Names

Have you ever named a new dog after some of the first words that run through your mind when you first meet them?  I did that a few days ago and I regret it now.

Rich had taken Dolly outside and I went out shortly afterward. I'd no sooner got out the door when I looked up just in time to see this massive pit bull / boxer mix dog standing 50 feet away staring at me. The dog was so big he looked like a small deer.  The first thought was "Good God I hope that thing is friendly!" I was about ready to go back in the house a lot faster than I'd came out  when I thought "Where's Rich and where's Dolly?

I got my answer on my second look at that dog. Dolly was standing underneath that dog with her tail at half mast,  her little grin on her face, looking up at that dog with her "I love you" look.  I calmed down quite a bit because Dolly is an excellent judge of other dogs character.  Dogs that she does not like get a very cold, penetrating glare that sometimes send much larger dogs running away in fear.  It really pisses her off when a big dog runs away from her. She'll go into a barking frenzy and try to chase them. If she sees them even a month later she will start barking at them. In the world according to Dolly any dog that runs away from her HAS to be up to no good.

I immediately named the new dog "Thing". partly because of the first thing I thought when I saw him and partly because I am not sure of what breed he is. 

"Thing" fell in love with me within 10 seconds of seeing me and from 50 feet away. When he ran up to me his bob-tail was going so fast I thought it was going to fly off. He greeted me like I was a long lost master who had just returned from several years absence. He is such a huge dog I was afraid he was going to knock me down. I had to tell him NO and he immediately obeyed. I was soon to see that he was neutered. He's the second dog I have seen with that odd neutering method of completely removing the scrotum. 

"Thing" is too much dog for me at my age. When I was younger and if he were a stray I'd happily take him in. he's not a stray. I'm positive he belongs to someone here in Mokane. I need to find out his real name. I feel a bit bad about naming him "Thing" because he's a good dog. Whenever I tell him NO he acts as if his heart is broken. He also cheerfully answers to that name.

As soon as "Thing" realizes I'm outside he comes to visit. He wants to be as close as possible to me and enjoys sitting on my foot. There is only one problem with this dog. "Thing" in spite of his great size appears to think he is a Dachshund. A miniature Dachshund at that.  He wants to be a lap dog and be in my lap full time.  The only problem with him is that when Dolly wants a little attention from me "Thing" gets jealous. We are going to have to work on that.  Dolly loves her attention but only in small bits. I think "Thing" if allowed would be in my lap 100%of the time.

I prefer Dolly's method of receiving attention in short intense sessions. Once she's had her fill she's off to do her job of protecting the place and won't be back for quite awhile. My only concern about "Thing" is that he is so big he may knock me down.

Sharing

I deliberately delayed making another Blog entry. That was because I wanted the last one to stay up a long time where people would hopefully see it.  Her actions that night were just too cute and intelligent. I'll be doing something a bit different with this post because I'm going to talk about my cats personalities too.

I dislike the month of January. February too for that matter. Any month where the temperature stays in the teens or on the Celsius thermometer anything below -20 for several days at a time. it's too cold for me to go out and work especially if the sun stays behind clouds. I have two heaters in my garage but the way they work is that part of me sweats while the other freezes.

Weather like this puts me in the house all day where I sometimes sit and think. I'll either read of fiddle on the laptop. The weird thing is that there are things I really need to do inside but the gloomy weather outside put me in such a mood that I don't even feel like doing those things. When I do it seems to take a massive amount of energy.

I live in a house that is probably 125 years old. The original map of my town that was drawn after they moved it out of the Missouri River Bottoms shows my house and that map was done in 1900. The town was moved to make way for the KATY railroad. Nowadays instead of the railroad we have the 220 mile long KATY hiking and biking trail.My house always has been cold this time of year in spite of extensive remodling.  We have a fireplace insert that today is the source of my story.

