Dog Tails and Tales: Rescue

Needing something lighter to think and reflect on these days, I'm writing about dog tales. Over the past few years, I've done a lot with my mom's two dogs. She has some chronic health problems so any walks they get - it has typically been me walking them. My mom has already let me know that when the time comes for her to leave this earth, any living pets she owns will come to me to continue to care for them. Now, I have my own dog (who has been with my for 7 weeks on September 21st) and given that my mom and I currently reside together - we now have a pack of three dogs.

The Players (aka Dogs)

The oldest dog in our pack of three is McGee. I call him 'GeeGee' (with two hard 'g's' as in 'gosh'). He's the golden tan, burnt orange colored dog. The next oldest is Callie, whom I often call 'Diva', 'Calico', or 'Cal'. She's the brindle colored dog wearing the plaid winter coat. Then there is my dog, Peyton, whom I'm starting to call 'Peypey'. He's the black and tan dog. Their ages in human calendar years respectively are 12, 7, and 3.

Dog Tails and Tales - Rescued

GeeGee: Each dog has their own unique quirks and each is a rescue dog. GeeGee was found roaming the streets at the top of the neighborhood. Another neighbor took him in initially but decided she couldn't keep him. I was living in Portugal at the time he came to my mom. My mom told me on the phone that she was just going to keep him for a few days. I knew right then that the dog would become my mom's. He actually came into my mother's home as dog number 3. There were two other resident dogs that my mom also owned. GeeGee will jump into the car but will cry all the way to the destination (even if it's going to the park). He shakes/tremors with fear whenever there is a thunderstorm or fireworks. We've yet to find medicine that really works. He certainly has some anxiety issues. But he loves to snuggle and get pets. We don't really know why he was at the top of the neighborhood, but it is really hard to picture this dog as a street dog. He's not all that aggressive; passive-aggressive yes, aggressive-aggressive no. More on his passive-aggressive tales and antics in another post. He was attacked once when I was walking him and he really didn't fight back but rolled over on this stomach trying to submit to get the attack to stop. It didn't help and his recovery was several long weeks as he had to wear a cone.

Diva: I helped my mom pick out Callie. She was rescued from the Greenville Humane Society. My mom had recently lost one of her dogs (so she was down to two dogs) and the remaining dog was now a senior dog. I think she wanted another dog to be able to play with GeeGee. So Callie also came into my mom's home also as a dog number 3. She immediately came in and set the two resident male dogs in their place. She became the alpha dog and took charge - which no doubt encouraged GeeGee to fine tune his passive-aggressive ways. Why do we call her Diva? She has some spunk and a good deal of energy! For a long while, no other dog could get a new dog toy unless the toy had gone through her inspection and her playing with it first. Her favorite trick is to immediately tear out the eyeballs (mainly small beads) in any plush toy. She also loves to kill a squeaker toy and 'make it snow' with any of the fluff in the toy. She will use her paw to tell her to keep rubbing her belly. If she gets special permission to sleep on the bed with a human - she sleeps right up close (and transforms into something like a hot-water bottle). It's ok sometimes in the winter, but not in the summer. She is the first dog for whom my mother has ever bought clothes - coats, sweaters, pajamas. She actually has very little hair and will shiver in the winter. But she loves to be brushed. GeeGee has excess hair it seems and he really needs to be brushed but in Callie's mind, how dare GeeGee get brushed but she does not get brushed. So she will come up and want to be get brushed - unless she thinks it will lead to a bath. If you meet her and she likes you, she may do the downward facing dog yoga pose which is really a request for you to scratch her butt - she does love a good butt scratch. It was interesting trying to explain this once to a man I was dating.

Peypey: I decided to get Peypey because I have always wanted my own dog and being unemployed, I had the time to spend to help him get acclimated. My mom was also open to the idea. So I rescued Peyton from the Greenville Humane Society. Although he is my first dog, he is coming into a home with two other dogs so he too is a dog number 3. GeeGee is now a senior dog, and isn't quite as active as he once was. I thought Callie could use another dog to run around and play with during the day. Peypey and Callie are getting along great being a male and female duo. Peypey also has high energy. We only realized how much Callie had calmed down once Peypey came into the mix. Peypey and GeeGee are still feeling each other out but things are going as expected. Peypey's middle name should be 'Bandit'. In just about seven weeks he has killed two pairs of my flip-flops, he got some clean (unused) sanitary pads from my bathroom and then he and Callie tore them up, he tries to grab food off the counter and tables (he has succeeded once). He is stubborn, headstrong, but incredibly smart. Most brain games I've given him he has mastered in a short period of time. He quickly learned 'sit' and 'down'. He loves to chew on anything. Callie will actually share toys with him (sometimes). But he likes some of the toys she doesn't prefer. Both he and Callie can run crazy fast. Peypey is actually a cross from a herding breed and he does have an idea in his head of what the other dogs should be doing and will circle the house to be sure everything, including the other dogs, are in appropriate physical spaces. He also seems to have an alpha personality which means we might have an alpha pair in the house. He was greatly confused by a mirror and kept looking for the other dog in the mirror. We think it's possible he never lived in a house. He seems to get stimulated by the TV at times - pays attention to it. If there is a dog barking on TV, he kinda looks for it. And he also is convinced the birdfeeders are really dog toys that we keep up high on posts. He has settled into his crate and now prefers to sleep there. I started leave his crate unlatched at night because he typically doesn't stir until he is ready to get up in the morning. That changed on the evening of September 18th. I was looking for my the other pair to a flip flop, couldn't find it, it was in his crate. So we are back to latching the crate. I was trying to let him earn some trust and it didn't work so well.

Three dogs, all rescues, all coming into a home as dog number three. Having my own dog has definitely helped me divert some of my excess energy and has been a pure delight. All of the dogs make us laugh in their own unique ways. Stay tuned for more parts of Dog Tails and Tales.