My Life with Dogs cont'd (Introducing Hercules)

Yesterday when you met Samson we told you his best friend in the pack was a seven pound toy poodle. We weren't kidding. Hercules is our tiny little curly bundle of hilarity. He came to us as a puppy mill rescue in the summer of 2009. Shy and scared he hid from us for the first few weeks he was here. He still has no trust for strangers, but has progressed to the point where he enjoys playing with his pack members, Samson in particular, and trusts myself and my husband, although no other humans can get close to him. His disposition is understandable given the way he was treated in the first two years of his life. Hercules had no name until he came to us, he was just a breeder a commodity and was never given a name. He was kept crated all the time, and the only human contact he ever knew was being moved from one cage to another for breeding purposes. When I first brought him into our home and set him down on the floor he froze staying in one place and one position for the first 45 minutes. He was simply too afraid to move. The rest of the pack finally brought him out of his shell but it would be months before we could touch or hold this little guy. Hercules will live in our home until his last days as he will never be rehabilitated enough to live in the ordinary home. He is happy here with us and here he shall remain. Tomorrow you will meet Diva the shihtzu.

My Life with Dogs cont'd (Introducing Our Newest Addition Samson the Old Soul)

Samson came to us after a frantic phone call about a woman who was about to abandon a ten week old puppy out on a lonely country road if someone didn't take him. Her sixteen year old daughter had shown up on her doorstep newly pregnant, baby dog in tow. This woman of course took in her daughter, but when the daughter refused to take responsibility for the puppy's day to day care she wanted the pup out of her home, and didn't care where he went. When she couldn't find anyone to take him, she decided to drop him off in the middle of nowhere and let him fend for himself. I was her last resort.
Strangely enough just the evening before my husband and I had made the decision to take a hiatus from dog rescue to concentrate on renovating our home for sale. Now we had a dilemma on our hands. We didn't want to take on another puppy right now, we had things to do. But it was a puppy, and we both knew that if we turned our back on him he would die alone in the country somewhere.

We took him in, of course, and soon discovered he was one of the easiest going puppies we had ever raised. When you tell him "no" he stops what he is doing and goes in search of a more acceptable activity. He always seems to instinctively know what you expect of him and will try his best to meet your expectations. He is an old soul, you can see it in his eyes. Samson is a very sweet dog who had a very tough start in life, but he loves his new pack. His best friend is a seven pound toy poodle named Hercules. You will meet Hercules tomorrow.

My Life with Dogs cont'd (Introducing Nakita the Giant Puppy)

Nakita came to us ten days before Christmas 2008. She was eight weeks old, and cute as a button. Little did we know how fast she would grow, how big she would get, and how headstrong she would become. When we found her she was living in a tiny one bedroom apartment with a woman who could not control her large breed puppy exuberance. Nakita is a Husky/lab cross, a breed mix we were familiar with. We had just lost our Husky/lab mix Gabrielle the August before. We took this little puppy home, but she didn't stay little for long. Her first act when entering our home was to head straight for the long line of dog dishes in the kitchen. She went from one dish to the next eating her fill. This was to be her routine for the next few months. One dish would not do she had to sample food from all of them. Nakita grew very quickly weighing 50 pounds by the time she was 6 months old. As a puppy I indulged her need for attention, sitting with her in my lap while I watched television. Little did I know what a big mistake this would later prove to be. Nakita now weighs 80 pounds and thinks she is a lap dog.

Nakita's favorite playtime activity is to run and chase her fellow pack members in our big backyard. As you can see from the picture the backyard belongs to the dogs. There is no longer any grass back there. They have destroyed it with their joyous romping. We would prefer to have grass of course, but that isn't our part of the yard it is their exercise area. When you live with multiple dogs you look at life from a very different perspective. You also give up a lot of personal space to accommodate your pets. Nakita takes up a lot of space, and she has a tail that clears coffee tables when it wags, and it wags every time someone looks in her direction. It is not uncommon to hear my husband or I yell "watch your glasses", or "clear the coffee table here she comes" before letting Nakita loose in the livingroom.

Right now Nakita's best friend in the pack is Samson our latest addition. You'll meet him tomorrow and learn all about how Nakita is teaching him her bad habits.

My Life with Dogs cont'd (Introducing Mysty and Bowser)

Mysty and Bowser were born in our home on January 24, 2007. They were two out of a litter of eight born to our dog Ebony after she was impregnated by a stray who wandered into our backyard. Ebony is at the Rainbow Bridge, we lost her to a rare disease 6 months after her pups were born. We miss her dearly.

Mysty is and always has been a shy dog. She does not do well with strangers, and will bark at new people the second they enter her range of vision. She is getting better though, she will now let repeat visitors pet her and in some cases she will even come and greet them at the door. Above is a photo of Mysty.

Although Bowser is Mysty's brother they look nothing alike. They are also complete opposites in personality. Where Mysty is shy and fearful, Bowser is brave and outgoing. While Mysty likes to blend into the woodwork Bowser likes to stand out and get noticed. Mysty has been with us since birth, but Bowser was adopted at ten weeks of age. He was returned to us at 18 months of age because his owners could not control him, and they feared their small child would be injured by his exuberance. Bowser is the pack's lead dog, and takes on responsibility for showing the new dogs the ropes. He is very good at his job. This is a photo of Bowser above.
Tomorrow you will meet Nakita.