My Best Friend

Dakota at Eight Weeks Old

On January 2, 2006 we welcomed a new baby into our home. He was a six week old fur ball with big feet and an even bigger personality.

I had always wanted a German Shepherd Dog. When I was nine or ten, I’d watched a movie about a German Shepherd. I don’t remember much about the movie other than the ending was so sad, I cried for a while after. My poor mother wanted to run away I’m sure, but my love affair with the German Shepherd Dog had begun.

We’d lost our small dog the October before. She’d been with us for eleven years. With husband gone so much due to the Army, she’d been my constant companion through three PCS moves, two pregnancies, numerous field problems and two deployments. When she passed away, it broke my heart. I had dogs growing up, but I’d never had one who wanted to be with me constantly like she did. I thought I’d never be that close to another dog, but I was wrong. I just hadn’t met Dakota yet…

Husband found an ad in a neighboring town’s online paper for German Shepherd puppies. He called and set up a time for us to visit. The problem was, she only had three pups left and they were all males. I’ve always preferred female dogs. Husband said we should go look anyway, so we did. When we arrived, Mom and Dad were in a pen outside. The Dad was HUGE and made it known it was his yard.

The lady selling the pups met us outside and talked to us about the parents and then went and brought out the puppies. I bent down to pet one of the puppies when I felt a tug on my boot. I looked and there was this chubby puppy with these huge feet biting the laces on my boot. He looked up at me with the most beautiful brown eyes, shoe lace still in his mouth and just sat down. I put out my hand and he dropped the shoe lace to smell my hand and then proceeded to lick me. I picked him up and he licked my face – all the while grumbling like most German Shepherds are known to do. I knew he was the one the minute he looked up at me. I know there are things you’re suppose to do in order to find a pup with a good temperament, but I admit I did none of them. Once I had this special little guy in my arms, there was no way in hell I was ever going to let him go.

The three years Dakota has been with us have been hard years. Having him with me sure made some of the hard times easier though. He was so much company those fifteen months husband was deployed. Like Chelsea Dog, Dakota wants to be where I am. If I’m in the kitchen cooking, he’s either laying on a rug or sitting close to me in hopes I’ll drop him a bite of whatever I’m making. When I go up to get my shower or put on my makeup, he has to come along. If I’m sitting on the front porch watching the babies ride their bikes, Dakota sits keeping a watch on everything through the glass storm door. When I’m surfing the internet on my laptop, he’ll sleep in front of my chair with his head on my fuzzy slippers. And when we go to bed, he sleeps on the floor next to my side of the bed. If husband is snoring and I end up on the couch, he follows me down and sleeps on the floor next to the couch. Even when I go to the bathroom, he has to follow. He’ll stand at the door and wait for me and then follows me back to lay by my chair. Yep, he’s my constant companion.

Protesting his picture being taken

I’d sent this picture to my Dad and he emailed back asking why Rin Tin Tin was showing his teeth. Dad always calls him Rin Tin Tin. I let him know he wasn’t really showing his teeth. He either hates having his picture taken or the sound the camera makes – but either way, any time I get the camera out and try to get a picture of him, he has to do his howl/bark. This time, I caught the very beginning of the howl lol. He wasn’t showing his teeth at anyone or any thing and I’ve never seen him show his teeth come to think of it.

He is very protective though. Son started wrestling this winter. Sometimes husband and son will be on the living room floor so husband can show him this or that to go over what son learned at practice. This makes Dakota nervous apparently. He barks and sticks his nose in between them lol. Son will sometimes aggravate his sister and try to do a wrestling move on her. Big sister will then hold down little brother and commence to tickle him until he screams in between laughing. Again, my pup gets nervous, grumbles and sticks himself into the situation licking faces until they both give up and resort to, “Ughh, Dakota! Dog breath!!!! On!! My!!! FACE!!!” heh heh.

Tolerating the new kitten

And, he even tolerates our kitties. At the beginning of October, one of daughter’s friends found a kitten near her home. The baby couldn’t have been three weeks old since he still had blue eyes. The friend called daughter and told her about the kitten and said her parents weren’t going to let her keep it. Daughter found out her friend was trying to feed it wet bread and immediately came to her Dad and I begging for us to take her over to her friend’s house so she could save it. We already have two inside cats, but husband is a sucker and told daughter not to worry. We’d take her over so she could get the kitten and that’s the reason we now have THREE inside cats.

Frank, the kitten, is growing like a weed. He’s not scared of anything – including a German Shepherd. Dakota is pretty patient with the little guy…allowing him to play with his favorite bone, sniff his food and share his water bowl. When the cats get to running in the house, Dakota has to really try hard to fight his urge to chase them though.

Enjoying the Spring

German Shepherd Dogs are wonderful companions. Like any large dog though, (actually, any dog in my opinion) educating yourself about the breed prior to welcoming one into your home is a must. Each breed has positives and negatives and in order to be a responsible pet owner, you should educate yourself prior to even considering going to look at puppies. Too many dogs end up in shelters due to the fault of the moron who purchased the dog, not because of the dog.

