Skippy's Play Day

I've mentioned on several previous posts that Skippy has a difficult time playing or understanding the general play concept. She also hasn't had frequent opportunities to socialize with other dogs in a healthy environment, owing to her early years at the puppy mill and the reality that we know very few people with dogs. Just this past weekend we introduced Skippy to what we thought would be a new friend but it became very apparent that her inability to understand play was not limited to missing the finer points of fetch. Sydney is a black lab and something else I can't remember, but that isn't important. What is important, is that at about 6 months old, this dog towers over Skippy.

What Sydney wants most in life is to play. She tried to chase Skippy; Skippy thought she was being mean. She tried to pet Skippy; Skippy thought she was picking a fight. She tried to nose Skippy to coax her into playing; Skippy thought she was invading her personal space. Its ironic that my socially inept Jack Russell, who daily violates our cat's personal space, had no patience for this overgrown child sticking its nose in her face, trying to get her to play.

I kind of felt bad for this dog, so eager to do anything fun. Unfortunately, all Skippy wanted to do was Throughout the afternoon, she lied on the floor beside my wife and growled every time Sydney came with a foot of her. Meanwhile, Sydney just whined and threw her toys one by one in front of our boring dog, trying to entice her into behaving like anything other than an old woman.

(no offense to old women out there; you just don't play a lot, that's all)

Smelly Dog

My wonderful Jack Russell, Skippy, has typically been very gaseous. Now, I'm not sure if this is a result of her being elderly or simply a matter of her uncouth social graces. But, for whatever reason, my dog smells. At first we thought it was the food, and this certainly was a factor. We switched to a prescription high-fibre diet and things improved, but instead of needing to go out every five to six hours she needs to go out every three.

She has had her glands cleaned out, which is an incredibly disgusting process, for those of you fortunate enough never to have witnessed this procedure. This has also been a contributing factor in the reduction of smell.

Although these changes have lessened the frequency of bad smells, they haven't gotten rid of her pungent odour completely; I guess that would be too much to expect. For now we'll simply have to put up with a Jack Russell who causes us to ask, "Did the dog just crap in our bed?"

Building a New Door...In My Mind!

I've alluded in several previous posts to the possibility of dog-dementia or senility as possible explanations for some Skippy's more bizarre behaviours. She's approaching 12 years very soon, though we don't actually know her day of birth-we'll say it's in April, maybe March. But this so-called senility has been around for a few years.

Just recently, however, it's taken a new turn; not anything dangerous or concerning to her health, but just unexpectedly odd. As you may know, whenever we let Skippy inside she barrels down the length of the living room (see Tag, You're It!). Just last week she stopped just before our bookshelf, turned and stared at the blank wall beside it.

She waited for a moment, as if assessing the quality of some piece of invisible art that hung there, two feet from the floor, before turning her head to face me. I was confused as she returned her gaze to the blank wall in front of her, then back to me for a moment, as if she was expecting me to do something.

Then it occurred to me that this dog must be waiting for me to open the door to the bedroom, which was already open but on the other side of the bookshelf. Skippy had constructed, in her mind, a new bedroom door which only she could see and now wanted to go through.

I wish this were a singular occurrence, but there have been other mornings since then where she has stopped in the same place and waited for me to open the door that she sees on the blank wall before her. Even with Skippy's coloured past of ridiculous eccentricities, this one seemed to come from another planet.

What's up with my Jack Russell? This is what I figure has to be going on: she has super-cool dog powers that allow her to see secret passages that can only be revealed by special dog magic. She just hasn't figured out the right spell to open them yet.

My crude rendition of the moment.