Ours were, but not with fences and flower beds. They pick their own Master when brought into the home and our first one chose our oldest son. He could get that dog to behave without any trouble when he was at home.
We mated the older dog after twelve years and told the kids we were taking the stud fee and not the Pup. Owner of the female called us and told us her dog had twelve males and one female that was born without a ridge. When they were almost old enough to leave, she called us and asked us if we wanted to come see all of them before they left. When we got there she said she had named the largest one Horse, so my oldest Son gravitated to him and then came and told me he just had to have that dog. A big "No" was my response and he immediately started working on me to take it home...Well, as you could guess, the dog came home with us. That dog also chose him as his Master so it was really funny to watch the pecking order in full view of the Daddy and Son fighting to get control. The old man won and strutted around the yard when anyone came out to see them.
We needed a new fence and as what would surely happen the two of them knocked down about twenty-five feet. I told my husband about it on the phone and he gave me a number of a friend who was in the fence business. I called and told him I needed a very strong fence because of the two dog's strength and he said, "My fence will stand up for twenty-five years. Ok, had them come out and install a whole new fence. Took two days to complete so dogs went to boarding and after completed I brought them home right away. Thirty minutes later, the darn dogs had 50 feet down. I was somewhat chagrined and ready to bite my husband's friend's head off.
Called him at his office and they were not even back to there, so had to call him on his cell phone. He was somewhat shocked and hollered "What" into my ear drum. Then said they would be back the next day to repair it...then it was my turn to yell back at him with WHAT? Needless to say, had to call and get the dogs boarded for another night with him agreeing to pay the fee. By that time I was a little upset with my husband for giving me his name to call so he got yelled at too when he got home from his office. Told him I wanted the twenty-five year warranty in writing for the fence when he returned to repair it.
The fences were repaired then I decided we needed to re-landscape the beds in the back yard. Kept the dogs in the house with them looking out the window at the workers and growling a lot. Finally they were finished and when they left the yard, I let the dogs back out. Not even thirty minutes later, I looked out the kitchen window and those darn...really mean...damn dogs...had all the flowers and shrubs out on the pea gravel patio and dirt from here to yonder scattered, even some in the pool. Back to the phone to call my husband and yell some more. By this time he was out of town and not close enough to clobber. He started laughing and said, "What do you expect me to do about this when I am thousands of miles away. I told him I need some support about this mess and so he said...OK, put the dogs on the phone...no kidding I slammed the phone down and walked away and it rang again and I knew it was him so I answered and said, "So what bright ideas do you have now". He said, "Get a gun and shoot the damn dogs", if you want to punish them", to which I said "You know how much I love animals and you have the nerve to say that". "I'll just think about shooting you when you get home". The phone went silent for a few seconds and then he said, "I am so sorry you had to deal with all this" and I said "Thank you, that is all I was asking for to hear that you understood my frustration with these dogs".
I called a friend who trains dogs and told her I wanted her to come get him and train him real good. She did that and took him to her kennels in a small town near here. Her Grandpa watched the kennels for her and fell in love with this dog and I told her that was great he could have him. She turned him into a Grand Champion and we were all amazed. We never brought the dog back to our home and about two years later, she called us and told us the dog had Cancer and she was taking him up to Texas A&M to collect his sperm. I told her she could just have it all and I hoped she could make as much money out of his sperm as she could and keep it for taking the dog off our hands. She did send my Son the picture of him when he won Grand Champion and my Son still has that picture and memories of all the shenanigans the dog pulled.
I started raising cats because they were so much easier to deal with and at the time my husband did not care too much for them, but he has come to love them as much as I do and frets over them probably more than I do if they have runny eyes or sneeze more than a couple times. Life sometimes goes full circle if one can live long enough through the trauma and thanks goodness I have, but have so many memories of them I could write a book, such as I have here...lol
And, we are now dealing with a psychotic CAT...which I have already mentioned in another post. Never had that before so I am sure that will be a story too...never heard of giving a cat Prozac, but my husband says that if it will calm her down and make her sweeter, we should do it. I told him he might be getting me into another big mess agreeing with the Vet, so to be prepared for another yelling session from me for him and the Vet as well. |