German Shepherd Dogs shed…they shed all year long. If you don’t want to have to vacuum every day, this dog is probably not for you. They are also extremely vocal. If you’ve ever seen the movie K-9 with Jim Belushi, you have an idea of how vocal most GSDs are. Our Dakota is no different. Although I think a GSD would do fine in an apartment as long as regular exercise was part of the dog’s life, their vocal nature might make apartment life difficult with your neighbors. If I had to move into an apartment, I don’t know what I’d do about my baby. He barks for five straight minutes if we all leave the house. Yep, I’m sure it’s separation anxiety and I’m sure I need the Dog Whisperer to come Whisper us lol. The point though, is know the breed, know your living conditions and take some time to really compare your life and living conditions to the breed you’re interested in prior to bringing home any puppy or dog.

Dakota is a loving, loyal, smart and energetic friend and we’re extremely lucky to have him in our lives. Last Thursday morning, I was catching the news before taking our babies to school when the story of Lizzie, a Memphis TN German Shepherd Dog came on. She apparently foiled a burglary at her home while her human person was at work heh heh. The criminal seems to have left a significant amount of blood behind and the police will try to match the blood to the burglar. The link above also has a link to video and I couldn’t get over how much Lizzie and Dakota look so much alike. To me, Lizzie looks to be around two years old… She’s pretty narrow through the chest and Dakota was long and lanky looking until he was closer to three. This past fall, he started adding more weight to his 90 lb body. He’s really filling out and is now easily over 100 pounds. He’ll go in July for his yearly checkup and vaccinations and I’ll find out then how much weight he’s put on in the last year.

Well, this turned out much longer than I had planned. Guess that’s what happens when it takes three days to write an entry because of all the interruptions and distractions. Ughh. So, even if you didn’t make it through the entire blog-book entry, hope you at least enjoyed the pictures.

Don’t Yell at the Thugs!!

Yep, I know better. But, what are ya gonna do? I’m a southerner…life sucks right now and I cannot STAND to see someone mistreating an animal.

Now, these two particular thugs are propably 12-14. They cussed my next door neighbors at some point this summer. They both said nothing (he’s a retired cop and gave the kid the look of death heh heh), but my other neighbors had a run in with them too. Their little girl was walking their dog and the thug wanna-bees told her they’d kill her dog. When she ran in to tell her Mother, she got in their car until she found them and made the two apologize.

So, I’m out in the backyard with my two big dogs (and the new puppy, don’t ask) when these two little fuckers walk by. The house behind us on the opposite corner has a huge privacy fence that houses their dog. These two are aggravating the piss out of the dog, poking sticks through the cracks at him – just being up to NO GOOD. The dog is wanting to eat their faces off…

I keep thinking they’ll move on, but NO…dumb and dumber just keep at it. So, what do I do? Yep, I yell down the block loud enough for it to make both the little shits jump.

“Hey! You need to leave that dog alone!!”

They look back, see me and start walking the other direction. Once the pissed off simmered, I thought, “that probably wasn’t wise. They’ll be back at midnight keying my cars…”

I talk to my neighbor and he says to go to the police department and they’ll increase patrols here in our neighborhood. So, since daughter forgot her homework, we run by her school and stop at the police department on the way back. Super nice officer talked with me. I explain the small problem we’re having with these two and ask if they can step up patrols. He said it won’t be a problem, but next time, to give them a call and maybe they can ID them and have a talk with ‘em too. He said that the trailer park a couple blocks away have lots of single parents and unfortunately, their children are often the ones out late at night causing problems.

I just hated to call the police about it at the time…but having two thugs come back to seek revenge which my retired policeman next door said was probably likely, I thought I’d at least go down and let them know several of us on this street have had problems with the little gang-banger wanna-bees….

If I could just learn to keep my damn mouth shut heh heh…just can’t take a dog or a child being mistreated though . Hopefully these two are not brave enough to try their hand at breaking in….between the two dogs and the redneck here, just could see a bad situation turning worse .

*Sigh*

School started here yesterday. So, on Sunday, I tried to keep my babies busy outside. I know for me growing up, sleeping before the first day of school was next to impossible. Unfortunately daughter seems to be cursed as most of the women in my family have been – insomnia and being a night owl.

At any rate, we were outside quite a bit Sunday…I was bored and lonely and decided to walk next door and talk to my neighbor. She’d just gotten in from church. We’re catching up and she asks if I knew about Nick – their retired police dog German Shepherd. I said no… I knew I hadn’t heard him bark in a while, but it’s been so hot here, I just figured he’d not been out much.

She said about three weeks ago, he was acting funny so they took him to the vet. They did some blood work and when it came back, they found out he had cancer. He was 15 years old and the vet said there just wasn’t much that could be done. Instead of letting him suffer, they had to put him to sleep.

