Living With Pets

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I decided to start this thread because if I posted a new thread every time I felt compelled to share an experience with one of my critters, the server would overflow. I have four Huskies at the moment. Two I rescued. Two are the results of an OOPS! The oops, is a story in itself and I may get around to sharing it, eventually.

What brings me to the keyboard this morning is Bellah.


Now out of the four, she is the sneakiest. Don't for a second let that sweet face, that gentle spirit, that I will follow you anywhere, mask she wears, fool you.

Maxx, the big lug, is the, in your face Houdini. In half a second he will open his crate and walk right in. He does not give it a nanosecond of a thought. He just thinks, it is what you do. I have no problem with Maxx because as long as he is in the house, he is content and extremely well behaved. Outside, well...., that is another story.

His son Goliath, appropriately named, is moving up on old Dad pretty fast, but he takes pleasure in opening his door. He likes to make a production out of it The queen of all Houdinis though is the daughter, Tamar. She is in a special two lock crate and she still can move the bar, push up the door, and get out before you have the time to say, "Stop Tamar!"

Bellah though has never made any attempt to open her crate door. Bellah is weird about her crate anyway, always has been. When I moved her to the mid sized crate, there was no problem, she was happy about having a larger crate. But when I moved them up to the extra large crates, all of them made the switch eagerly. Not Bellah. She hates the larger crates and won't go in them. So Bellah, has a crate that she barely fits in, though she can stand up and turn around in it, barely. By the way, all the others love to hang out in Bellah's tiny crate, and she will come to me and have me evict them,  if they don't move when she wants her crate back. Anyway, back to the event that prompted this post.

I usually allow my dogs to free roam in the house, when I am at home. They voluntarily sleep in their crates at night after a point, because that is where they are almost every morning when I get up. Last night they were overly rambunctious and getting on my nerves, so I ordered them to their rooms. The "To Your Room" command is another story, I will share later. They went to their rooms and five minutes later that were back to rough housing again, so I locked their doors. They quieted down and went to sleep. A short while later, so did I.

Fast forward to this morning. I am lying in bed sleeping when I am awakened by a great weight and a push to my bed. I startled awake in utter confusion. I look up and Bellah is staring me right in the face. My first thought was that my Mother had let her out, no biggie, it was past time to get up anyway. I went into my Mother's room to say, "Good morning", and met her in the kitchen. I told my Mom that Bellah had come to wake me after she let her out. My mother looked at me quizzically, then informed me that she had not let Bellah out.

Now, here is the catch. When I locked Bellah's crate last night, I almost didn't. I locked the others because I was frustrated, and it was more of a gesture of my frustration. But Bellah wasn't among the rambunctious hooligans, so I wasn't going to lock hers, but deliberately went back and locked Bellah's crate, thinking at the time, that leaving her crate open would make the others jealous and they would start up the chorus. So I went back and locked her crate.

Bellah will be four years old come December 9th. She has never shown any interest in opening her crate. She will whine and caterwaul forever to get me to come open her crate when she wants out. Not this morning. Why Bellah opened her crate and came out, I will likely never know. I do know that I now have a complete troupe of Houdinis.

[Chiefsmom]

I never knew much about huskies, until my son got them.  I had no idea they were such amazing escape artists.  My god, his open the front door.  I told him he needs to get that handle changed ASAP.  They are both super sweet, but nothing seems to be able to hold them in.  Cage, fence, door.

We have our boxer girl Abby, who 90% of the time is sweet as anything.  But since we got the little devil Oscar, she will not tolerate any other dog, so we have to keep her locked up.  I don't know if it is becuase he is scared of EVERYTHING, and she overcompensates, or what.  When she was raised with our old bulldog, neither one of them was like that.  Oh, and she is good when Oscar isn't around.
Maybe she figures he is her chew toy, and nobody elses?

I don't have a pic of Abby here at work.  But here is Oscar the grouch.


One cool thing about him, is that the infinity symbol has always had a special meaning in our family, and he has it on his right ear, plain as day.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I never knew much about huskies, until my son got them.  I had no idea they were such amazing escape artists.  My god, his open the front door.  I told him he needs to get that handle changed ASAP.  They are both super sweet, but nothing seems to be able to hold them in.  Cage, fence, door.

We have our boxer girl Abby, who 90% of the time is sweet as anything.  But since we got the little devil Oscar, she will not tolerate any other dog, so we have to keep her locked up.  I don't know if it is becuase he is scared of EVERYTHING, and she overcompensates, or what.  When she was raised with our old bulldog, neither one of them was like that.  Oh, and she is good when Oscar isn't around.
Maybe she figures he is her chew toy, and nobody elses?

