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There he was, a cute beagle (looks are deceiving) up in a cage calling to my boys "purchase me, I will be a good dog". |
Feature... We were at the local mall and my family beckoned me to the pet store. There he was, a cute beagle (looks are deceiving) up in a cage calling to my boys "purchase me, I will be a good dog". It worked, I put my Visa card down and that $100 purchase lead to many more hundreds of expenditures and challenges (or we could better term it "pains in the rear area".) The first challenge of living with Shorty (my oldest named him Shorty as he was short when we bought him, not that original, but it works for him) was one we had expected . . . chewing. He chewed up about every superhero and superhero attachments that he could get his paws/teeth on. My boys Spiderman did not survive Shorty! While this was expected, we did not expect that he would lie on the back of the couch and chew a hole in our floor length picture window curtains. We did not realize this until we shut the curtains and this big hole appeared. It was expensive to replace the curtains the first time and the second time after he again chewed a hole! The hundred-dollar expenditure was greatly expanded. The pet store sales person had told us that Shorty's parents were champion hunting dogs. This did not mean anything to me at that time, as I wasn't buying him for hunting. I just nodded my head and said that was great. Well, it did have an impact on our family. While I didn't want to go out and hunt rabbits . . . Shorty really wanted to hunt rabbits. We had a fenced in back yard that was fenced with a split rail fence and a wire garden fence on the outside. Shorty made quick work about getting over this fence to hunt. He just boosted himself over using the top rail. Of course I had to go out and hunt for him. My two little boys were so worried that he would get lost or hurt (our old dog had been run over earlier by one of our near sighted neighbors.) So, I am out wandering around the neighborhood calling for a dog that only cares about hunting. It got so difficult for us to catch him I would have my wife hide behind a tree and then I would try to herd him toward the tree where she would then jump out and startle him enough that we could jump him. One cold December morning he got out and I went searching on my own and after a good hour of sub-freezing searching I went home without spotting him. Off course, guess who met me at the door, Shorty! I tried different ways to keep him in the backyard. I removed the lower rail and nailed to the top of the post to make the fence higher, I tried to make the top of the rail slick so his paws wouldn't grab and I tried a shock collar. None of these worked. I finally bought a large roll of the same garden wire fence (another Shorty expense) and put it up on the inside of the fence. This worked until he climbed up in a bush near the fence and leaped over fence. Well, I then put the fence around the bush! This worked and we finally had a secure backyard. Next Shorty Story: Shopping for a house with Shorty in mind and lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner. |
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