When I moved here I moved in with my Rottie, Boo, and my cat, Meg. I brought my 55 gallon aquarium that I have slowly put a few fish in, can't move to quickly with the fish. The adopting of fish I take a careful, slow, well thought out approach to. Dogs now that's a different story, I let my heart run free when it comes to a creature that can actually chew the leg off of my buffet. In New York Boo lived with other dogs, when we first got here she was an only canine child. I thought she was lonely ( I have been known to be wrong in the past and as it turns out history really does repeat itself! )so in my infinite wisdom I got HER a puppy. I went to the shelter to volunteer and there was a litter of puppies all together in this cage, they were all carbon copies of each other- some kind of hound with large droopy ears. All except one, she was at the back of the cage set apart from the others and well to put it delicately Mama must have been fooling around because she didn't look a thing like the rest of the gang. I had already told myself that I was not adopting anything but then the whole Boo's lonely and this poor ugly ducking puppy is going to be put to sleep thing ran through my mind and well one thing led to another. That's how Liberty came to live with us. I don't know what breeds are in her genetic make up, looks like maybe Boxer, Pit, Hound who knows she is all mutt, that's her breed. She's beige in color, she has an under bite, her tail is crooked, her ears can't decide whether to stand up or droop down and she is uncontrollably happy. She never has a bad day, she's never just a bit down in the dumps, even when she's getting yelled out ( which is quite often ) she never lets it get her down, she's just happy. That aspect of her personality is the very thing that drives Boo crazy, Boo looks at her like she is insane. If she could speak she would say " dip shit Mom is yelling at you for almost chewing the leg off of the buffet show some respect and try not to be so up beat ". But Liberty doesn't get it, and Boo can't really stand to be in the same room with her, so I am proven wrong once again. Boo is not mean to her she just tries to ignore her, but Liberty will not be ignored, she jumps up and down as if to say " look at me look at me look at me ". Boo doesn't look at her, she looks at me with this - what were you thinking - look on her face. I have to admit most days I ask myself that very question but I plead temporary insanity.
Liberty is a digger, not to get anywhere, not to try to escape, she just digs holes, big ones in the center of the yard. Just enough so that if I go out there in the dark trying to catch her to bring her in I will fall in one of her holes and she can pounce on me- look at me look at me look at me. She's like having the forever 2 year old, except fortunately for me its legal to put a leash on her and put her in her crate for a time out. One day she was in the yard digging holes like it was her job and I see her pawing at her face, then rubbing her face on the ground. I go out there as she is now almost convulsing, twisting and rubbing her body like she was on fire. I get down on the ground and see that she is covered in fire ants, her latest hole was an ant hill. Still she's not unhappy, I hear her tail thump, thump on the ground, while ants are crawling around her eyes and her nostrils, she is covered. It was kind of funny for a minute I told her you picked the wrong spot for a hole this time, while Boo looked like she was smiling, it was actually the happiest I had seen Boo act while in Liberty's vicinity. I didn't know what to do but I knew I had to get them off her, I didn't have the hose hooked up so I did the first thing that came to mind. Odd how this was the first thing that came to mind but I went inside and got Listerine, soaked a towel with it and rubbed her down, killed those ants right away. Liberty jumped right up off the ground and right on top of Boo who glared at me as if I had just released the flying monkey's. To this day while in the yard Liberty will not walk in that spot where the fire ants were. She can be running at full speed but she makes a wide arc around that spot, she may be goofy but she's not stupid, don't tell Boo I said that:)
Lib loves the beach, she loves everything about it, the sand, the water, the people, she loves it all. She loves to see what the fishermen are catching and she is positive they want to show her. I am not so positive but once they have made the mistake of making eye contact with her it's too late. I have very little control before they look at her but once they do it's all over. She insists that they talk to her, she will stare a man down until he has no choice but she speak to her. Then I feel if they cannot resist talking to her what happens from there is on them not me. She wants to see inside the bait bucket and the fish bucket and she wants to carry a fish head in her mouth as we make our way down the beach, yeah she's a smelly beast. Sometimes she just wants to sit by a fisherman and watch what he's doing, personally I don't thinks its that interesting but Lib does, and I'm usually at her mercy. She'll sit there until something else comes up to interest her that something is usually the seagulls, she is positive that one day she will catch one. It's not for lack of trying that she hasn't caught one yet, she has tried all different approaches. The charge right in and make them scatter fast approach - doesn't work, the pretend she doesn't see them and then dart at them at the last minute approach - doesn't work, the look at the water while walking sideways towards them approach- doesn't work, the maybe I can reach them better from in the water approach- doesn't work. The one that got her close was lay down in the sand while holding a fish head in your mouth approach that had them walking towards her which I think surprised her as much as the gulls. But she is the ultimate optimist she always goes in with the attitude that one day...
I went to Lowe's bought one of those umbrella style clotheslines to put up in the yard. I took it out of the box read the directions, dug the hole, put the cement in, put the green pole that goes into the ground in and let it set up for 24 hours. The green pole that goes in the ground is flush with the ground so you can take the main part of the umbrella out and still mow over the part that is cemented into the ground. Liberty was being such a good girl she was laying at the far end of the yard chewing on one of her toys. I went out with the rest of the contraption & I was smiling looking at her while I was walking to where the clothesline was when I fell in a hole. I didn't think she had dug a hole over where I had dug the hole for the clothesline green pole, but she had dug so many who could keep track. Then I couldn't find my clothesline green pole, I know I had cemented it in flush to the ground but I should be able to see the top of the green pole, but I couldn't find it. The only thing I saw was the hole that I had fallen in, had someone stolen my cemented in clothesline green pole? As the truth began to dawn on me I looked more closely at Liberty and saw the " toy " that she had in her mouth was green. I called her and she ran to me with the clothesline green pole with the cement still on it, in her mouth. She had dug all the way around that chunk of cement and had taken it with the green pole out of the ground, but she did come that time when I called her- that was a first- it was a last too but at least she came once- right?!
So can I interest anyone in a nice, happy dog? Any takers? Huh? Anyone? Huh? look at me look at me look at me- thump, thump, thump- come on it sounds like fun doesn't it?!!
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