The Dogs Part 1

My sister and brother-in-law were scheduled to go to Italy and other parts of Europe for most of the month of June. Since they have nine dogs, this required scheduling a dog-sitter to come and stay at their house to take care of them. After they scheduled the person who usually does this for them and started finalizing the plans for their trip, the dog sitter called and said she couldn't do it. Mel called and told me what had happened and was pretty upset that the dog-sitter had backed out on them. We were scheduled for a family reunion with Mike's brothers at Disney from July 2 - July 9 and since we were already heading down south, then why not add a few days or in this case a month or so and take care of the dogs? We were already going to be there, sort of, and they already had a lot of plans in place for their European vacation.

Thus, the Summer of Laziness was born.

It had been a year since Mel told me they were planning their trip and we joked around at that time about us coming to stay with the dogs then. I guess we should have just planned on it from the beginning.

In order for me to be away from my job for most of the summer, it required me working a lot of long and late hours during the last part of the school year so we could go. I looked at my schedule and pushed everything I needed to do in June and part of July into May. I finished most of what I wanted to get done, packed a few things that didn't and headed South on May 30 for 7 weeks of sweltering heat and dog kisses. Suffice it to say that in some ways I had no idea what we were getting into.

The kids were already in Gatlinburg because they left the last day of school and travelled with Dad so they didn't have to ride the whole way to Florida in one stretch. They were pretty hyped up about seeing Aunt Mel, Uncle Larry and the dogs by the time I met up with them four days later, so I'm sure any thoughts Dad and Stephanie might have had of a peaceful break in the mountains went out the window until the kids were picked up. They had only known about this part of the trip for three days. Since they were still in school, I didn't tell them until two days before the school year was over that we were heading down to take care of the dogs. I figured once I told them, they weren't going to be able to get anything done at school.

We arrived at Mel's house and met the dogs for the third time. I'm not sure if they actually remembered us but maybe they did. We had seen them in December of last year and everyone, kids and dogs alike were excited at the prospect of spending the summer together. Ok. I did not actually verify this with the dogs and they really had no idea what was about to happen to them. I'm just saying that there was a lot of tail wagging, jumping, barking and kissing going on.

Here's the cast of characters:
Rascal aka "Wascal" aka "Wascally Wabbit" is the most senior of the dogs at age 10. He is a gray mini poodle with all of the usual poodle attributes. He is usually a sweet little dog but when he was sleeping on the kids bed, he growled and curled his lip at me when I had to come in to get him and take him outside. At one point, I was actually more concerned that he was going to bite me when I had to take him outside than I ever was about any of the 75lb+ shepherds. Go figure. He likes to cuddle up on the couch or the chair or really any place, anyone will let him. This dog is a little attention sponge. He has an amazingly funny and slightly irritating way of barking when he is excited. The first time I heard it I thought he was hurt but then I quickly discovered that he was just happy.

Mikko aka "Meek" aka "Meeky" is the most senior of the shepherds. He is a white shepherd but he has some color on his back. I think he is around five years old now. He has hip displaysia so he doesn't do a lot of playing around as much as the other dogs. He likes to play by himself sometimes because the other dogs knock him down due to his hips. Mikko likes to mark his food dish with his tennis balls and it is not uncommon to find two or three piled up in his dish. He is pretty laid back but is definitely the alpha dog of the pack although he is a quiet ruler. Meek has a very sweet personality and there were plenty of times I saw a kid or two laying on one of the dog beds with Meek stretched out beside them. Meek lived through the three hurricanes that hit this part of the state a few years ago. Prior to that, he was not afraid of storms. After that though, he developed a pretty healthy fear thunderstorms. Poor Meek sometimes has to take the equivalent of Valium but he is usually ok if he is in the main part of the house with his humans.

Angelo aka "Ang" is the other white male shepherd. He is snow white and very regal in his attitude and appearance. If he was human, he would probably be very confident and possibly slightly conceited. Most likely he would be some type of businessman. Ang has a very neat personality also. He would stand all day and let you pet him and if anyone else tried to hone in on his attention, he would have to give them a warning growl that he was not going to share his attention at that time. He likes to play ball and would race Dakota when they were out together. When he was laying around the house, he reminded me a little of the Fonz. Ang is very cool and all the kids would want to be like him if he was in high school. He is also Tebo's teacher and occasionally puts Teeb in his place by growling at him until he submits. Once Tebo does what Ang wants him to do, he is happy and usually walks away.

Dakota aka "Kota Girl" is the female white shepherd. She is larger than the boys. This dog would die from a heart attack chasing Frisbees, balls and anything else you might throw her way before she would consider stopping. We had to be really careful when we took her outside to play because it was so hot and she likes to play ball so much. She is a very sweet dog also. She was always ready for something, anything and could smile up a storm. She is sometimes clumsy and frequently stepped on my foot when I let her in and out of the house. At 125 lbs., that really didn't feel so good. When she wasn't playing ball, she would lay down and let the kids pet her but she is really a very big bundle of energy.

