Stella and I met some friends at City Cemetery this morning. We arrived before they did and managed to experience the only five minutes of blue sky and sunshine that occurred all day. I'm not exactly sure what she's looking at in this photo but I suspect it was a rabbit or a bird or a little flag in the distance. Whatever it was, I was thrilled she didn't go racing off after it.
Yesterday I took Stella with me to pick up our friend Walter. We went from his house to get some coffee and then on to the downtown library. Stella couldn't go in these places and Walter is somewhat disabled so I left them both in the car a couple of times and Walter (when he wasn't spilling coffee in my floorboard) noted that when I went into a place Stella never took her eyes off the door until I came back through it. I asked him if she cried or whined. He said "No, she just stands with her front feet on the console and looks through the windshield."
Normally, if we don't have any passengers, when I return to the car, she and I have what I call a face hug. I reach under her chin and pull her her head to mine from the outside. Her left cheek pressed against my right one (with her still standing on the console) the two of us thank our lucky stars that I made it back and that she was there when I did. As soon as I let go, I tell her to back up and she returns to the back seat planting herself next to a window. On rare occasions we manage to charm some nice person who happens to witness this little ritual from a nearby car proving yet again that warm fuzzy dog love is in fact, contagious.
Dog park update: I mentioned at the end of January that Stella had a bad day at the dog park, a bad day in that she was a bully to the other dogs for the first time since her puppyhood. We returned a day later and she did great. This past Tuesday we tried again and Stella ran all the big dogs and their owners out of the park with her loud vicious growling and bullying behavior. There was no biting but it was so pushy and mean, you wouldn't know she was trying to play; even the dogs were intimidated. Once the big dogs were gone and she was left with the little ones, she was happy as a clam. My friend Christine calls it wanting to be the "head mare" but according to the literature, one doesn't get to be the head mare via tyranny in fact, quite the opposite, so darling Stella has a ways to go. I tried taking her back yesterday (different park) and the same thing happened only this time the owners were a little more forgiving. I disciplined her by putting her on the leash and making her sit but I'm not sure she got the message until I actually caught her by the scruff of the neck once as she was tearing by me. She promptly fell down on her back and showed me the goods. I probably wouldn't have chosen the alpha roll myself but she was so busy being a menace and since she did it herself, I decided it was better than nothing. I definitely had her attention. So we had a quiet little chat right there in the dirt. All the other dogs (the ones she'd been roughing up) came by and smelled her up as well and once I let her up and brushed her off, she was a more polite version of herself. As of today, we're ramping up our exercise program and looking for big brave dogs to hang out with who will not put up with her nonsense. If anyone has any other suggestions or stories about your own dominant/ trouble-making/ bully dog I'd love to hear them. I'm not sure I'd use the word aggressive yet but she's definitely running the offense (despite the innocent pinup girl pose shown above).
Borrowed the pictures from Crawdaddy where, if'n you're a fan of either of these gentlemen, you'll find a wonderful trail of bread crumbs that leads to something that can only be described as audio treasure.
Sorry to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming but there is still the matter of Minnie Pearl. Some of you may remember that back in August, I confiscated a young mama cat and her three kittens from a neighbor who, when originally asked about having her cat spayed, looked at me like I was an idiot and said: "There aren't any male cats around here."
Then one day she called me up shocked and said: "Susan, something happened; there are kittens all over my dining room."
"Really [insert name here]?"
"And, I didn't even know she was pregnant!"
"Must have been immaculate conception," I said.
"Go ahead, say I told you so - but I'm going to need you to take them up to the pound." [she's disabled] "When they're big enough," she added.
"Sorry, can't help you there." I said.
"You won't do it?"
"Kill a litter of kittens? No, I won't."
"They wouldn't kill them," she said, "they're kittens!"
Two weeks later, she called back and pretending like we hadn't had this conversation, she told me again how cute the kittens were and asked me to come and take them to Animal Control. I advised her to flush the kittens down the toilet and cut out the middle man. (Note: just in case anyone reading this thinks I'm serious - please think again) I was hoping to enrage her in the same way her stupidity had enraged me. I saw this entire scene play out in my mind the first time she ever showed me her new kitten eight months earlier. She shamed me for suggesting such a thing and said she could never hurt kittens. I assured her that she already had but agreed to come and get them on condition that she give me the mama cat too; the cat she presumably loved.
