Dog Days of Summer Deserve a Dog Story

[wizrd]

The last two dogs I had were Rottweilers, each of them lived about 9 1/2 years, spanning about 19 of the best years of my life. The first one, Bear, was a lot like Lassie, Rin-Tin-Tin, Ole Yeller & Buck (from "Call of the Wild") all rolled into one. The second one, Bear, was a lot like Forest Gump. This is the story of Bear 1 and the Wolf.

A local restuarant, set in a large park-like setting in open woods, with a couple of outdoor clambake groves, covered several acres, and they used to go all-out decorating for the Christmas holidays. Among their decorations were several larger than life-size dioramas of story book scenes. One of which was about a ten X twelve foot room, enclosed all in plexi-glass, of Little Red Riding Hood.

Picture a story book setting of a quaint cottage bedroom, with Little Red Riding Hood sleeping in the bed and next to her standing on his hind legs, dressed in a flannel night-shirt, a seven foot tall, most menacing wolf, 18" long jaws agape, teeth bared menacingly, canine teeth dripping with saliva & blood, front paws outstretched as if to pounce on Little Red Riding Hood. My wife and I walked towards the display, my dog Bear, was off of his leash, heeling, walking besides me. ( I could take him to a State Fair off-leash, and he would never be distracted or approach another person or animal.)

As we approached the Red Riding Hood Room, about 12 feet away, I pointed & said,
"Look Bear, a wolf!" Apparently the menacing wolf was too realistic. Bear gave a little throaty growl and launched himself towards the menacing Big Bad Wolf. He must have hit the plexi-glass front of that display at twenty miles per hour, nearly knocking himself silly, but luckily no damage to the plexiglass. My wife & I were laughing so hard, along with several other people nearby who witnessed this, I was actually on my knees laughing and darned near pee'd myslf. It was hilarious beyond belief. Bear, looking kind of sheepishly at me, seemed to shake his head, while still peering suspiciously at the Big Bad Wolf, as if to say, "What the heck was that all about!" The next Christmas, we visited again, taking Bear along with us, but this time the wolf didn't excite him. It was two days after Christmas, a week or two after that second wolf visit, that I lost him to lymphatic carcinoma. It was the end of September, nine months later, that I finally stopped looking to the dining room corner, where he usually slept, and started to call his name, so we could go out & have another great adventure.

[wizrd]

I really think we need some more good dog stories in this thread.

[philco]

Great story Wizrd. It made me think of my recently departed German Shepherd, Cody.

I got Cody from the Lexington, Ky. Humane Society when he was about a year old. He'd been picked up roaming loose in the city and no one came to claim him. He was scheduled to be euthanized within a day or two when I "met" him and arranged to take him to live with me in the country.

Before I could adopt Cody, he had to be neutered. That was one of the terms of the adoption. I went to pick him up on the afternoon following his surgery. He was still pretty woosy from the drugs and I had to help him into my truck for the ride back to my farm. When he got there I walked him in the yard and then brought him inside so he could sleep it off.

The next morning I put a leash on Cody and took him for a walk out our long driveway. I had a small herd of Charlaois cattle at that time. The cattle all came running up to the fence to see this new critter I was leading around. It became immediately clear that Cody was a "city dog" through and through. He ran around behind me and hid and then barked this wimpy sounding bark as he eyed those 1,200 pound cows peering at him from the other side of the fence only a few feet away. It was so totally obvious he'd never laid eyes on a cow before, and apparently nothing else of that size. Every time I'd take a step away from him he'd reposition himself so I was between him and those big ole cows. I couldn't help but laugh at my big brave watch dog peeping out between my legs and making that scared little bark at those enormous cows.

Eventually he got used to being around cattle and even made a few attempts to help me herd them as I moved them from one pasture field to another. ( He never did figure out that if he sat in the gateway the cows weren't going to go through the gate.) Once he had bonded with me he had a totally different attitude toward those cattle and wouldn't let one get too close to me. If it did he'd be on it nipping it until it moved a respectable distance away from me. But on that first morning at his new home ole Cody was one freaked out dog.

