell us the price. It was six hundred forty-nine dollars.
I just couldn't come to grips with paying six hundred forty-nine dollars for a collar that TLB wouldn't put on him until the second time she lets him out for the day so we said "thanks but no-thanks" and decided to shop on line. We found the same collar for fifty bucks less but it was still a question of spending money for a collar that he wouldn't be wearing so we kept on looking. I looked at other brands and I looked at telemetry tracking collars but everything required its own collar and TLB won't put the shock collar that we have now on him until the second time he goes out in the morning. Would this collar require waiting until the third time every morning? Your guess is as good as mine.
Eventually we found something called Traxx. Its a GPS locator that will give you the dog's location and a map showing your position and the dog's. It displays it on your I phone. You tell it where "home" is and it alerts you by email and text message if he goes outside the boundaries of "home." It won't work at all where I hunt because there's no cell phone service there but it had good reviews and for $100 I figured that even if it didn't work at home it wouldn't break the bank. The good thing is that I will be able to attach it to the dog's regular collar so he will be wearing it the next time he tries to get out. It should be here in a few days.
Then dusk fell on another restful Sabbath.
The Lovely Bride dropped me back at the house so I could log onto the AKC site and report the dog missing and also call the local animal shelter. I got tired of waiting for her to come back so I requisitioned all the lawn mower gas and put it in my car so I could look too. By that time the fog was burning off but there wasn't a sign of the dog anywhere.
Met up with TLB and decided to leave my car at the house and search in one vehicle so at least one of us wouldn't be distracted by having to do the driving. I kept thinking the dog had gone North so we started working in that direction. About 2 miles from the house we decided to shift to going West and headed a mile or two that way until we got to a six lane highway. At that point, I advocated turning left but TLB made a U turn instead. I figured maybe she sensed something so I didn't complain. We drove all the way back to where we had started working West and there he was.
The dog was loping down a 4 lane highway. He crossed the intersection headed home maybe a hundred yards from us. I told TLB to hit the horn to get his attention thinking he'd come to the car. She stood on it and he stopped but wouldn't come. I got out of the car so he could see it was me and he decided that meant we were hunting. I got within thirty yards of him and he bolted. I lost sight of him for maybe four seconds as I rounded the corner because there's an embankment at the corner. I got there and he was just gone. I looked into the woods and across the street but there wasn't a sign of him. TLB drove past, stopped the car fifty yards down the road and got out. I had to hoof it down to her just to find out if she stopped because she saw him. She hadn't. She had just stopped way the hell down there and gotten out of the car for no particular reason. On the way back to where I had last seen him, I chatted with a helpful retired couple who asked if the dog was ours. They had gotten him out of the traffic and to the side of the road. He had been even further North than we had searched. They said they'd look for him.
West seemed to be the only direction in which he could have disappeared so quickly so I climbed the embankment and picked my way through the barbed wire fence. I found myself in a wooded corner of a pasture full of cows. I found a dead cow skeleton just like in the movies when someone is lost in the desert but no dog. I sent TLB a message suggesting she go home in case the dog had already gotten there but she didn't get it. She drove up to the fence to get me and we decided to head West again. The dog had to have headed West after he saw me. We got about half a mile and saw the dog at the edge of the woods. I told her to drive right up to him and when she did, he came to the car. Just hopped right in when I opened the door.
When he had seen me the first time, he had gone up the embankment, through the barbed wire fence and out of sight before I could get to him. He had continued casting about while I was getting to the car and talking to the retired couple. By the time I got done with all that, he was through another fence and into the woods.
Got him home, repaired the trench where he dug out and hooked up my old electric fence. He already has a collar that zaps him when he gets too close to the fence. The difficulty with that is that TLB doesn't put it on him when she gets up and lets him out first thing in the morning. She waits until the second time he goes outside. Seriously. That's why he got out in the first place. He wears a regular collar 24/7 and she puts the shock collar on him when she lets him out for the second time every day. His shock collar was on the kitchen counter. That's not a small detail. That's pretty much fundamental. The logic escapes me. Why not put the collar on the first time he goes outside? Why is it better to wait and put it on the second time he goes outside? I seriously do not get it. I suspect that If I understood crap like that I'd either be rich or in an asylum somewhere trying to untie my sleeves.
With the real electric fence running, the dog will hit a real electric fence wire when he tries to get out. Won't matter if its the first or second time out in the morning either. The wire is between the fence and the wire for his shock collar so he won't get hit unless crosses the "invisible fence" wire. This way, the shock collar will actually keep him from getting zapped by a much stronger shock. Who knows, maybe that will be incentive to put the collar on the first time he goes outside.
When I plugged the electric fence in, I walked the whole fence line to clear pine needles, twigs and leaves off the wire. I brushed up against it and it stung me enough to notice. I kept on doing what I was doing until I got near a crepe myrtle tree near the gate. At that point I could smell smoke. Turned out that the wire was contacting the tree and it was burning itself into the tree. It had stung me enough be uncomfortable even though the wire was half-grounded through the tree. I cut a piece of PVC pipe to insulate the tree and it arced like a spark plug when I moved the wire. With that ground gone, its going to be a hell of a jolt when somebody hits it. I remember it as being something like the sting of a very large wasp.
Next we headed to Gander Mtn. to get a GPS collar so we could find him the next time he gets out. Naturally they had exactly one on the shelf and there was no price on it, the shelf or the display. At the register, we asked the girl to tell us the price. It was six hundred forty-nine dollars.
I just couldn't come to grips with paying six hundred forty-nine dollars for a collar that TLB wouldn't put on him until the second time she lets him out for the day so we said "thanks but no-thanks" and decided to shop on line. We found the same collar for fifty bucks less but it was still a question of spending money for a collar that he wouldn't be wearing so we kept on looking. I looked at other brands and I looked at telemetry tracking collars but everything required its own collar and TLB won't put the shock collar that we have now on him until the second time he goes out in the morning. Would this collar require waiting until the third time every morning? Your guess is as good as mine.
Eventually we found something called Traxx. Its a GPS locator that will give you the dog's location and a map showing your position and the dog's. It displays it on your I phone. You tell it where "home" is and it alerts you by email and text message if he goes outside the boundaries of "home." It won't work at all where I hunt because there's no cell phone service there but it had good reviews and for $100 I figured that even if it didn't work at home it wouldn't break the bank. The good thing is that I will be able to attach it to the dog's regular collar so he will be wearing it the next time he tries to get out. It should be here in a few days.
Then dusk fell on another restful Sabbath.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
The Best Dog
The best dog I ever had died 4 years ago today.
Some day I will write about him.
Not today. He deserves better than I can do today.
Some day I will write about him.
Not today. He deserves better than I can do today.
O.J. 12/07/1997 - 12/11/2008. With his sister, Nicole, 12/07/1997-09/11/2011, a damned good dog in her own right:
Rest in Peace ol' Buddies. I hope that story about the bridge is true.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
"Taggie"
So-named because my Dad found him dodging cars in a busy intersection and he "tagged along" to safety and a new home with us. At least that's the story I was told. The pictures were taken before I was born.
Taggie wasn't a big dog but he must have had spunk. A couple of years after these were developed, we moved to a town so small that it might have been a crossroads community if it had more than one road. The local dogs were bigger and there were sometimes horrendous fights that my Dad would break up with a blast into the air from a .410 shotgun. Much more portable than a garden hose.
Taggie died around 1966. Until last week I didn't know we had any pictures of him.
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