I don't have a pic of Abby here at work.  But here is Oscar the grouch.


One cool thing about him, is that the infinity symbol has always had a special meaning in our family, and he has it on his right ear, plain as day.

They can have some really interesting markings. I tried to find matches for mine. I have way too much time on my hands.



Maxx when he was younger.




Sandeeh's hearts.




Bellah's mark.

[gordi]

Hi Skye & Mom,
I thought that this was very cute!



Gx

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Hi Skye & Mom,
I thought that this was very cute!



Gx

The only time I really miss mine is when I am on vacation. I don't even try to take four Siberian (actually Floridian) Huskies on vacation with me. I am blessed to have a very good friend that is a Vet, and he keeps them for me if I am away for any extended time, and my nephews take care of them if it is just for a few days.

My Huskies crave attention. Not just any attention, "my" attention. Tamar is so demanding that she will actually use her head to aggressively move my hands from the keyboard, fussing the whole time. She is the most aggressively demanding of the four. Her and Maxx are the most vocal, because they actually vocalize in what sounds like sentences. Goliath is less demanding, but gets the most excited when he is ranting. Bellah, is the least vocal of the lot, but she is more sing song in her communications.

Maxx sits on my feet, with his big head blocking the keyboard and goes into a five minute rant about why I am not petting him. Goliath and Bellah go the psychic telepathy route. They lay in front of me and just stare.

Getting away from mine is often actually a break.

I like the poster though.

[Snarl]

We were helping out our daughter taking care of hers,


(that's a basketball sized ball on a 1" rope)
and when she came and got him it left a big hole in our house.
He was over a 100lbs and could cross the entire length of our place in four or five bounds.  There is a thing called too big, but we were so happy to have him for that time.

Introducing Luke: 

Wife's pup.  Loves attention.  Nickname's Shadow, because he's always at her side.  He's about 6 months old and 40lbs (I think he's maxed out at that weight).

Both of these GoldenDoodles have that poodle attitude (intelligence and inquisitiveness) and a retriever's good nature (+ facial expressions ... LOL).

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

We were helping out our daughter taking care of hers,


(that's a basketball sized ball on a 1" rope)
and when she came and got him it left a big hole in our house.
He was over a 100lbs and could cross the entire length of our place in four or five bounds.  There is a thing called too big, but we were so happy to have him for that time.

Introducing Luke: 

Wife's pup.  Loves attention.  Nickname's Shadow, because he's always at her side.  He's about 6 months old and 40lbs (I think he's maxed out at that weight).

Both of these GoldenDoodles have that poodle attitude (intelligence and inquisitiveness) and a retriever's good nature (+ facial expressions ... LOL).

Beautiful dog.

I had Rhodesian Ridgebacks for over twenty years. So I know about big dogs. Two neighbors have Great Pyrenees, they are more working dogs than pets.  But most of us country folk lean towards the bigger breeds for working, or pets, or both.

[Wallfire]

My friend was writing there dissertation ( I think its called that), the cat jumped up and walked across the keyboard, my friend was slient for a wile then said
"The f##king cat writes better than I do"

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

My friend was writing there dissertation ( I think its called that), the cat jumped up and walked across the keyboard, my friend was slient for a wile then said
"The f##king cat writes better than I do"

Too funny, but you reminded of something.

Tamar a couple of months back was fighting me typing on the keyboard and accidentally typed out six numbers. I copied them down and said I was going to play the lottery with them. Since I don't usually play the lottery, I forgot al about it.

Hope I remember the next time I am in the store. Who knows? I may be sitting on winning lottery numbers! Or not.

[guohua]

I don't own a Furry Animal Type Pet.
But does my husband count?
I have to following him around and play with him and clean up after him and make his meals. Does that make him my Human pet?

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I don't own a Furry Animal Type Pet.
But does my husband count?
I have to following him around and play with him and clean up after him and make his meals. Does that make him my Human pet?

Yep! 

Is his name Daryl?

[guohua]

I don't own a Furry Animal Type Pet.
But does my husband count?
I have to following him around and play with him and clean up after him and make his meals. Does that make him my Human pet?

Yep! 

Is his name Daryl?

No, Mr.G. or Rick

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Caught them!

The back porch used to be my little haven. It is 800 square feet, screened in, and was once an oasis, even had a fountain. That was before five Huskies and a cat that thought he was a dog, took it over as their pack den.

