Dog Bite Prevention Week

In honor of National Dog Bite Prevention Week, I am featuring our little biter - Jack the Skipper.  Jack, otherwise known as Jackjackjack or JackJACKJACK (he's a wee bit deaf now), is our current biter-in-residence.  Just because he has a taste for young children, don't even start comparing him to Epstein or Gaetz.  In fact, I believe that he is the actual victim here.  Pretty sure that the toddler deserved to be bit in the face and shaken like a squirrel.  She probably even squeaked like one.  In my opinion, when a dog bites a child, the child is probably the one at fault.  There weren't any witnesses that could say for sure that the kid didn't trip over Jack, in which case it would totally be self-defense.  

Jack is actually very much still loved by his former family.  Even his young snack wanted to cuddle him like a baby years later when they were reunited for a brief (supervised) visit.  We aren't really sure how old Jack is now, but we celebrated his birthday last month.  We've had him for 5 1/2 years now, and his former family had him for about 7 years.  He was somewhere between 3-7 years old when he was first rescued.  Doing the math, that would make him somewhere between ancient and dead now.

So, to sum it up for our lovely readers, the best way to prevent dog bites is to get rid of your children until they are old enough to behave properly around dogs.  Another option is to send your children to a trainer and keep them on a short leash when around dogs.  

Happy whatever birthday, Jack, and happy Dog Bite Prevention Week!

Don't Look So Dead

     Just curious - has anyone else ever told their dog (or other pet) "Don't look so dead"?  Well, seriously, they shouldn't do that to me!  Two out of three of our dogs do this on a regular basis.  And, since Jack is basically deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other (and blind in one eye and can't see out of the other), it is especially hard to tell if he is still on the side of the living.  Can't they breathe deeper as they age, or at least snore when they are sleeping?  Ok, just wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one who said this to their pets more often than I would like.

I may or may not have just said this to Happy

Good thing Jack is cute, since he is pretty much blind, deaf, and not-so-smart

Jack-iversary

Yesterday, Jack's other family sent birthday greetings for him.  We don't really know when his birthday is, but that was the day that they adopted him eight years ago.  He is now somewhere between 13 and 16 years young.  They still love him and he will always be part of their family, too.

Back in November, we celebrated our one year anniversary with Jack (Jack-iversary?).  In fact, we ended up taking him on almost the exact same hike as we did one year earlier.  Back then, he had only been in Colorado for a few hours after a late-night drive from Oklahoma.  He didn't know what hiking was.  Now, he is a pro.  He and his sister, Sky, inspect my clothes and shoes as I get dressed each morning to see if it is going to be a hiking day.  If they decide that it is, then we had better not try to sneak out of the house without them.  With a hiking buddy this adorable, why would we?

Jack's first day:

One year later:

I think we'll keep him.

 

Campin' Jack

Packed Jack

Back in April, we took Jack on what was probably his first camping trip ever.  For this special occasion, we chose Great Sand Dunes National Park.  It is one of the only national parks that allows dogs in places other than your car or the campground.

We chose this particular weekend because of the full moon.  What we forgot to check was the weather - specifically, the wind.  Jack could have used some doggles, for sure.  When the wind really whipped up, I would scoop Jack up and try to shield him from the sandblasting as much as I could.  Good thing that he totally loves to be cuddled like a little baby.

April nights at the dunes are still a bit nippy.  We brought a doggy camping bed for Jack and some blankets, but he refused to stay in his bed.  Eventually, I would give up and just tuck him under my blankets with me.  It didn't help that his sister, Sky, was with us and isn't a fan of being anywhere but her house after dark.  By the last night, both pups (and people) were so exhausted that we all slept soundly.

While we were in the area, Jack and Sky got to meet some other animals.  There is a local alligator tourist trap (not recommended) where dogs are welcome.  The gators didn't deter the puppies at all, but Jack was terrified of their giant tortoise.  Well, it WAS bigger than him, so can you blame him?

Stay tuned for another doggy camping adventure - this time with ALL of our pups!

Pretend that you see leashes

Hack-y Jack

While taking a walk around a local lake with a friend last week, Jack discovered something irresistible.  My sweet friend thought that Jack was feasting on some ice cream that someone had spilled on the sidewalk.  No such luck.  Only Jack would be interested in snacking on an incredibly large puddle of some other dog's lung cookies.  That's right.  A foamy glop of phlegm.

This week, Jack has kennel cough.  Only our dog would dive right into a puddle of sick.

Old Dog - New Tricks

Our new/old dog has some serious trouble trusting his people.  His recall skills are worse than non-existent.  When we have let him off leash, he just takes off.  If he even stops when we call him, it is just to look back at us, squint, and clearly say "no thanks" and continue on his merry way.  He has gained the nickname "Jackass" for this stunt.

Last weekend, we took "Jackass" and his youngest sister for a hike.  There were very few people out, even less dogs, and it was already getting late in the day.  We decided that we would try this off-leash thing one more time.  This time, I was prepared with a pocketful of gold-star treats.  Before he was untethered, I gave him a little treat.  Made quite a production over it, too.  Off came the leash and another treat was rewarded, accompanied by lots of treatbag crinkle.  For the next few miles, anytime "Jackass" started to get too far away, out came the treats and he came running back to us.  At one point, he was already a little distance away before a couple and their large dog crested the hill in front of us.  I called for Jack and he stopped.  He looked back at me, then back to the oncoming dog, then back to me.  Crinkle, crinkle!  That did it.  Jack came running back for his dessert and received a ton of praise.  Who knew that you could actually teach an old dog a new trick?!?

A couple of happy dogs - and humans!

Purple People Eater

Our dogs probably hate us.  We recently took a couple of the pups hiking.  Since the high for the day was only mid-20s, we put hoodies on them.  Jack is quite a bit smaller than the rest, so we had to cut his hoodie down to size.  While we had the scissors out, we thought that he might need ear-holes in the hood, too.  It's a good thing that we are much taller than him, otherwise he might try to eat us, like he did with the kid in his last home.  Maybe this is why he pooped on the rug.

Unsolved Mysteries

Does your home suffer from unsolved mysteries?  Ours does.  Over time, we've solved a few of them - like when food disappears off the counters, it is most likely our counter-surfing pup, Sky.  Especially if it is carbs that vanished.  She is truly our carb hound.  And, the others are a bit too dumb to know where to find the good food.

Every once in a while, we have unexplained happenings around here.  Like yesterday, when a mysterious, lone turd was found in the hallway.  It was fresh, soft, and a bit smaller than a cat ball (the toy, not the reproductive part).  Did Jack decide that he really doesn't like the snow, like his last family warned us?  Did a dingleberry fall from Andy's hairy butt?  Did one of the cats do it and try to frame the dogs?  Where is the rest of it?  Do we have a poop-eater in our midst?  We may never know the answer.  Shit happens.

Sky, the carb hound

Jack the Skipper

We recently gained another old dog - Jack the Skipper.  Jack is somewhere between 12 and 15 years old.  He came to live with us because he tried to eat a baby's face.  So, we took him hiking and bought him doggy ice cream.  I guess you could say that we rewarded him for bad behavior.  Yep, that's what we do.