Ten minutes later, all four of them were living in my basement. That was August.
Roy, Buck, and Lulu were adopted less than two weeks after I got them vetted and placed at PetSmart. Minnie Pearl who grew into a beautiful adult, is still waiting. She has spent a lot of time (thanks to Nashville Cat Rescue) at Hundred Oaks and Cool Springs and a couple of weeks ago, I brought her home for a cage break. Stella and Gigi (my cat) made her feel insecure at first but she's slowly getting the hang of things. She's made friends with Domino, our neighbor cat who spends the night occasionally and they play together running through the house like little banshees. It sends Stella to the moon.
I say all that to say this: If you or anyone you know is looking for a cat with a big personality, a history and some real potential, I can hook you up. Pass it on.
We're there in the kitchen, the two of us. I empty the wax paper tube of the last few Ritz crackers, toss it in the trash can, and open a fresh one. I take a few crackers out, twist the top closed and drop it into a big bowl on the counter. I carry the plate of cheese and crackers into my office and sit down at the computer. Time passes.
You know how when you have children and they get into stuff and suddenly you realize you haven't heard them in a while? That's what happened. When I snapped to attention I heard a licking sound. The sound of paper, wax paper, scooting across old linoleum. I stepped around the corner and there stood Stella in the middle of the kitchen floor, head down, caught in the act. All I thought of was the new pack of crackers. So instead of thinking that she'd lifted the old paper out of the can (which is what happened), in my head - she'd just finished an entire pack of new crackers. The look on my face apparently conveyed this thought rather well. I say that because the second our eyes met - Stella tore out of the room past me, ran into her crate and laid down.
Fifteen minutes later, I said "Alright Stella, you've suffered enough," and she stood up and walked out.
What does your dog do when it knows it's done something bad? Reminder: One last chance to win the final calendar; leave us a comment in that post that's linked on in the sidebar there. The drawing is tomorrow night!
"Just so I understand Stella, you can eat horse manure - but you're grossed out by the thought of stepping in your own pee?"
I hate to say this but Miss Sweetness and Light, was a real bully the day before yesterday at the dog park. I'm not sure why unless it was the abundance of big dogs or maybe that she hasn't had the same level of exercise since the weather's been so bad lately. There were probably fifteen or twenty dogs there and one puppy. All of them were big romping stomping dogs too. I say she was a bully but really the thing is, she's taken to growling when she plays with other dogs. Not every dog responds well to it and their people certainly don't. Most of the dogs just went the other direction and didn't pay her much mind but a couple of them held their ground. Fortunately, she did find one dog Layla, I think her name was, who agreed to wrestle with her full out until both of them were exhausted. Then of course Stella went off to challenge all the others, to steal their toys, pee on their frisbees before they could retrieve them, square off with their children and generally cause an uproar. I finally just put the leash on her and we left. She came home and collapsed in her chair for a couple of hours and (just to drive home a point) I got her up and made her walk about two miles at the ball park. After that, she was a little more laid back.
First off thanks to those of you who joined us on the Carny Dog Facebook page. I really appreciate it. I hadn't planned on making such a page until recently when I realized that it would be a great way for some of the show people who drop by to painlessly add photos of their own midway dogs. I'm not sure if anyone will do it but we'll give it a go. Congratulations again to Tonya for winning the first giveaway. We put all the fan names in a hat, drew them out and numbered each one, then used a random number generator to choose the number. We'll do the same this time only now we'll draw from the comments below. Leave as many as you like. Contest ends at 7:30 pm, February 3, 2011.
While we're on the subject of giveaways, since you people are all animal lovers and I assume art lovers as well, Janet Nelson (who inspired this giveaway and the rules) is having a giveaway too. If you all will go over and leave a comment (be specific re: which painting you're interested in) on this post you may end up winning an original painting which I can testify is well worth your effort. Check out her other stuff too while you're over there. It's major-league creative, and as fun as Friday night.
