Re: An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!
The love affair that is Brownie and Cupcake has now reached truly nauseating proportions. It is like every time they play, or stretch, or cuddle up their personal theme-song "ebony and ivory" begins to play in the background, and everything turns onto a slow-motion montage. Sure, it is cute for the first dozen or so times. But very quickly you start to get utterly fed up with the constant squee overload.
Like you walk over to your chair and there is the regular fireplace-worshipping going on. You can see the general agreement. Humans are pretty stupid, but that bit where they invented fire was pretty good!
And then they do some squee-things
And some sqeeu-er things:
solo-squee
And just when I think the squee is going to make me vomit... it strikes me.
Wait a minute!
Isn't that?
That looks kinda like...
What have I done!!!! How did I not notice? How long has this been going on???
Re: An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!
That's Molly. She is a Dogue the Bordeaux, which is Franch for french mastiff. I got her last year. She has had a tough time for a while, but she is really coming into her own now.
She was a well-loved family dog for a while, until her family went through a divorce. Then she quickly became a bit of a hostage in the divorce proceedings, it seems. I am only getting the rather partisan reports of the husbands mother, but it seems that she was first banished from the house into the garden, where she became "an outside dog" as it is known here. Basically that means it is a dog you just feed.
Then even the feeding became optional: ex-husband loved his dog, and if ex-wife was pissed off with him she would leave the dog to starve for a while and would not allow ex-husband to come in and feed him. He himself was living in rented apartments and could not take her full time. I don't know how much of this is exaggeration, but she really seems to have been ignored and poorly fed during this period, and god knows what else... I will get to that particular bit.
Then they found a farmer that was willing to take her on, and gave her to him. Luckily, ex-husband went to investigate, and found her chained up in a shed somewhere, to be used as a puppy-factory.
So he took her back and put him up with his mum for a while, but she lives in a tiny apartment as well, and her and the cats did not get on. However, Mum works for the wife of a soppy idiot who can generally be persuaded to take in waifs and strays. Mrs Sectus engineered it expertly, made sure we visited "to make our mind up", and things followed their natural course.
The first few days were unbearable. The panting! The heavy, nervous, panting! Daisy, my Saint Bernard, is pretty easy-going but having another bitch in the house took some getting used to. The both panted nervously for 3 day straight. It was so loud that we could not hear the TV over it. If you went to bed at night, you could still hear it coming from downstairs. It pervaded the house, as they just sat and stared at each other, panting.
Then there was the food-fight. It lasted for 3 seconds, but it really did bring the message home that these are fairly large predators I keep in my house. As it turns out, Daisy is pretty easy-going as long as she has first dibs on all food-items. Displease her where food is concerned and the Wrath of Daisy will descend upon you, and let me tell you it makes Cujo seem like a pussy. Behind those goofy jowls lurks a pair of jaws that can crunch up a cow-femur in half an hour until there is almost nothing left. Fortunately the food-dibs were briskly sorted out, and as long as we keep Daisy from stealing Molly's food everything is fine.
Then there was the snapping. I came close to bringing her back several times because of it. When told off, she would cringe. Reach for her collar too fast in a situation like that, and she would snap at you. I have a little kid in the house. I don't need those kind of risks for her.
For a few weeks I hovered on the brink. I knew she was a good dog who had had a rough time. Judging from her reactions, she had been beaten quite a bit. The snaps seemed to be purely fear-motivated, defensive. The question was - can we build up enough trust and what level of risk am I taking here? I just made sure my youngest was never alone with her, and tried to see what situations triggered her. It was the usual: fear of being hit when in trouble, of being dragged by the scruff of her neck, and of being hit with sticks.
I am glad I stuck it out, even tough I know I took a bigger risk than I should have. We got rid of the stick-thing by getting her to play with the head of a broom, which was so successful that sweeping the kitchen floor is now very difficult unless you put her away. The fear of hitting gradually went away, because we just don't do it. Even the scuffing-thing went away, because all we ever do is grab her collar, and that rarely.
Why hit a dog like this, though? She is bright and plenty willing to please. I can send her from one room to the next with a point and a snap of my fingers. She reads situations very well, learns new tricks easily, and while she does have that certain mastiff independence she is not a dog that would frustrate the hell out of you. Only a complete arse-clown would spoil a dog like this by hitting it.
She is very needy. If you let her, she will paw you into submission and make you pet her until... well actually we have not yet found out if she has a limit where pets are concerned. Suffice it to say that she likes them a LOT. Understandably she has some abandonment issues, though they seem to be receding now. nevertheless she has used the new cat's access to my bedroom to claim the right to sleep in our bedrooms too. This is making coming to bed late after a few too many beers a real hazard, as she is an excellent guard-dog. Come stumbling in clumsily, and she gives a single bark that sounds so aggressive that it nearly gives me a heart-attack every time - even when you know it is coming!
