My mutts
Whew! What a day. It clean escaped my mind that the end of the month would fall over a weekend and I've been rushing to get things tied up before I take a three day weekend. Anyway, I've paid all the bills and have got a bit of time to tell you about my pooches.
They're all mutts - "discarded dogs" which I adopted.
My oldest dog, Saffron (named after the bossy daughter in "Absolutely Fabulous") is a border collie/mutt mix who is nearly 15 years old. Saffie needs to herd all the time so she treats the ducks and chickens like sheep and constantly rounds them up but it's getting harder for her to do because she is slowing down and her old bones are getting a bit creaky. She's probably on her last legs now - one foot in the grave and the other on banana peel (as my Mom would say) but she still loves life.
Soon after I got Saffie I adopted a little black and tan English toy terrier. She was about 6 when I got her from a woman who rescued discarded dogs. No one wanted this dog as she had cancer in her titties probably because she had been used as a puppy factory by an unscrupulous breeder for too long. I called her Rosemary because I already had one spice girl, Saffron, and it seemed fitting for a restauranteur (which I was at the time) to name dogs after herbs and spices. Rosie's cancer went into remission and she lived for another 8 years.
Rosie adored children and once ran away with a team of ten year old soccer players while I was walking her in the park. I hunted for her everywhere and eventually went home heart-broken. A few hours later the soccer coach phoned me and told me that he had Rosie. I once watched Rosie chase two kids up a tree. Halfway up she realized where she was and jumped ten feet to the ground. Like most terriers, she was a complete clown and absolutely willful and independent-minded. Eventually she got the doggie equivalent of Alzheimers, lost her sight and hearing and became incontinent. She became constantly frightened and miserable just like my grandma who had Alzheimers and I had to euthanize her. It took nearly a year to recover from the pain of putting her down.
Until I got Rosie, I swore I would never have an ankle-biter as I did not like small dogs but Rosie changed my mind. One day the woman who rescued dogs phoned me and asked me if I would take a 6 month old chihuahua puppy because it had been injured (broken jaw) and was too weak and small to survive with her other dogs. I adopted her without even seeing her. The moment that the dog-rescue lady put this little fluff-ball in my hands, she snuggled into me and I fell in love. I named her Coriander and grew to love this extremely intelligent and brave little dog more than any other dog I have ever owned. Corrie is now about 11 years old but still as fit as a fiddle.
Next I adopted a tiny little white and tan American toy terrier puppy who belonged to a "homeless" bum. I was walking along one day when suddenly this little thing that looked like a rat bumped into my feet and vomitted on my shoes. It turned out that the bum had not given her distemper shots and she was blind from the disease. I took her home and called her Marjoram. She also had other health problems and could not digest food too well. That is why I originally switched from commercial pet food to home-made food. Marjie lived for another 8 years. Like Rosie, she was a clown and could sing like a canary - well maybe her "singing" was more like yodelling. She looked a lot like a possum and made funny snuffling noises as she shuffled around bumping into things until she remembered where everything was.
Soon the dog-rescue lady asked me to take another dog, a chihuahua/sausage-dog mix. (Why so many small dogs? More small dogs are abandoned than big dogs.) He had had to have his left thigh bone removed because of cancer and no one wanted him. He was about a year old when I got him. I named him Herbie. He is now nearly 10 years old but he thinks he is still a puppy. He also thinks he is a Rhodesian ridge-back - maybe because he knows that ridge-backs are my favorite dogs - and his nickname is Mr Macho because of the way he attacks any stranger who dares enter his territory.
(When we had the restaurant, Chas made a special page on our restaurant's website dedicated to our dogs, Herbie and the Spice Girls. That page brought us more new customers than any other page on our website. I wish I still had that web-page so I could show you.)
Then I bought my farm in Oregon. The sellers had a beautiful Aussie shepherd/border collie mix who was about a year old. They asked me if I would take the dog as they were moving into the city. So I adopted Tippy. At first I regretted it because he was a big dog and had not been trained and was an undisciplined piece of trailer trash just like his former owners. He regularly demolished half the furniture whenever he wagged his tail - which was often - and our neighbors on the farm down the road hated him because he chased their livestock. But we persevered with his training and changed his name to Digby to give him more of a sense of dignity. He is not the smartest dog in the universe but he has turned out to be the most mild-mannered dog with a lovely affectionate nature.
