Dogs

Barnes

For anyone who knows me, they probably know me as the person who could do without animals. Every now and then I'm okay with them, but for the most part, I'm not a fan. I know this makes me out to be a horrible animal hater, but truth be told every now and then I can find a soft spot for them.

Our family has quite a track record with dogs: Shelley (grandma ran over), Sheba (mom ran over), Festus (sadly ran away or was stolen...we aren't sure), Rocky (disappeared - I'm quite certain that my dad took care of him, if you catch my drift), Princess (only had for 2 days because she died from rat poisoning from previous owner), Lizzy (hung herself -- poor thing tried to jump the fence and caught her collar on the fence), Noble (cancer), Barnes, Molly, and Lady.

Three is the number roaming throughout our homestead these days. Barnes is a big, old German Shepherd. He has been a faithful and trustworthy dog. He's also top dog around here and is not afraid to tell the other pups when they are acting up.

Lady is actually my brother's dog. She is a 2 year old Lab and is a big ball of energy. She came to stay one weekend while my brother was going to be out of town and she hasn't left yet. She has learned her place with Barnes as he lets her know when she's crossing a line. She has also slowly learned her lessons with my dad and his garden, water fountain, and boots! She still hasn't learned to leave the horse alone though. We are always certain to lock her up if we have Fannie out and about. It's better for all involved! :-)

Over the summer, I did come to have a soft spot for Lady. I spent at least 20 mins every day working with her fetching skills and by the end of the summer, every time I'd walk outside she would greet me with her ball. When I pulled into the driveway on Christmas Day the dogs were there at the car and as soon as Lady realized I was home, she ran to find her ball! Smart little thing!

And Molly is the in-house cocker spaniel. I also have a bit of a soft spot for her. She is my mom's anniversary gift from a few years back and she's a fun little dog to have in the house. The trick with her is don't touch her until she's warmed up to you or you'll be sure to have a puddle near your feet!

Anyways...the whole reason I was telling you this was because today, I decided to try and talk Lady on a walk. Sounds easy right? I call my dad to see if he thinks she will even do it and he said it was worth a shot! (I'm pretty sure he was sitting at his computer laughing at me knowing exactly how it would go!) So I get all ready and head out to get Lady on the lease and give this a go. After about 10 mins and a lot of chasing I finally got the lease on her. Then I realized I would need to lock up Barnes or he would want to come along also. Needless to say, he was not happy!

I start to walk Lady and we aren't even half-way down our gravel driveway and all she is doing is chewing on the lease and jumping on me. All the while we are listening to Barnes howl at the fact that he was left behind. So we turned around. I put Lady in the cage, hooked Barnes on the lease and off we went!

Barnes was great. He didn't bark even once and he had about 15 different dogs barking at him. I think I could get used to walking a dog, but apartment life will not allow for such things -- probably better that way!

Maybe tomorrow I'll try Lady again, but I'm not promising anything!