I have not had my meter read since I got her, and had to move my mailbox to the gate. It is not that she is aggressive at all, it is just that her guarding-bark is incredibly frightening. I have seen people run into traffic rather than stay at the gate if she is doing her thing. One day I walked around the house in the dark, and she did not immediately recognise me and confronted me as a stranger. I nearly shit myself. Primal fear really does create a sort of shockwave in your innards.
While Daisy is in charge of food, Molly is by no means a pushover. Molly is in charge of all things small and fluffy. Daisy is hardly allowed to look at the kittens. If she comes close for a sniff, it is always under strict Molly-supervision, and only briefly. if she pushes her luck she gets a quick corrective jaw-snap, an inch or so from her face. She seems to have a powerful maternal instinct, and she is taking on the role of pack-aunty. I wonder if I should breed her. I would love a pup from a litter of hers, and she would make an awesome mum.
The best thing is the hikes. I like to go hill-walking, and Daisy is too old for all that. Molly isn't. She leaps into my car through the open window without touching the sides. She happily bounds up mountain sides and back again to see what is keeping me. She has absolutely no fear of heights and is as sure-footed as a mountain goat. There is nothing more awesome than a good hike with Molly, even if it can be a bit hair-raising as she casually strolls along the edges of stomach-churningly deep cliffs, apparently without noticing.
So yeah. She's a good dog! And one day she will catch one of those rabbits. One day...
Re: An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!
Quote:
That's Molly. She is a Dogue the Bordeaux, which is Franch for french mastiff. I got her last year. She has had a tough time for a while, but she is really coming into her own now.
How much does she weigh? Lana looks a bit like that, and lisapea told me she thought Lana might have some Mastiff in her (I was thinking more Boxer). They're all Molossers, so it doesn't matter, just my curiosity.
And, good on you for sticking with her, she sounds like a great dog.
Re: An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!
My neighbors when I was a kid had a pair of Neopolitan mastiffs. I would have to consciously and deliberately steal myself for the abject terror of their barking when I walked past their gate. They weren't just doing one guarding bark, of course. They were protecting the perimeter and they meant it. Also there was a lot of white drool being flung. Scareh.
Suprisingly, though, the scariest bark I ever heard was a single one from, of all creatures, a greyhound. They're so quiet and calm and they almost never bark. I knew a lot of people with greyhounds in college because there was a racetrack nearby so lots of adoptions. This one time is the only time I ever heard any of them bark.
A small dog was yipping and nipping at Miles (the greyhound) who ignored him placidly until the 15th time the doggie tried to bite Miles' dick off. Then Miles showed his teeth (holy fucking shit greyhounds have WOLF TEETH like you wouldn't believe) and barked once. It was so shocking to hear a sound like that come out of such a contained, pensive dog. His owner was like "crazy, right? You don't see it coming."
Re: An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vivisectus
Man I talk about my pets a lot.
As well you should. Not only are your pets most post worthy, but you write so well. For what it's worth ( I know less than bupkiss about what goes on with professional writers), I think you could get paid for writing at the right venue. I read your pet posts with the greatest of pleasure.
Re: An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!
Having big, loud dogs is a total deterrent for any opportunistic criminals. Doesn't matter if the dogs are big softies who would happily show you around, like mine, their "You are invading my space with your strangerness" barks are fucking frightening. Lana didn't make a sound at all for like the first week, now she's standing by Duck's enormous slab of beef side barking at the UPS dude and it sounds like Armageddon.
Re: An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!
Way back in the way back days I was renting a place with a bunch of other airmen types. One of them eventually bought a Chesapeake Bay Lab. Oh lordy, what an adorable puppy she was. She was still only a few months old, all gangly legs and giant paws - you know that stage? I was chillin in the house, just me and Snickers, when a friend dropped by. The kitchen window was open and B prolly spied me on the couch or sommit. He innocently BARKED through the window. Instantly, Snickers responded with a very not puppy BAROOOOF of her very own, scaring me and also B. We laughed nervously together.
Re: An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!
Quote:
Originally Posted by LadyShea
Quote:
That's Molly. She is a Dogue the Bordeaux, which is Franch for french mastiff. I got her last year. She has had a tough time for a while, but she is really coming into her own now.
How much does she weigh? Lana looks a bit like that, and lisapea told me she thought Lana might have some Mastiff in her (I was thinking more Boxer). They're all Molossers, so it doesn't matter, just my curiosity.
And, good on you for sticking with her, she sounds like a great dog.
She is small for her breed, at about 120 pounds. Girlies tend to be smaller with french mastiffs though, and this is the case with most Molossers. She reminds people of a wrinkly boxes a lot
Re: An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!
is making family visits more and more uncomfortable. 
...........
pickies!
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