[orvet]

Great stories guys!

[Quick Steel]

The following is true. Make of it what you will. It was in the mid 80s and I was living half way up Mt. Kaala, the highest mountain on Oahu.If you have ever been to the North Shore of Hawaii you may recall seeing the large white military "radar" dome perched on top.[The dome provides much more than radar.] Anyway I was looking after some friends' white German Shepherd, named Micah. Micah had many virtues but being able to find his way home was not one of them.
Early in the morning two Marines walked by the house heading up the mountain on a day hike. It was then that Micah decided to follow them. When he couldn't be found after a couple of hours I became quite concerned realizing that the Marines might well come down far from the way they went up. Micah could get lost with surprising ease. It was virtually a skill.
I drove down the mountain, thru the cane fields below to the highway. I would then scan the mountain side with binoculars. I knew the chances of seeing anything were remote. Nonetheless I did this repeatedly during the day without result. Frustrated, I sat outside the house thinking of my next move and how to explain the latest Micah misadventure to the owners. I then heard a bark, clear and distinct which was definitely not the bark of Micah. Besides, and I am prepared to swear the following is exactly as it happened, the bark came out of the sky just above the house. Quite close. I instantly understood that now was the time for one last trip down the mountain. I drove quickly. The first thing I saw as I got to the bottom was the two Marines perhaps 1/2 mile ahead. Eventually far behind them I saw what appeared to be a dog but it was not white. But yes it was Micah. He had jumped into one of the irrigation ponds to cool off and was now mostly covered in mud.
Do dogs have their own guardian angels? Wouldn't surprise me.

[wizrd]

There's no doubt in my mind that dogs have their own guardian angels. I had a young Beagle once, disappeared for three days back about 1972. I Lived in a rural area, and there was a lot of woods and farm country around me. I had a dream one night that my dog was out back of the house in the woods. ( I'd been looking there a couple days previous with no luck.) I woke up one morning and told my wife, I had a dream, that Happy was out back in the woods. One and a half mile of woods behind the house to the next road. Started out there again, and almost to the other road I came across a few tracks, still a couple patches of snow on the ground, in the shade in the deep woods, it was mid April in upstate NY. I came across some dog tracks, but it was wandering like it was drunk, in circles, seemed to be bumping into things. This didn't seem right at all.
Well some circling around trying to find the track and calling my dogs name, I finally heard a little whimper off in the distance, headed that way, calling & listening. Finally saw a little movement through the brush & heard a whimper. There was my Beagle, his head hoplessly stuck inside of a one gallon white plastic mayonaise type jar. When I got that jar off of his head, that dog lived up to his name, he was really Happy.

Over the years, I've had 6 dogs show up at my house, three hit by vehicles & injured, two that were shot by some idiots, and one beautiful Golden Retriever that fell out of the back of a guy's pickup and got all broken up. No tags or ID on any of them, the local county Humane Society I end up calling for them keep telling me, 'these dogs just seem to know they're gonna get help at your place',-- maybe somehow they do know. I followed up on both of the dogs that were shot, one was a beautiful Border Collie, that had eyes the deep blue of a summer sky. Surgeons were unable to save her, if they did, she was going to stay with us. She was shot thru the neck, & there was too much damage to fix, although they did try. The other shephard type had too much internal damage to save, he would have stayed with me too. Right now, we don't have any dogs to share our lives with, after our last two Rottie's --saying goodbye to them was too hard. I love dogs, every one of them.

[Quick Steel]

A great story and wonderful interactions with our canine friends. I hope one day you will feel able to again share your life with a dog. If not for your own sake then for the sake of the dog. Perhaps one will show up. You definitely have the gift. Thanks for your efforts.

