The Dog Blog: April 2016

Monday, April 18, 2016

A real Lady

(NOTE: This was written several years ago. Lady is 15 and a half years old now.)

My dog Lady was a little bully when she was young. She aggravated our collie Katie, and she thought she was the alpha in the house. She'd nip at me to let me know I wasn't doing what she wanted, and, naturally, she was always getting into trouble.

Once, she crushed my glass case and broke a pair of my prescription glasses. I guess she thought she owned my glasses.

But that's been nearly seven years. Lady's nearly nine years old, and she's slowly growing into an elder stateswoman. About a year ago, our other dog, Buddy, was barking at me — yes, at me, of all people — and Lady turned to him and bit him on the side of the face. Nothing hard; she just wanted to let him know that he needed to cool it.

Last weekend, the TV cable guy was standing with me on the deck, and the dogs were in the backyard. Buddy was going nuts, snarling and jumping up onto the side of the deck. Lady looked at him, took a couple of steps forward and slammed her front paws into him. That knocked him off the side of the deck. He started again, and she nailed him again. He didn't cool down, but he backed off a bit.

Then this week, we were at the dog park and a big, black dog was bullying a smaller dog. Lady took a few steps forward and used her front paws to bump him off the other dog. He backed off, and Lady trotted away, her mission accomplished.

People say that Lady is becoming more like me — quiet, thoughtful, patient — but I don't remember knocking loud jerks down with my front paws.

NOTE: Lady unofficially turned 15 years old in October of 2015.