When I get up on these cold mornings the fire in the insert is sometimes out.  It was this morning and I was immediately besieged by my cats.  I am blessed and sometimes cursed by the fact that I have some fairly intelligent cats. Dolly is also an intelligent dog. You'd think that having intelligent critters would lead to a problem free life but any one who has owned an intelligent animal will tell you that sometimes their intelligence gets them in trouble. Fortunately nobody got in trouble today.

Our cats know that the insert is that object that you do not jump on when it's fan is going and it puts out wonderful warmth. They also know that the humans have to make it work. They also know that if they put up a fuss one of the humans will eventually figure out what is wrong and fix it. Our cats clear message this morning was " The fire is out, do something about it." I began the process of starting the fire and the message went to " Oh goody, goody,goody he figured out what we want!"

My cats may be intelligent but they are not patient. The message switched to "Hurry up with the fire!" My little black cat who is the youngest seems to think she is helping by jumping around all over the place and yowling. Calley our Calico seems to think that expressing love is the best way to help.  She is the one who will look in the firebox itself to see how things are going. If there is no fire yet she gets anxious and might yowl. If flames are showing she is happy and will start rubbing up against my legs, sometimes purring too.  Misty my oldest cat seems to have it figured out pretty good. Once it's obvious that the human is meeting your needs you just sit back out of the way and observe the process. You only assist if it looks like the human was either distracted or forgot what they were supposed to do. You assist by yowling and you stop when they are back on task.

I got the fire going but the cats were not done with me yet. I am now required to sit down in my recliner and pull a blanket up over myself to keep warm.  My little black kitty gets too anxious and winds up interfering with the process. This earns angry looks from both Calley and Misty but lil' black kitty don't care because in spite of being the youngest she is the head chief boss cat of the house. 

I finally get the cover on. Calley is the cat who is on the lowest rung of the pecking order. Calley was the runt of her litter. She is also physically handicapped by a birth defect. In spite of this Calley has her jumps into my lap timed perfectly. As soon as the blanket settles she leaps into the prime spot. She loves that spot so well that she even sometimes tolerates me using her as a laptop stand. She loves the warmth it puts out. The other cats would love to swat her out of that spot but they know that I do not tolerate them fighting so they settle for other places. They also feel secure that they don't have to fight for position.

The cats also leave the top of the recliner for Dolly. They occasionally challenge her for it. Any hint of violence means they get run off of their warm spot. Dolly will sometimes allow Misty to share her spot with her. As long as they don't have to look at one another. Those two seem to have a mutual respect for each other.  Dolly knows that Misty is an expert with the claws. She knows that being swatted with no claws means " Leave me alone" Misty knows that a claws out swat will anger the humans too much.

None of my critters tolerate cuddling with each other to keep warm. Their memories are too long and they do not forgive one another. On the other hand they will forgive a human fairly quickly. The last two cats that I owned that would cuddle were neutered male cats. One was completely insane but my current cats treated him like a lovable crazy uncle. 

My critters relationships with each other are complex. What works one day may not work the next. If Dolly had her way there would be no cats in the house. Probably because every cat she's ever met always does the "You are not a REAL dog" routine with her. That and when we first started keeping her my cats went on a mission to drive her out of the house completely and they don't give up easily. Dolly has not forgotten that and to her it is the unpardonable sin. She does not tolerate anything that separates her from her humans.

Dolly does not share with the cats anything she deems as 'hers'. She will share with her humans but if we try to take a bone away from her that she should not have she will do what I call non-violent resistance. I reinforce the non violent resistance by taking things away from her that I know she can have. I will immediately take it and look at it then I will say "This is OK Dolly" and hand it back to her. She knows the word OK. If she has something that is bad for her I will say" This is BAD it make Dolly HURT."  She learned the word hurt from the time her pelvis was fractured.

I love all my critters. I love Dolly the most. If any of my accidental readers are still reading here I'd like to express my most sincere and heartfelt thanks. I appreciate you very much. I like to write but sometimes what I write is not good quality. If you have read this and I made you at least smile I accomplished my goal. I love to make people laugh and I like people who make me laugh. Most of all when I write I want to write something that will make people sit back and think.