[wizrd]

My Rottie Bear, had the opportunity to help raise a little gray tiger kitten my wife brought home from a neighboring farm. A 125 lb. dog & a 6 week old kitten soon became fast friends. Six or seven years went by, and like all country cats, Sheena was allowed outside, which after awhile lead to her untimely demise on the road, hit by a car.
Bear & I put Sheena, in a little box, and went to the back side of my little property & burried her in a little grove of white pines, overlooking the creek where we used to spend a lot of time together. When I got done digging a sufficiently deep hole to keep the wild critters from digging her up, the hole was filled & tamped down, we stood there for a minute & Bear went over, laid down next to Sheena's grave & whined like he had lost his best friend, which she was. We didn't go back to that corner of my property for over a year.

The next Spring, over a year later, we were going back to the creek where we often fished
and we were walking by where Sheena was burried. I turned & said to Bear, "Do you remember when we were here last, when we burried Sheena?" -- Bear turned and walked the twenty yards to where his cat was burried, laid down next to the grave & gave a couple of little whines, just like the day we buried his friend. I learned a lot from that dog over the years.

[Quick Steel]

In the news last week was a story about a dog in Brazil, a German Shepherd I think. It has remained at his master's grave for about 7 years. Fed by the cemetery staff. The man's family took it home several times but the dog immediately returned to the grave. So much more is going on with these creatures than we can understand. QS

[wizrd]

A cousin & I once bought a really nice looking female Basset Hound, with the thought that we could raise a nice litter of pups from her. We both had a couple of coon hounds, and back then the fur prices were good & we could make some decent money hunting racoons over our hounds. The Bassett hound venture was a new thing. Figured we could sell a few nice pups. We were about 16 at the time, about 1963.

Well, we picked up this Basset Hound & brought her over to my cousins place. His mother, my favorite Aunt, was standing outside the house in the driveway when we got there. We were really proud of our new, beautiful hound and we let her jump out of the car to greet my Aunt. The first thing that our new Basset hound noticed was my Aunt's favorite cat, about 125 yards out in a field of corn stubble that surrounded their property. Like lightning that Basset hound closed the distance to that cat. A racing Greyhound couldn't have covered that distance any faster. The hound hit that cat like a cruise missle. A few cat shrieks and growls amidst a cloud of flying fur that looked like a mortar had hit, and it was over in 5 seconds. There was my Aunts cat, graveyard dead, belly-up, taking the long dirt nap. My Aunt stood there, yelling a few things at the hound & us, that probaly should not be repeated here. I do still recall her words to my cousin & me, she looked scornfully at us and said, "I knew I should have drowned you B****rds when you were little." She did, after a long time come to like the Basset hound, but always had a small grudge against the dog that killed her favorite cat.

[tjmurphy]

Great story with a happy?? ending. I kind of expected that one of the coon hounds was going to nail her right out of the car. Goes to show that you should not jump the gun on a good story.

[wizrd]

Same Bassett Hound, same Aunt... different story. Like I was saying, my cousin and I had planned to breed this Bassett Hound & get a litter of pups out of her. A local breeder of Bassetts was familiar with her bloodlines & was up for us using her beautiful stud as the sire. Well, if you've never been involved in Bassett hounds, breedings can sometimes be difficult. Because of their long bodies, some times the male or female may need some human assistance, such as steadying the male, perhap supporting him, keeping the female from moving too much. It just doesn't happen that naturally & easily sometimes.

Well, after one particular session, where things seemd to need some human intervention, my cousin & I were sitting on his front steps, talking about the problems of breeding these awkwardly built hounds. My Aunt had quietly approached the screen door behind where we were sitting, and I could see her reflection in a glass I was holding, she was just standing there quietly, sort of eavesdropping. My cousin & I were talking of the problems of getting these dogs to couple, and I said to him, for my Aunt's benefit, " You know what I don't like about breeding these Bassetts?" He replied, 'What's that?" Then I said, "They're way to long in the body, I don't like how you have to go around the front to KISS 'EM." --- With that, my Aunt Julia let out a a shreik, and knowing we had 'got' her, for her eavesdropping, and proceeded to call us a couple names that shouldn't be repeated here. Gosh, How I loved my Aunt Julia, she was like A Mother to me!

[orvet]

[Paladin]

Those are some really great dog stories. Thanks for relating them for us all to read and enjoy.

Ray