If you’ve read here for any length of time, I guess you can imagine what I did. Yep, stood in her driveway and sobbed like a five year old. It just broke my heart. She said it about killed her and her husband… He wasn’t my dog and it hurt my heart, so I can only imagine how they feel. Losing Chelsea Dog two years ago about killed me and she was only 11. Fifteen years with a dog – and one that you worked with, trusted your life with and spent 24/7 with – gosh, it’s like losing a member of your family.

It sure made me come in and hug my two. Dharma, our rottie, is nine now. She’s a bit slower than she used to be and gets a little stiff in the hind quarters when she first gets up. Dakota – or Kota as he’s usually called these days is almost two – come November 22nd. He’s still got a lot of puppy in him and since he’s the size of a horse lol, he really needs manners – but gosh they are both so much company for a lonely gal waiting for her husband to come home. Kota is my dog for sure…no matter where I go, that dog is right next to me. I rarely get in the bathroom alone lol. If I go into the kitchen, he’s up and coming along hoping I’ll give him his favorite treat (ice lol). He truly is a huge blessing.

While husband was home, he said, “You know, I wouldn’t joke around with wrestling moves with Dakota around. I really think he’d try to bite me.” Husband is famous for aggravating the babies and I with a wrestling voice and doing slow motion wrestling moves LMAO. It’s funny as hell, but he said he was sure that dog wouldn’t understand he was playing and he didn’t want to get bit lol. Every time husband moved close to me Kota would watch his every move lol. I’m sure once husband gets home for good and he gets used to having him here again he won’t be so protective. Now that I’m thinking about it, he wasn’t even a year old when husband left – so he probably doesn’t really remember what it was like to have a male adult in the house. Makes sense he’d be a bit leary of husband being around and hugging on me and the babies.

Anyhow….

Since I was a little girl I’ve always wanted a German Shepherd and I have to say, I have a pretty special dog who I feel is a damn good friend. He’s still a baby…but he sure has turned into a fine dog. And I can’t help but feel pretty secure with him by my side. Now that we have that Jeep, once it cools off, he’ll start riding with me to take the babies to school. He used to ride a lot before we traded the Explorer for the Mustang. I’m sure the first few trips might be a bit trying, but I’m sure he’ll get the hang of it quickly. He’s so damn smart…

Well, I need to go get groceries. It was a bad weekend here (long story) and I didn’t feel well. We went on Saturday and the line was wrapped around into the freezer section, so I just left. No way was a fighting the crowd to shop and then standing in line for an hour. The prices just aren’t that damn good lol. Anyhow, now I need to get us some vittles though and hopefully going in the morning it won’t be so busy.

Hope everyone has a great day and I’ll be back later this afternoon….

PROOF That I Really Need a Life

Here is a story that proves, beyond doubt, that I’m in desperate need of a life.

The weather here is finally warming up. We’ve even seen temps as high as 42 in the morning, which is a major improvement over 4 degrees with 25 mph winds. For the past week, we’ve touched 70 or near 70 degrees in the afternoon! Spring fever has officially overtaken cabin fever.

The downside was the shape my backyard was in. All the snow had melted, revealing all the turds my wonderful two dogs had left throughout the winter. Blegh!

Husband saves our plastic grocery bags and uses those to pick up turds. I decided the job was SO big due to me not picking up after them since it got really cold in – oh, November lol, I needed to buy a pooper scooper of sorts. It just so happened that I had jury duty a few weeks ago and while waiting, I struck up a conversation with the lady next to me. Somehow we got on the topic of dogs and dog shit of all things. I’d mentioned that I wanted something with a long handle (because it’s the bending over repeatedly that makes the job so hard on my belly), but Wal-Mart only had a short scooper thing that would be about the same as picking it up with plastic bags. She told me where to buy the perfect pooper scooper. That she’d bought it last year and it had really made the job a lot easier.

So, on Monday after I picked up the babies from school, off we headed to the country, where the store is located on the edge of town. That’s where I bought this beauty. Tuesday afternoon, I headed out to the backyard with my new pooper scooper and a HUGE trash bag. While the babies rode their scooters, I picked up piles of poop.

I have to say, for a job I DREAD doing every few days, this new device makes it so much easier. The Police Dog had taken to poopin’ on the patio for some reason. I figured my new scooper wouldn’t do too well on there, but I was wrong. Regardless of whether it was the grass or on the patio, this thing worked like a charm. And the best part? NO bending over repeatedly!

So, as I wrote three paragraphs of praise about the new pooper scooper in an email to husband it dawned on me…I really do need a life if how I pick up the dog shit in the backyard is the most interesting thing I have to tell my husband.

*Sigh*

That thing works like a dream though and it’s the best $20.00 I’ve spent in a long time - but damn do I really need a life lol.