Choose your Destructor…Part 2

All the trouble in the world these days makes me spend more time with my dogs.

During Cancer therapy, I could do little but sit in front of a computer or a TV. Watched a lot of home improvement shows. To this day I get flashbacks if I’m in a public space somewhere and the tube is showing “Property Brothers”. It seems to play in every doctor office I visit.

I watched a lot of Dog Whisperer. After therapy, while I was on the mend, I got it in my head that life’s too short. I’m getting a dog.

So my daughter knew a girl who knew some people that had puppies and badly wanted to get rid of them. The mom was a standard issue shepherd, the dad a big lab/golden mix. So enter Jethro.

They were only five weeks, and really shouldn’t be away from mama. So we negotiated with the folks to keep him another week. They were about to take them all – lock, stock, and barrel to the pound.

Those first weeks were tough. Little dude had separation anxiety bad. A stuffed dog with a heartbeat insert fixed that.

And, he went through a goofy face where he was tough to control. So we took classes on training him. Turns out there’s a dog training club here. They meet at a local park and go over exercises with the dogs. You train your dog.

So the dude learned to walk, sit, stay, come. He learned how to stay sitting, laying, or standing for three minutes at a time. He learned to behave around other dogs.

At the end of it all, I could tell him to stay. Walk 50 feet away in the middle of a line of dogs on either side. Stop and call him and he’d run up to me and sit. So what we have now is one of the best dogs in the world.

He’s about 80 lbs. And like his crazy girlfriend, hates when strangers are near his turf, or anywhere near me. But invite you in, have him check you out, and you’ll soon have the oaf laying at your feet. When we first got him, our son didn’t want anything to do with him. But the big dude kept at it and now they are best buddies. He may love me, but Jet thinks the planet revolves around our son. Every visit is like Christmas to him.

He’ll literally follow me wherever I am, wherever I go. When we walk, he’s at my side. I’d rather he not take a dump near someone’s walk, or their car door, but for whatever reason, that’s his thing. He’s super protective of my wife and grand daughter. We took the kids and the dogs to the park one day while we were babysitting. When we got there, the doofus had to sniff everywhere so my wife took off with the kid in a wagon to the playground. Jethro looked up, realized they were missing, and went into panic mode. He spied them across the field and took off. I literally couldn’t hold him. After reaching them, he was bound and determined that this would never happen again. So he walked next to them on the way back. I brought up the rear with the crazy girlfriend, Aria. To this day, he won’t let them out of his sight. And when my wife walks him after dark, he’ll refuse to let her walk past dark alleys. Ones he can’t see what’s there. He’s fine for me, for some reason.

I’ve read a few blogs where the authors write about their dogs, the best ones ever. Kenny at Knuckledraggin has hilarious and heartbreaking stories about his late dog Charliegodammit and Asshole Jack. His posts when Charlie passed broke my heart.

So I feel blessed to have not one, but two of the most amazing dogs ever.