Fleeting Catahoula

Eldest son gave Old Man and me a gift that keeps on giving. And, for no reason! It wasn't Christmas, an anniversary or either of our birthdays. My mother would say he's awfully 'thoughty'. And it was a tremendous gift! One that I would not have ever thought to get for myself.

The gift is about 2 feet tall and weighs around 45 to 50 pounds. It leaps tall buildings and stops a speeding bullet. No, that's not right. It leaps hurricane fences and scales 6 foot tall dog runs. And stops at nothing to get in the house when someone is shooting a gun, or there is thunder, or the door is open, or another dog has entered the house. Any of these reasons.

Yes, you've guessed it - it's a dog. A Catahoula Leopard Dog, to be exact!

Old Man and I already have 2 dogs. Girlie-Girl is a 25 pound Heinz 57 and looks like a big Miniature Pincher. She is very well behaved, never jumps up on people; she doesn't bark much; she's small and compact; she comes when she is called; and wags her tail like there's no tomorrow when we arrive home from work with true, unconditional love. This is the reason to have a dog!

Hound Dog is a bull-dog mix and is a little bigger than Girlie-Girl. He shows his joy at being a dog by jumping in the air and doing a full-body twist. If he's really jubilant, he'll do several in a row, touching paws to ground just enough to keep his balance. He adopted us about 3 years ago when a family betrayed him by leaving him on the side of the country road to fend for himself. During those 3 years, he was the neighborhood dog. He made his rounds every morning and every evening to see who was home and had breakfast or dinner for him. Now he's Poor Hound Dog because during those 3 years none of us took him to a vet for shots and now he had heart worms.  But Old Man and I decided that his demonstration of joy for living was too precious, so we had him treated. It was a trial keeping a normally very active dog quiet.

Now we have Princess Super-girl. We brought her in the house because isn't that where dogs belong? Well, Princess Super-girl cleared the coffee table in a single bound without touching it, landed on the couch and dared anyone to make her get off. Which we promptly attempted. She dodged and darted while Old Man tried to catch her by the collar. I joined the fracas, only to make matters worse by tripping over the coffee table and landing face-down on the couch. Immediately, Super-girl jumped onto my back with a look of triumph. Her minute of celebration was the crack Old Man needed. She was still for a fraction of a second so that he could slip his fingers under her collar and grab her.

Realizing that it was going to take time and training to get Princess Super-girl some house manners, we resigned ourselves to making a home for her in the back yard. We had a dog run for when we had to isolate a dog for any number of reasons.  This was to become Princess's temporary castle. After putting her in the pen, making sure she had shade, water and shelter, we went into the house to decide our next plan of action; how were we to proceed to teach Princess Super-girl how to behave indoors? No sooner had we sat down, then there was a yelping and scratching at the door. Super-girl was on our door stoop looking like she was reminding us about her. We put her back in the pen. The same thing happened.

We decided to watch from a window. What we witnessed is what made us decide to call her Super-girl! We thought we outsmarted a climbing dog by placing the shelter in the middle of the pen so she couldn't use it as a jumping-off point to go over the wall. Super-girl scoffed at our attempts at security. She scaled the corner of the pen, paw over paw, until she reached the top, where she teetered on 4 legs at the very top. Just when I thought she was going to fall backwards, into the pen, she gave a mighty shove and leaped to the ground. Without missing a beat, she took a running jump and leaped over the hurricane fence that surrounded the back yard and landed on the back stoop, barking and scratching to be let in. "You forgot me!" she seemed to be yelling.

Dear Reader, I hope you keep coming back for more. In future posts I will tell you how Old Man and I finally solved the security problem with Princess. Obedience training has been hilarious. Princess Super-girl keeps Old Man and me on our toes. And, I have to keep reassuring Girlie-girl that she is Queen of the house. It seems that we have a houseful once again.