Right now I can't find pics of all the dogs but I did find this one of Coriander.
They're all mutts - "discarded dogs" which I adopted.
My oldest dog, Saffron (named after the bossy daughter in "Absolutely Fabulous") is a border collie/mutt mix who is nearly 15 years old. Saffie needs to herd all the time so she treats the ducks and chickens like sheep and constantly rounds them up but it's getting harder for her to do because she is slowing down and her old bones are getting a bit creaky. She's probably on her last legs now - one foot in the grave and the other on banana peel (as my Mom would say) but she still loves life.
Soon after I got Saffie I adopted a little black and tan English toy terrier. She was about 6 when I got her from a woman who rescued discarded dogs. No one wanted this dog as she had cancer in her titties probably because she had been used as a puppy factory by an unscrupulous breeder for too long. I called her Rosemary because I already had one spice girl, Saffron, and it seemed fitting for a restauranteur (which I was at the time) to name dogs after herbs and spices. Rosie's cancer went into remission and she lived for another 8 years.
Rosie adored children and once ran away with a team of ten year old soccer players while I was walking her in the park. I hunted for her everywhere and eventually went home heart-broken. A few hours later the soccer coach phoned me and told me that he had Rosie. I once watched Rosie chase two kids up a tree. Halfway up she realized where she was and jumped ten feet to the ground. Like most terriers, she was a complete clown and absolutely willful and independent-minded. Eventually she got the doggie equivalent of Alzheimers, lost her sight and hearing and became incontinent. She became constantly frightened and miserable just like my grandma who had Alzheimers and I had to euthanize her. It took nearly a year to recover from the pain of putting her down.
Until I got Rosie, I swore I would never have an ankle-biter as I did not like small dogs but Rosie changed my mind. One day the woman who rescued dogs phoned me and asked me if I would take a 6 month old chihuahua puppy because it had been injured (broken jaw) and was too weak and small to survive with her other dogs. I adopted her without even seeing her. The moment that the dog-rescue lady put this little fluff-ball in my hands, she snuggled into me and I fell in love. I named her Coriander and grew to love this extremely intelligent and brave little dog more than any other dog I have ever owned. Corrie is now about 11 years old but still as fit as a fiddle.
Next I adopted a tiny little white and tan American toy terrier puppy who belonged to a "homeless" bum. I was walking along one day when suddenly this little thing that looked like a rat bumped into my feet and vomitted on my shoes. It turned out that the bum had not given her distemper shots and she was blind from the disease. I took her home and called her Marjoram. She also had other health problems and could not digest food too well. That is why I originally switched from commercial pet food to home-made food. Marjie lived for another 8 years. Like Rosie, she was a clown and could sing like a canary - well maybe her "singing" was more like yodelling. She looked a lot like a possum and made funny snuffling noises as she shuffled around bumping into things until she remembered where everything was.
Soon the dog-rescue lady asked me to take another dog, a chihuahua/sausage-dog mix. (Why so many small dogs? More small dogs are abandoned than big dogs.) He had had to have his left thigh bone removed because of cancer and no one wanted him. He was about a year old when I got him. I named him Herbie. He is now nearly 10 years old but he thinks he is still a puppy. He also thinks he is a Rhodesian ridge-back - maybe because he knows that ridge-backs are my favorite dogs - and his nickname is Mr Macho because of the way he attacks any stranger who dares enter his territory.
(When we had the restaurant, Chas made a special page on our restaurant's website dedicated to our dogs, Herbie and the Spice Girls. That page brought us more new customers than any other page on our website. I wish I still had that web-page so I could show you.)
Then I bought my farm in Oregon. The sellers had a beautiful Aussie shepherd/border collie mix who was about a year old. They asked me if I would take the dog as they were moving into the city. So I adopted Tippy. At first I regretted it because he was a big dog and had not been trained and was an undisciplined piece of trailer trash just like his former owners. He regularly demolished half the furniture whenever he wagged his tail - which was often - and our neighbors on the farm down the road hated him because he chased their livestock. But we persevered with his training and changed his name to Digby to give him more of a sense of dignity. He is not the smartest dog in the universe but he has turned out to be the most mild-mannered dog with a lovely affectionate nature.
Right now I can't find pics of all the dogs but I did find this one of Coriander.
posted by Joubert at 3:54 PM
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