What Would Your Life Be Like If You Were a Dog or a Bird?

[Edwin]

Carol sometimes jokes that her life is like that of a dog's. Of course we are retired, so we do pretty much what we want to do. She said, "I eat, I sleep, and I go to the bathroom." Our bird, Wally, wants us to talk to him, whistle to him, and give him attention. Carol can pet him, but he is usually mad at me, because I am the one who shuts him in his cage at night for his protection, and that way he stays on his heated perch, which is much better for him when it is cold at night. Wally talks in a low voice, mimics things he has heard, people talking on the telephone, even from years ago; he has a tremendous memory. If he hears the telephone ring he will go to yelling hello. When he whistles he wants you to whistle just as he does. If Carol is talking with someone on the telephone and laughing as she talks, Walley will laugh hysterically, and repeatedly, and it is very funny. We love him. Rand, the German Pincher, is a very loving dog. We had to leave him yesterday so that we could go to town, so that Carol could have her blood drawn for lab work and give a urine sample. We had other things we had to do also. Because we were gone Rand got very lonesome, so this morning he sat on my lap twice while I was eating breakfast. He was afraid we would leave him home alone again. He barks when he hears cars coming or going in or out of our driveway. Then he sits at the window and watches a strange car at the other house. If he sees people moving around he will continue to bark, sometimes in a muffled tone. He wants me to give him attention, and sometimes he will not let me play the piano because he wants me to play with him. I throw tennis balls and he catches them. He also likes to play a keep the balls game in which he tries to control 2 balls, which is almost impossible for him, but he will hold one in his mouth and sit on the other. If he thinks I am going to kick one of the balls he will either put his foot on my foot, or on the ball. When I feed the outside dog, talk with Scooby, the big dog, and put him, Rand will sit at the sliding glass door and cry. He is very jealous, although he does love the big dog, and they are great friends. Both the dogs know when it is time to walk, and they will both start crying if they think they might miss their walk. They love to walk. It is fun for them, and it is very good exercise for me. If I get tired while walking Scooby will pull me up the hill. I have to keep moving my feet, but the hill is much easier while he is pulling me. He is a Great Swiss Mountain Dog, and he is huge and stronger than you can imagine. We say that the sliding glass door is Scooby's big screen television set, and the televiation program is what the humans do. When we are walking he jumps up, puts his front paws on my shoulder and wants me to hug him, pet him, and love him. He is just like we are; he wants to be petted, hugged, and loved!

[Edwin]

My dog, Rand, has pushed the covers on my bed to the bottom in a pile, and now he is laying on them sound asleep. Sometimes he simply goes under the covers, and sometimes he will stick his nose and 2 front paws out of the covers, so that is all you see. The last dog we had before we moved away to Stehekin was a wonderful little Queensland Heeler, Soapy. He was such a good doggie in every way. He would panic if he got covered up, but Rand loves it. During the night if he is cold, or he thinks I am cold he will crawl under the covers and snuggle up to my warm body. Then when he would get warm enough he would crawl out of the covers and lay on the other side of the bed. In the morning he crawls up and sits on my lap, but he does not want me to help him; he can do it all by himself. A lot of times he will not go out of the house for me, but Carol tells him to go outside, opens the door, and he goes right out. He wants to be with me all the time, and if he sees me putting on my coat or snow boots, he really gets excited and stays right with me because he knows that we are going to go outside and do something important. The other big dog, Scooby, has been pulling one of his blankets out of his house every morning. I'm not sure what that means, but it is easy to put it back in. Oh, to have a dog's life, huh? Of course the poor little creatures don't live long enough. Not everyone's dog gets treated well, but ours are babied and pampered. They and our bird, Wally, are members of our family!

[Edwin]

I think dogs are much like people. Our dog, Rand, was raised by our granddaughter, and our daughter helped. He was our granddaughter's dog, but she couldn't take him to college with her, so she asked us if we wanted him, and yes we wanted him. He has become my dog. He tries to stay with me all the time. When we are gone for a few hours we leave him in the house, and play Christian music to him, and he loves it. When we get back he is so excited to see us he grabs his newpaper and begins shaking it. He follows me in and out of the house constantly, and runs and jumps for joy. The reason I am writing now is he won't let me play the piano. He pushes my hands up off the key board. So I played ball with him for a while. He loves to play catch with the tennis balls, and then he likes to play keep away also. He sleeps with me at night as well. He is my little buddy. He is very jealous of the big dog, Scooby, the Saint Bernard type, actuall Great Swiss Mountain Dog. Rand cries while I feed Scooby and talk with him. Tonight after we got back from our walk Scooby was so happy that he ran around the yard as fast as he could run. He was just having such a good time that it made me happy as well.