In very little time I realized that my little tchotchkes and floor plants would need to be moved to other places to adorn. In even less time I realized that the perimeter to the outside was going to take more than screen to keep prey driven Huskies from pursuing the basilisks, gecko, iguana, rabbits and squirrels that call my homestead home.

If I wrote of every barrier and adjustments to those barriers I have had to devise, to keep those darn juggernauts of keen sense and sheer determination, from reaching their targeted prey, I would be writing for a week. Each time they find a way around the barrier, I defiantly figure out another way to spoil their escape. Of course, it is a game that repeats, as they always find another way around it.

Today I caught them! Any time they are together in a group and not acting like hellions on wheels, you can rest assured they are up to no good, so I watched them. I stayed hidden from their view, peeking through the window. I watched Maxx test the barrier. He kept looking back to see if anyone was watching. Goliath, jauntily moved him aside to see if he could squeeze around it. Jumped back when it made noise, looking up with such a look of innocence, knowing darn well he was wrong. The two girls just sat there looking at each other. I know they were laughing silently.

They didn't figure it out this time. Next time, if it is the girls, they will likely be gone. Out chasing something, and I will be out in all this darn heat chasing them. It is just a matter of time.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I am so proud, yet so frustrated.

Anyone that knows anything about Huskies, knows the breed has a strong pray drive and are not known for great recall. Well, when I was letting them out on their leads this evening, before I had the chance to hook up Goliath, a big, I mean big, rabbit decided to hop by, and it was off to the races.

I knew there was nothing I could do about him, so I just checked to make sure the rest were secure, while calmly calling for Goliath. I knew better than to add to the excitement. I was surprised that he didn't go into the woods after the rabbit. He just paced at the edge of the woods chomping at the bit to run off. But I could see he was torn between coming back and going forward. I kept quietly calling him to come back, and telling him what a good boy he was, and he finally turned around and came back.

I am so proud of him for coming back, but frustrated that it took darn near a full 10 minutes of cooing and coaxing. I also feel lucky that it was Goliath. Him and Bellah are the best of the group about recall. Tamar is far more difficult, and Maxx just goes completely deaf off lead.

I am hoping for continued improvement, but I know they will never have perfect recall until they are too old to catch anything.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Bellah does it again. It was not luck.

I don't know what got into the pack last night, but each of them decided to sleep in a crate that did not belong to them. This is the first time they have ever done that.

Tamar went to sleep in Bellah's crate, and for the first time Bellah didn't care. That is until I made her get into Tamar's crate. Bellah hates big crates. Maxx slept in Goliath's crate and Goliath slept in Maxx's crate.

About 3 am, I was awaken by this strange noise. By the time I was fully awake and listening, the nose stopped. After a few minutes I was awakened again, this time by footsteps on the floor. By the time I sat up in bed, Bellah was standing at my bedroom door. What impressed me the most, is that she made it out of Tamar's double lock door. This leads me to believe that Bellah has been sandbagging all along.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Pet Musings For Today.

Anyone that has ever owned a Husky, has called them the spawn of Satan at one time or other. Today I am even more convinced than ever, that they have some relationship to Hell, why else would they constantly keep trying to dig their way back down there?

In the time it took me to look up at the back door and then look back down at Bellah, she had dug a hole halfway to Hell.

Good news! Goliath scored and 8 out of 10 on his recall today!

Bad news. The other three scored a 0 out of 10. Am I supposed to believe that 1 out of 4 ain't bad?

[Schmoe1]

I grew up a dog person and have morphed into a cat person.  Anyway, here's our 2 month old Maine Coon...

[kdog]

    We have Groot, our 3 year old pit bull. He is neurotic as all get all. 

But , he is our furbaby, so we deal with it.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I grew up a dog person and have morphed into a cat person.  Anyway, here's our 2 month old Maine Coon...

You have my favorite breed of cat! I love Maine Coons!

I am sooooooooooo jealous.

I am an animal person. My friends call me Dr. Dolittle because even the wild animals will come to me for help. I think they can sense I am not a threat and I will help them.

I have helped baby owls, herons, rabbits, squirrels, turtles, tortoises, goats, even a darn lizard and a frog. I don't like lizards and frogs, so I think they were just testing me.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

We have Groot, our 3 year old pit bull. He is neurotic as all get all. 

But , he is our furbaby, so we deal with it.

Looks just like my neighbor's dog Bella. Bella is afraid of nothing, but Kahlua is terrified of the sound of guns and fireworks. He will hide in the shower and cry. Both are amazingly loving dogs and so obedient. Not at all like my rock head dogs.