The debate continues, as to whether we keep Jack the Puppy (possibly Argos), or return him to the dog rescue.
Don’t get us wrong, this dog has adorable puppy features, which are an innate defense against owners giving him away. Cuteness, obviously, in spades. He fetches (sorta). He comes (frequently but not always). He trips over his ears when he’s in a hurry (heh heh). And last night he went to bed in his crate with none of the high-pitched, piteous, operatic crying we were cringing at the thought of growing accustomed to. What a champ.
He and Max have little western showdowns whenever one strolls close to the other. For a moment there is a standoff; they meet each other’s eyes and they freeze. The tableau holds, and I stop whatever I’m doing, and the background music ceases, and a tumbleweed bounces through my living room. And then the standoff is broken by the puppy springing into the air, boing, to which Max responds by either batting Jack in the face, bad dog!, or Max gets startled by the boing and backs away and puppy gives chase. Or sometimes the puppy gets too bored with the staring contest and has to go find Mr. Fox to chew on.
The boys
I love to see Max stand his ground. It’s not so much a risk of doggie aggression out of Gentle Jack, it’s the risk of our boys being scaredy-cats. If they run, Jack with think it’s a game and chase them, and the kitties will relegate themselves to doggie playthings, instead of full-fledged members of the family, at least an equal of Jack. In pack mentality, the cats need to be up closer to the top of the totem pole, or they’ll be unhappy. Already Yuuki has taken to avoiding the floor entirely when Jack is free in the house. Yuuki’s aversion to conflict is disheartening, although no surprise. But then again, sometimes he goes taking flying leaps at Max, or chasing him around the house. We know he has it in him to be the spirited hunter. I'm not kidding myself that he and Jack will be besties, I just hope the dog doesn’t intimidate him too much.
In other news, I've just been told we’ve killed a squirrel.
Not on purpose.
D has been going back to the house at lunchtime, checking up on Jack and letting him outside to be free, at least for this first week, because he’s probably plenty stressed in this new atmosphere. I myself tried to do this too. (Wouldn’t that be lovely! Lunch with my boys! Psh.) My commute is a tad longer, and I just ended up driving in a big circle from work to home and then turned right around and come back to work. Anyway, D found that our groundhog cage had finally caught something. Not a groundhog though. I haven’t seen one since we got Jack, nor have I seen any further damage. Of course our tomato has yet to produce any more fruit, though it has flowered since the attack.
We caught a squirrel. Not what we had hoped to trap, but then again, squirrels too would wreak havoc on our gardens. So D was trying to figure out what he should do with the little rodent. While he pondered this, the squirrel snapped. Apparently he went completely bonkers and began ramming the cage continuously with its head. D is not being one to cruelly torment an animal, but the squirrel was soon lying in the corner of the cage convulsing, blood coming out of its mouth. He called me at work to tell me what had happened and asked if I was mad at what he’d told me. I wasn't but... you know. Normally a disclaimer on our daily lives might read, "no animals were harmed in the production of this day," but today we can't say that and I feel that's a shame. So he very kindly lied to me and told me that all of a sudden the squirrel had gotten his second wind and would likely be up and out of the cage before I get home. I’m sure he will too. He'll be free. On a farm. With other squirrels.
Totally.
Cutesy squirrel clipart from Daily Clip Art
Super squirrel from Neatorama.
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