On Dogs

Tatiana:

Tatiana slept in the house last night.

Usually, especially during inclement weather, we bring her in and she sleeps in the laundry room. Well, last night she had full run of the house.

I put Gimpy in the bathroom behind a baby gate. I don't think of Tatiana as a vicious or aggressive dog, but she does have a high prey drive. I cannot take the chance that she will go roaming in the middle of the night and decide to "play" with that little ball of fluff that keeps hissing at her. Superfat can get himself out of harm's way, but Gimpy.... not so much.

When I first went to bed, SweetPea had gotten Tatiana up on the bed with her. In my spot. I managed to squeeze in under her and we lay like that for a few minutes (yes, with an 80 pounds plus Akita draped over my lower extremities) before she hopped down and curled up right there next to the bed. She was right there in the same spot when I woke up, and Superfat was curled up on the bed at my feet.

Tatiana is scheduled to start obedience classes on Saturday, March 22nd. We're getting the luxury of private, one-on-one training sessions. We'll be going every week, possibly every other week, depending on how she's doing with her "homework".

I'm actually pretty damn excited about what this means. SweetPea and I have wanted to be able to take her dog-friendly events but haven't been able to. Provided things go well, Miss Tatiana should be able to make her debut this summer and, yes, I am super excited.

Butch:

A couple of years ago, shortly after I moved in with SweetPea, her brother's new boyfriend got him a dog from the pound. Butch was about six months old, gangly and yellow and loving and excited. Nobody is quite sure what he is, but people have said he looks like he's mixed with Rhodesian Ridgeback or Bull Mastiff. He's a good, sweet boy.

When SweetPea's brother moved out, he left Butch behind. We had him for almost two years before we had a discussion about the possibility that there may be a better situation for him. At that point, the doggie cops had been called three times on him by our pansyass next door neighbor. He was terrified of our sweet boy, and Butch loved standing on the fence and staring into PANDN's yard. You can see how this led to problems.

So SweetPea and I put out some feelers. Of course, we loved Butch, and he had a home with us for as long as he needed one, and if that was forever, so be it. It turned out, though, that Neighbor's brother's girlfriend positively fell in love with Butch. He went to live with them on a big plot of country up in Weimar, California, where he's been loved and spoiled to no end. Neighbor's brother has not only put a fence up to keep Butch safely secured during the day (I believe the incident where Butch got bored in the house and TP'd the house with an entire warehouse-sized package of TP may have had something to do with that) and went out and got Butch a "brother", a Boxer named Mac Daddy.

Since moving, Butch has taken on bears and bucks and packs of dogs, mostly in defense of either his daddy or his brother. While Butch is territorial and protective of his daddy and his brother, Butch is not an aggressive of mean dog. He's a big old sweetie pie and just loves people to death.

Butch was arrested on Monday. Apparently, he got out of the fence and went after a dog that was on Butch's property. The story goes that Butch got the other dog by the neck and shook him. I guess everyone is ok, and Butch is back home again. But one more report and Butch will be destroyed. Their county is a "two strikes" county.

Pending Rants:

1. Breed-Specific Legislation
2. The Sacramento Bee (yes, again)


Watch this Space:

The Verbose World has a major announcement scheduled for Friday morning. This announcement is completely unrelated to the return of Friday Contest, but you should be tuning in for that, too.