h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Monday afternoon (4 days ago) I brought a shelter dog home. Once I saw her picture on the interwebs, there was 0% chance of me leaving her there. (I'm on a mobile device now and can't find an easy method of posting pictures of her, but once I do, I'll provide a link below.) She's a beautiful "Texas Heeler". That's a mix of Australian cattle dog, Australian shepherd and ???. If you're familiar with blue heelers, she's just like that but with floppy ears. She was originally adopted by a family with a young daughter when when she was just 4 months old. After just two weeks, the mother saw the daughter wasn't taking care of the dog she wanted so they brought her to the local shelter. 6 and a half months later I bring home an 11 month puppy. She's been in a kennel almost her whole life.

When I first met her, a week ago from Sunday, she was extremely shy. I visited her in the shelter several times the following week and she slowly started becoming friendlier with me, but never really getting comfortable. Since I share property with my parents, the shelter required a "meet and greet" with them and the dog before my adoption could be final. (I had already brought in my elderly dog and their fat chihuahua to meet her and they all got along swimmingly.) The meeting went well enough that I was allowed to take her home.

I took the whole week off to work with her, and I'm very glad I did. She wasn't house trained, but luckily on her first night in my home she peed on the floor and I quickly reacted to it, took her outside to finish, and she's had no serious accidents since. She is still a very shy and frightened dog when she meets new people or hears loud noises, but we'll work on that. So far, she's shown me no undesirable behaviours. The biggest issue we have to work on is that she's a bit agoraphobic. She just paces in circles and figure 8's when we put her outside. Considering that she's been in a kennel nearly her whole life, this isn't unexpected. I wish I could fix this as (so far) easily as I seem to have house trained her, but I know it's going to take some time to build her confidence. Loud noises are her biggest trigger and I started work on that by taking her to my friend's biker bar today for an hour or so. (This was in the afternoon when the biker bar was at its quietest.)

Once I get her fears addressed, I'm looking forward to training her in impressive feats of doggie talent. I'll start with a few frisbee tricks and other agility tasks, but I'm confident we'll find some tricks between the two of us that will be quite serendipitous and amazing.

Sounds like she is lucky to have found you. with the socialising etc. I am sure it will be worthwhile and you will have a good friend for years to come.

Websailor

My cat, Greebo, seems to like my new dog, Nessie...

Except when she's in "Happy Puppy" mode and "love mugs" him. Nessie will gallop and pounce and put Greebo's head in his mouth leaving him slimed. I keep trying to tell Nessie that when Greebo lays on his back with his claws in the air that doesn't mean he wants his tummy rubbed.

Oh... I forgot to mention this yesterday. Nessie stopped a thief yesterday!

My dad was working in his wood shop and he heard Nessie barking at someone in the street. This isn't uncommon as Nessie has become quite territorial. (Bark bark bark... run for her corner) My dad looks out and sees a young woman at the mail boxes. There are two next to our drive including the one for the trailer across the street. He assumed it was one of the neighbor's daughters until he saw her open OUR mail box and start going through it and then start walking away (not back across the street as he first expected). He confronted her and she played innocent. He demanded to see the stack of mail (some opened) in her hand. She walked away. He went and got his golf cart and caught up with her at the No-Tell Motel next door. He again demanded to see the mail. He didn't see any addressed to us but that's probably only because we didn't have any packages or obvious checks. My Netflix disc was the only thing other than junk mail.

She seemed rather incoherent it seems. When he first confronted her, she seemed quite addled and begged to be let go... He was still inside the fence.

His after thought was that he should have taken a picture of her with his phone and called the police... but he didn't. My mother did notify the post office, but I doubt anything will come of it.

OK... I'm cheating a bit by not starting a new journal entry. Nessie is only a third party to this...


There's a lost dog in my neighborhood. Well, I hope there's still a lost dog in my neighborhood. My dad pointed him out early this afternoon. He saw this small, Jack Russell terrier running down the street and commented on his markings. He's a little black and white dog and it looked like he had black markings around his chest and shoulders that looked like a harness.

A few hours later, while we were eating a late lunch/early dinner, the dog ran down the avenue behind our house again. I saw him first and noticed that, yes, it did look like he had a harness or vest on.

I really shouldn't go look. But I will.

A few hours later I took Nessie for what was supposed to be a long walk, but I saw the little Jack Russell up close and he is wearing a harness. A "Harley Davidson" harness. He's a poor lost puppy. He actually approached me, but just kept out of reach... and then ran away. I called to him and he started to approach again, but then ran back again. I then walked with Nessie back toward our house, and he started to follow... but then ran down the middle of the street past us. Cars approached, and I waved at them to slow down, they did. I tried again to get this little doggie to come but he'd only get near me, not close.

I went back home with Nessie.

Later, I hopped on the bicycle just to go to the pub, but I couldn't resist going the other way down the street to see if that little dog was still there. He was. He was sitting in the street in front of the last house he was in front of when I left him. It's not his home. He's very lost. At this point it's after sunset and I live on an overly busy road. It's access to another subdivision.

It's now very late. I'm about to ride back home and I can't not ride out of my way to the last place I saw him.



There are three scenarios. Worst, I see a dead puppy in the road. Better, I see him still sitting by the road, in which case I go to the house and get some food and a leash and try to take him home and plaster the town with "FOUND DOG" posters. Ambivilent is I don't see him. Then I wonder if he just wandered off somewhere else, or that some other kind person picked him up or best, maybe his owner found him.

3.)

Ambivalence.

I didn't see the dog. I only went up and down my street three times each, but didn't see the dog. I didn't go on the neighboring streets.

But most importantly I didn't see a dead puppy. My street is busier than most since it connects to another neighborhood/subdivision.



So... I just hope he's OK.

If I see him tomorrow, I'll chase him down and bring him home and try to find his owner.

I saw him trotting down the road again yesterday. He's still OK, but he was just passing through.

When I take Nessie for a walk tonight, I'll bring treats.