Tebo aka "Teeb" is the newest addition to the family, joining when we were down there in December. He's a black and tan shep, not quite a year old yet. He is slightly bigger than Mikko, almost as tall as Angelo, has huge paws and is very beautiful. He has to watch the older shepherds to understand what he is supposed to be doing and if he is separated from them, he doesn't know what to do with himself. He likes to play but is sometimes confused about the rules of playing ball (i.e, "You mean you want me to drop it, bring it back to you, oh look at the little lizardddd...."). However, he could sit on command even if he didn't want to stay sitting long enough to get a hug. Also, the older, wiser sheps have to put him in his place when he gets out of line so he understands that he is not the alpha or even the beta dog here.

Kyla aka "Kyla Pup" is a schnauzer of about three years old. She likes to yodel and can stand on her hind legs and twirl around for a treat. She is slightly neurotic and guards her toys as if her life depends on it. She sleeps under the bed sometimes with only her stubby tail sticking out and has the most beautiful eyelashes. There are women who would kill to have eyelashes like hers. Kyla never stopped barking at us every time we opened the pocket door to the spare bedrooms. Those rooms aren't used very often so she wasn't used to someone going in and out. It was funny. Kyla is kind of a loner but occasionally she would join in the fray. Sometimes, seemingly out of nowhere, she would start barking and stir up everyone else. She probably had good reason to bark but I never figured out what it was. She loved for us to pet her but only if it was within eyesight of her toys.

Spirit aka "Spirity" is a black, silver Skye terrier. Skyes are funny shaped dogs from Scotland and as with many terrier breeds, were used to catch vermin back in the old days. They are long with very short legs of about 3 or 4 inches. If they stand on their hind legs, they are able to easily reach the counter. Anyway, Spirit came to Mel after the death of her beloved 20 year old Yorkie, BJ. Spirit is a happy little/big dog with a huge personality. She can be pretty stubborn and on more than one occasion we had to carry her outside to go to the bathroom because she was busy doing something else; usually lounging around on the arm of the couch. She would race around the bed or up and down the couch with her ears pricked up and a mischievous smile on her face. Spirit was very generous with her kisses and loved getting pets from us.

Echo aka "Echo Pupper Dog" aka "Sweetie Pup" is also a black, silver Skye and for the following reasons, she stole my heart. Echo had been abused at her previous home and it took over a year for her to develop trust. When I saw her in December I could see that she wanted to be friendly and she wanted to have some pets from us. She was so curious about who we were, but she was just too afraid and so she had to make do with observing safely out of range of hands and feet that had probably once done damage to her. The day before we left last December, Echo hopped up on the bed and sat beside me, licking my hand. She was ok with this arrangement as long as I didn't actually make eye contact with her. She stayed that way for a long time and it made me sad to leave because I could see how much she really wanted to connect, but her past would not allow her to. I wanted to pick her up and hug her but I knew that would probably scare the daylights out of her so I just quietly talked to her instead.

What a difference six months makes!

When we arrived this summer, I was so happy to see that Echo had made a major breakthrough in being able to trust humans. When we arrived, I wasn't sure who was Spirit and who was Echo because she had joined in the happy, barking, licking, jumping, running around love fest that was going on. Mel said she spent a long time just working with her and being patient and gradually, Echo learned to trust that not all people are jerks who want to hurt her. It was an amazing transformation from what I had seen in December. This was the one dog I was worried about when we decided to come to take care of them. I didn't want her to be even more afraid with four kids running around her house, I wasn't sure if she would warm up to us and I was afraid it might be a really long summer for her. Turns out I didn't need to worry about it after all. She smiles too.

Scout aka "Scouty" aka "Scouter Dog" aka "Vulture Dog" after his penchant for perching on the back of the couch, is a buff colored Skye. He is a happy little man with a big personality. He likes to protect to the point of even growling at the sheps from time to time even though they are ten times bigger than he is. In an entry I plan on writing later, you will see how this attitude got him into some scary trouble though. Anyway, he smiles a lot and when he is in protection mode, I would not want to go toe to toe with him. He might be a short dog, but he weighs somewhere around 25 lbs or so and he can pack a punch. Mel says Scouty is like Eeyore. He can really work the pathetic act and make you feel sorry for him. He likes to cuddle on the couch also but mostly, he just loves to have his belly rubbed. Scouty is perfectly incapable of not turning over on his back for belly rubs. I believe I saw this dog laying on his back more than I saw him on his stomach. He has a silly personality and is probably the alpha male of the small dogs if there is such a thing. Scouty prances when he walks and of course he smiles too.

I loved having the opportunity to take care of these dogs this summer and I had a lot of fun doing it. They are all unique individually and as a whole and they work together to create a really neat environment. Each one makes a special contribution to the whole unit and I loved them all.