Cool Little Pups

[Soren Gregev]

I recently adopted two small dogs into my pasture. They seemed the perfect fit to give my other dog, an orange labrador mix some companionship. She is an old granny, the last of her kind, and can often be seen sleeping on a square bench in front of the porch. As I took the puppies out, they slowly poked their heads around, sniffing the air. The first one, Sueño, is a black mix between a Labrador Retriever and an American Pit Bull, while the Second, Undécimo, is a mix between a Labrador and a Boxer.

They wobbled around on the concrete walkway, their tiny paws struggling to keep them up, while Fajita instantly knew something had changed. Coming face to face, her large orange head sniffing their tiny little butts, she strutted away like a ticked off french woman who's just gotten some rizzotto instead of caviar. Meanwhile I stood alone, hoping they'd find each other eventually, more appealing.

That was several weeks ago. Since then, the pups have evolved into dowdy teenagers, bumbling around the yard, and they follow miss granny fajita everywhere she goes! The cat, who swipes a claw at them whenever they are near, launches in to a frenzy whenever I am around. "Why did you bring THEM to the house!" I let her into the kitchen with a chuckle.

Undecimo jumps up and comes running whenever I come home. Strong legs pound the dirt. He sniffs for truffles and digs holes. He eats leaves and is curious about everything. Sueño sleeps in a little plastic automobile, one of those fischer price cars that a father buys his son or that you can find at a garage sale or city dump. And I watch him sometimes as the fur on his tummy gently rises and falls.

They both eat like a man whose got an appetite for fish and just caught a shark. I swear, everytime I feed them, they grow another two or three inches of spurt.

What about your dogs? How did you get them? Post your dog stories here. I will try to post pictures if I can.

[Melmoth]

I enjoyed that. The world must be a dull place for people who don't keep pets.

My family have two dogs - a black labrador and a german shepherd - which I've missed a lot since I moved out.

The lab, Lucy, is getting old now. I think I'd have been about twelve when we got her as a pup, which would put her at ten years or so. I was sitting in the back seat of the car when mum went in to examine the litter, and when she came back out I thought she was empty-handed. She was wearing a black t-shirt. So it was only when she got closer that I saw the maple eyes, then a bit of a paw, then an ear, then I had the small pudding of it curled up on my knee for the car journey back. Lucy was very shy at first. If ever strangers came into the house, she'd curl up in the corner and keep totally to herself, only ever perking up with the people she was used to. She's still something of a beached whale, but charmingly so, and always very contained. I think of her as a pod. She's perfectly content just sleeping and eating, most of the time.

The german shepherd, Marley, was a lot more recent and a much longer story. We once knew this kid at the pub, call him B, who'd got himself into a bit of debt with the bank. So, this kid's parents had given him just enough to get him out of the red - about half a grand.

There was also a girl, call her C, at this parable pub. And B, being B, wanted to get his leg over with C. Now, he'd heard in passing that she liked 'wolves and wolf-like dogs,' and this naturally made a little bulb flutter on in his brain. He thought, rather than putting his parents money into the bank, it might be a better idea to spend it on a puppy. After all, he could always tell his parents that he's looking after it for a friend, and they'd never have to know about the cash. Well, maybe not at first. But we don't need to think long term; isn't it better just to act once in a while? To play things by ear and live in the moment? Don't we need that from time to time?

Unfortunately, he had work most days, which meant leaving the animal at home with his parents. Needless to say, they got fed up with having an untrained puppy defacating their carpets all the time, on behalf of this unknown friend. Add to this that C was not impressed by his actions at all (for she was a caged bird! Unable to experience the thrill, the freedom, the rush of spontaneity!) so before long he was desperate to get rid of the thing before his parents could catch wind of the truth.

Sensing his despiration, I told him that my sister and I could work on our parents and take the dog off his hands. He wanted money at first, to try and undo some damage, but we told him no. We knew what we were doing with dogs, plus puppy's need affection, and Marley would always have company at our house. "It's better than a pound," we told him. "Which would also pay you nothing. And those are your only choices." So he begrudgingly agreed, and I posed as his fictional friend to his parents. Got a bit of an earful from them about being irresponsible, burdening others, yadda yadda, but we got the pup in the end. He's a beautiful animal. Unlike Lucy, he's never been remotely shy, or quiet. He's very vocal, practically a wookie, and he moves in a constant rolling shamble of various parts like a drunken puppet, demolishing everything in his path.

I'll be seeing them in a couple of days when I head back home for Easter. It sounds a bit strange, but I miss the dogs more than my family. I don't really miss people much, if at all. I'm sure I would if I wasn't able to keep in touch with them by phone, facebook, etc. Yet I can relax with dogs in the room, feeling like I have company. I can't do that with people. People are always irritatingly deceptive. They're always desperate for you to figure them out, yet do everything they can to make that as hard as possible - especially family - and it really just drains my energy after a while. They speak, that's the other problem. Animals will only express the most basic, blunt, honest emotion, in the form of grunts and barks and squarks, and I kind of envy them their straight-forwardness.

[Illbethewriter]

We got our dog because my Mum was sneakily looking for a French Bulldog online behind my dad's back, and then she found one and told him and he gave in! Only.. he isn't a French bulldog - he's a cross pug/french bulldog. He has the fawn markings and body of a pug, and the face of a frenchie, only with a slightly smaller forehead. His personality (apparently) is far more like his mother - basically he's a little shit, but he's sooo cute and loveable that you can't be angry at him long.

He pulls all the things out of the bins (and he's even worked out how to open the pedal bin), and get's food all over his face. He eats our cats poo. He eats plastic bags (Mum pulled one which was hanging out of his arse while he was running around one day). He likes to help clean when you open the dishwasher. He jumped in the washing machine once and got stuck. He goes nuts in the mornings but by evening he's absolutely shattered and loves having a cwtch. He even sends people cards on special days like mother's day or birthdays.
He's so friendly to everyone - it's like no one is his favourite. He recognises people though. Like how he can act with them. He's pretty gentle with me (cus I'm a girl!) but with my boyfriend he just tries to eat him and pulls on his ears and stuff.
And he loves his toys; he has a toy box in the living room. But he likes things he's not meant to have more - like my knickers. It's like he knows he's being naughty and runs away with them even if I'm not chasing him.

It's weird but I ACTUALLY love him. He's my mum's dog so I call him my brother! My mum goes to him "Your sisters home!" and he comes running! He's sooo adorable <3
I'm going to try and attach some pictures but I'm pretty crap at the whole.. forum coding thing. Here goes!



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This is my boyfriend with him. Oh by the way his name is Napoleon! We call him Poly for short - Napoleon Bone-part