[Edwin]

Scooby was another granddaughter's dog, and the way I got started to walking was that, that granddaugter asked me to teach him to lead on the leash. I started, and I and the dogs have been walking ever since. We don't have that great a fence for him, but he stays in the yard. The biggest trouble I have had is that he got away from me a several times. He would pull out of his collar, so I tightened it a little, but he still would get away. The smaller dog Rand, will come to me any time I call him, but when Scooby gets away he is off to have a good time, and he doesn't care that I am calling him. After chasing him for a total of about 4 miles I got a horse's halter, and I used it for a harness on Scooby. I buckle the harness and the collar together with the leash, and that works really well, except once I dropped the leash, and off he went! After walking along ways he stopped for me, and then we came home. I have tried harder since not to let that happen again. I am now teaching him what treats are, and that works fairly well. When I am taking him through the house, and Carol is not here to help me, he explores all the rooms in the house. I was just allowing him to finish exploring then I would put him out. I discovered by telling him treat, and holding up a treat, he comes right to me, because boy does he love treats. He recognizes them by sight, and he loves to eat them, now I am trying to get him to recognize the word, and he will in time. Then when he gets away I can yell treat, and I think he should come right to me instead of running off. They use these dogs in the Swiss Alps as rescue dogs. He has a tremendous sense of smell. A lot of the time when we are walking he has his nose to the ground following scents. He wants to stop, smell of everything, then mark it, until after 2 hours of walking he doesn't have much left to mark anything with. Both the dogs have fun on our walks and it is good for me as well. Lately I have to be careful on the compact snow and ice, so that I don't fall down and hurt myself, and it takes longer to walk the same distance in snow, but it is actually a better workout for me.

[Edwin]

Our daughter ended up in a bad situation, and she saw someone who told her that her dog was running the streets in another town and begging for food. We are animal lovers, so when we heard that we headed right for that town and drove around where her relatives were living, calling the dog. We had no luck, so we drove to another relative who had a horse sattle that belonged to our daughter, so after getting that saddle, we drove back to where these people lived calling the dog, and here he came; Ringo came and jumped in the car with us, and we were on our way home then. We stopped and visited with one of the relatives on our way to this town. So we went home very happy that we got her horse saddle and her dog, a border collie dog. He is such a nice little dog, little because both of our dogs are bigger; the one a little bigger, and the Swiss Mountain Dog, a giant. The little doggy was so happy that we found him, that he talked about it for a while, and we were very happy also!

[Edwin]

Dogs are funny! The dog that can be free to be inside, outside, or anywhere he wants to go, goes out with the outside dog sometimes. Our daughter has her border collie here, and both those dogs went outside with me while I was cleaning off the internet dish. Then it was time to feed the outside dog, so I fed him, and our inside dog started eating his food, but when I called him he followed me inside the house. Then our daughter's dog started eating his food, and I couldn't call him to come, so our daughter called him in. What the deal was is that he had a little broth in his food, and the other doggies wanted it because it tasted good! So the big dog shared just a little of his food with both the other dogs, and he didn't mind. The other 2 dogs get really mad at each other if one thinks the other is too near his food dish!

[Edwin]

I think earlier I wrote about bringing the big dog Scooby in the house for a short time. I had him sitting by my chair, and I was petting, patting, and loving him. We also had him in the large kennel 2 times. The first time, he had just come in the house out of the cold. He had gotten out of the fence for the first time in about 3 years. By the house I have never had the fence very secure, but it always held him except for 2 times. Once was last winter when the snow drifted about 4 feet deep, and he just walk over the top of the fence on the snow and came around to the front of the house. We brought him inside while I dug a trench all the way around the fence. He could have jumped out easily after that, but he didn't. Today I think he just got against the fence near the house and it fell over. I don't know if he went anywhere else, but he came to the back door. He was there long enough to have snow all over his face, and he looked pitiful, making all of us feel really sorry for him. He got lots of love out of the deal as well as a number of treats. First when he got close to the kennel he got shoved in, and he was not too happy about being confined, but he did okay. Then I had him sitting by me for a long while after which I coaxed him to the kennel with a treat, gave him the treat, and pushed him in the kennel. Then I got him out, played with him, loved him for a period of time afterwhich I put him back outside, giving him food with warm water in it, after fixing the fence more securely by the house. I worried about him a lot because he is my friend and it is very cold out there, so, my daughter helped me, and I went out to my reefer trailer to get an electric chord and a light to provide some warmth for him. He will probably not sleep all night because the light is on, but it is keeping him warm. Our daughter was in his house installing the light, and she told me it is very warm in there. He has blankets, and all the food he wants to eat, so he is okay. He is out of the wind in his house and should be very comfortable for a dog, and besides he is a cold weather dog, intended to be a rescue dog in the Swiss Alps.

[Edwin]

Carol saw this subject and she thought it was kind of stupid for me to be writing on a subject like this, but there is a little humor involved, and then there are some good comparisons that can be made. We heard a Country Western Song which was kind of funny. It is "I wish you would love me like my dog does baby!" The song is very funny. It says that the dog almost goes crazy when he sees me. The dog doesn't ask me to get a job that pays more money. The dog doesn't ask where have you been. The dog doesn't say I wish you made more money. I don't like all the words in the song, but it is a cute song with a funny message.

[red]

If I were a bird I would have a short life. And I would never experience to love humanely. But nice advantage would be I will never experience heartache and mostly no illness like a human do. And wont have problem with money! lol!

[Edwin]

Red, unless you were our bird! He is a Yellow Crown Amazon, and they live close to 100 years from what I understand. So, our bird probably has maybe 70 or 80 years left. He will still be going after we are dead and buried. Of course during the earth quake his sister fell or was knocked off her perch, and she did die an early death. She was maybe about 12 years old or so. Of course if he does not stop screaming and yelling he may die prematurely at Carol's hands. No, we love him inspite of his obnoxious loud habits. He was our daughter's bird, but now we have him, but she told us that she would not allow anyone to cuss or curse in his precence as she did not want to hear him cursing forever.