Working-K9: May 2009 Posts

Sunday, May 31, 2009
Pigeon at my door

My human always says how much she dislikes mornings and I'm starting to understand why. On yet another fateful morning, this time after all dogs and the human had breakfast there was a terrible thud. It came from the back, near the door leading to the yard. The noise startled both my human and myself. Thankfully Atlantis was securely napping in her kennel.

I jumped to attention, ready to spring in to action at a moments notice. My human began peaking around the window to see just what had hit the house. Then she noticed a shadow in the doggie door. Now had the shadow moved or even twitched I would have been all over it, but it didn't. It was still and lifeless.

My human grabbed my ear and pulled me towards my leash. Once tethered to the scooter and unable to leap in to action she used her foot to push the dark object out of the doggie door and back on to the back yard patio. Once it hit the ground she could clearly see that it was in fact a pigeon and I could clearly tell that it was still alive. I wanted to chase after it so badly. I whined and tugged on my leash to no avail.

My human stepped out side and shooed the feathery invader further out in to the yard. It hopped and staggered. Clearly it was still stunned from the force of the impact with the side of the house. I whined and wiggled wanting nothing more than to go after what would be such easy prey. Darn leash!

Once the bird regained its' senses it flew off as if nothing had happened. My human came back inside and after noticing my state of anticipation she decided to let me stay attached to the scooter until I calmed down.

Had that pigeon actually come in to the house, had my human not be able to leash me, had Atlantis not already been in her kennel, that whole ordeal would have had a much different and dare I say even messier outcome.

Saturday, May 30, 2009
Here Kitty Kitty Kitty

It was early in the morning. My human and I ventured out to the kitchen to wake up Atlantis when out of the corner of my eye I saw movement out the back door. I froze in place for a second then slowly crept forward. About that time my human noticed my attentiveness and turned to grab me.

Knowing that if she got to me or the doggie door before I did, I would be unable to defend my yard from the invader I made a run for it. I was out the doggie door in a flash and the furry black invader made a mad dash for the block fence at the back of the yard with me right on its tail. The creature darted up the wall but failed to make it over and fell back to earth.

About this time I hear my human yelling "Sandi stop" "Don't". At least I'm fairly sure that's what she was saying. I was pretty much in the zone at that point so I prefer to think she was saying "Sandi don't stop". In either case I wasn't about to end my chase in the heat of the moment especially as the ball of fluff was plummeting towards my open jaws.

I caught the beast just before it hit the ground. I playfully tossed my quarry in to the air with delight but failed to reacquire it as it fell. It hit the ground running with me in hot pursuit. We made one full lap around the back yard as my human looked on in horror.

Once back at the wall the creature made one more attempt to scale the wall and this time it succeeded. I also felt a sense of accomplishment. I had driven the marauding cat from the yard. I had defended my territory and protected my human from any nefarious plans the feline may have had.

I puffed up and strutted around the yard, still on alert and pumped with adrenalin. My human finally let Atlantis out who by now really needed to pee. Normally she bolts over with puppy exuberance to greet me in the morning but one look at my posture and she stopped dead in her tracks and peed on the patio.

Once I calmed down and was sure the threat to household security was gone we all came inside for breakfast.

Monday, May 18, 2009
Got Mobbed

There we were on our usual evening run. My human in her scooter. I to her left and Atlantis to her right. We trotted down this street and crossed over to that street. Up a little hill, around the corner, zig and zagging our way through the neighborhood. My human tries to keep our run interesting so we take a variety of different routs throughout the week.

This evening we went past the little park. We go pass the park at least once a week. It's kind of in the middle so it's hard to miss it actually. It's a quaint little park. A grassy field, some trees and picnic tables, a pavilion and yes a playground with swings, slides and other fun stuff. None of which we dogs are allowed to play on. Totally unfair if you ask me.

Sometimes the park is filled with families, other times it's rather empty. This time it contained a few families and quite a few of them were little kids. Now you know how totally irresistible I am to you and old alike. Apparently Atlantis has a rather strong effect on people as well. With the two of us strutting ourselves we are a force to be reckoned with as the parents of the youngsters quickly discovered.

The brood of young ones began calling out "doggie", or maybe "puppy", not really sure. They are hard to understand. Some I think just said "da!". Regardless of what was said, or meant to be said they all came a running up the little hill right for us. The parents in hot pursuit. To prevent the little humans from ending up in the street my human made a mad dash for the parks edge and pulled in to the grass and grabbed Atlantis's leash before she could pounce on a toddler.

Much to my humans surprise she exactly what I did and sat down just as the horde of tiny humans reached us and grappled on to our fur. We both had kids on our heads and bodies. The parents apologized when they finally caught up but my human assured them that it was ok as the kids giggled and petted us. Atlantis got in a few good licks but I maintained my composure and just let the little people hug me.

My human explained to the parents and the kids about service dogs. The kids tried out a few simple commands but after sitting and downing a few times I was done with letting kids tell me what to do so I just stood and let them all pet me. One of the kids gave Atlantis a water bottle which she tried to chew up until my human realized what she had and told her to give it to the parental figure.

Once the initial excitement of our presence subsided the kids went back to playing on the swings and we continued on our run.

Thursday, May 07, 2009
Going to the dumps

Earlier this week 5 large dumpsters were dropped off in my neighborhood. I didn't get to see their arrival because my human had all the windows shut and was out working with Atlantis at the time but I sure heard them being delivered.

For the next several evenings and night people would come and drop stuff in. All night long some nights we'd hear the bang bang thud twang of large items being hurled in to the metal trash receptacles. Naturally I felt the need to alert my human of any and all noise and anything could have been a potential threat.

After a few nights of this my human was starting to look a little annoyed and I must admit I was becoming a little horse. Odd expression don't you think. Be being a dog and all, can I really become a little horse?

Ok so my human wasn't sleeping, I was losing my voice and Atlantis didn't know which way to run to get away. It was a little bothersome to say the least, especially since most humans seem to only toss their garbage away under the cover of darkness. Like they think they are being the slightest bit stealthy with the noise created when large items ricochet off the metal walls before coming to a sudden stop at the bottom.

At least it's over now. The trucks arrived to take the large metal boxes away.