I am totally broken hearted.  We had to take Bennie back to Pets without Parents.  Thankfully, it is a no kill shelter, but still.   If I could get my hands on the person or persons that raised him as a puppy, I would go to prison for murder.  I'm serious!  Someone had mistreated him so badly that he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  He had nightmares.  If you approached him when he was on the furniture, he would immediately go into attack mode, and you could tell that it was defensive, not aggressive!  He was sure that you were going to beat him!  This dog wanted love so badly!   We gave it to him and for a while, with medication, I thought that we had won.  Unfortunately, we had two episodes that were aggressive and made it so that I was never trusting of him after that.  I just could not take the chance that he would bite a child or even an adult for that matter!   I understand that terriers are really hard to train, but there is never an excuse to beat them!  He even had a broken rib where someone had probably kicked him.  He only weighed 25 lbs!  How could you beat a 25 pound animal?  Especially one that was as loving as you could tell he had been.  Almost all of his teeth were worn down to the gums, because he had been kept in a cage for so long that he tried to chew his way out.
     I will never forget him.  I pray that some day, he will find an old couple who doesn't have any other pets, who has a fenced in yard and who has the time to give him all the love and attention that he craves so badly.  If there was ever a dog that deserves a good loving home, its Bennie.
    I love you Bennie and I'm so sorry.

Bennie's here!

Its been 7 years since we first brought our little fur ball home.  She has been a source of love, laughter and tears.  Now she has a brother!  I have taken care of my brother for the last 24 years, ever since his aneurysm.  He decided he wanted a dog!  I went to a shelter and picked him out a 6 year old wired hair terrier named Bennie.  After a week, my brother decided he wasn't up to taking care of a dog and wanted me to take it back.  There was no way that I could do that, sooooo, we have another dog!  He loves Jade to death and follows her everywhere!  She's not so sure about him though.  She's too polite to let him know.  However, she is really unhappy when he lays in one of her favorite spots!  Being Jade, it didn't take her long to figure out how to do something about it.  As soon as he lays down, she jumps up and runs out the dog door barking.  He, of course, jumps up and follows her.  The minute he is out the door, she is back in and immediately jumps up into her spot!  Problem solved.  LOL!

then there was jade

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but after Jade was neutered,  she didn't know if she was a girl or a boy.  The main thing that she took up was trying to lift her leg to pee.  I said "trying".  Most of the time, she would fall over.  She really had a hard time with it.  It has improved with age though.  She actually does lift her leg most of the time now.  She has done a lot of things to either make me laugh or just astound me, but she hit the jackpot this time!!  She began by trying to lift her leg on a bush but instead of peeing, she pooped!!!!  I'm not joking, she actually pooped on a bush!!!  Only Jade could do it.

This is Quinn. He is Jade's newest friend. We don't have Bob anymore. Seems his owners decided that he needed to be fenced. We miss him. Quinn belongs to a friend who also has 2 other dogs. Quinn is exactly like Jade though. Same personality. What you see here though is a shaved Quinn. I will try to get a picture of him next spring when he has his full coat again. You won't believe its the same dog. I've got to try and get a picture of him smiling too. It won't be easy as Quinn is camera shy and turns his head when you try to take his picture.

All right, I said I would do it and here it is. She will also try to climb in my lap in the car. Her butt is on the console and the front half in my lap. She is so uncomfortable and wiggles around trying to find a good spot, but ends up leaving after about 10 minutes. In this chair, though, I can't get rid of her. She will go to sleep and so will my legs!! Gotta love her.

My new radar

Okay, after 4 years, my one ear has decided to stand up!! I always knew that I was "different" from other dogs, but this is the last straw!! I can maneuver it around to the back, side and front. Nothing gets by me now! If you thought I was cute before, just check this out! Mom says that I'm only half flying nun and now I'm half Rin Tin Tin. Unless you are really OLD, you probably don't know who Rin Tin Tin is. I don't, but Mom says its a good thing. Now I can hear those darn mice coming a mile away!

Alright, now I've seen everything! I'm 61 years old and its definitely time for me give up the ghost. We have been having a problem with really tiny field mice. They are so small that they can slide in almost anywhere. Every so often, one will find its way in and then its all out war. Despite their size, they can out run a greyhound. I have known since day one that Jade was afraid of her own shadow. Even though she is about 75 pounds, not exactly a "small" dog, she believes that she is a little lap dog (she will lay in my lap any time I allow it). So, I wasn't surprised that when we were chasing a mouse, that she didn't want any part of it. She stayed back, just watching, and rooting for the home team. The mouse suddenly changed direction and ran right at her. It was then that I got to watch in amazement, a 75 pound dog literally "dance". I would have given anything to have had a camcorder at that moment. She put ballet dancers to shame. After several seconds of River Dance, she was out the doggie door! I've decided that I will have to get a photo of Jade in my lap. Look for it in my next post.

Okay, I know that you won't believe this, but I swear its true!! Jade has had Ricky under her paw since the day I brought her home. We have had more arguments about how many treats she should have and when. I have a strict rule. NO TREATS until she eats all of her dinner!! Of course, that rule has been broken too many times.! She will eat a little bit of it and then come and whine or bark at me, trying to get a treat. I will look at her bowl and then tell her no, she has to eat it all. Then she will eat a little bit more and try again. It is a drag that goes on every night until its finally gone and she gets her treats. Last night though, she did something she has never done before and it was so deliberate that I was shocked. Her buddy, Bob, was here. (The black lab from up the street). He came in the dog door right after I had given her dinner. She was eating and so I told him that he would have to wait outside until she was done. He went. She had eaten about 1/3 of her dinner when she came and got me. I looked at her bowl and told her no, she had to eat it all. I went in the living room and sat down. I saw her looking at me and then I saw her go out. The next thing I saw was her coming back in with Bob in tow. She took him to her bowl and stood there watching him eat her dinner. When he was done, she escorted him back out and then came to me again. This time, of course, her bowl was empty and she was so proud of herself! I was flabbergasted! I knew that she was smarter than the average bear, but I never thought that she could do problem solving like this!! She blew me away. Now, I have to watch her the whole time until her food is gone so I will know who ate it!!

Yes, that's her laying on the couch. BUT not only on the couch, but on the pillow too! Nothing is too soft or too good for Jade! Without a doubt, she is Queen of the house! A while back, my daughter bought me a case of the most wonderful dog shampoo in the world. It was Oster's Black Pearl for black dogs. (If you look back at her puppy pictures, she was almost all black). Not only does she smell wonderful for two full weeks or more, the black parts actually sparkle like diamonds!! It is so wonderful and I loved it!! Guess what? They discontinued it!! Claim that it didn't sell! Seems people with black dogs don't wash them? At any rate, I noticed that Walmart is now carrying Oster dog shampoo. So, what I am asking everyone to do is, go to your favorite Walmart and ask the manager if he can get Oster Black Pearl Shampoo! I figure that if enough Walmarts ask for it, Oster will start making it again! What do you think? AND everyone with a black dog should buy this product!! Its amazing. I promise you will LOVE it!! Look, even the brown parts on her shine!

For those of you that have been following this blog, (Probably one or two of you), you will remember Jade has had some memorable moments in her short life. She has saved her Daddy's life, jumped into a trunk to make sure she wouldn't be left behind, eaten paper towel tubes, just to name a few. One thing that I have never mentioned though is her uncanny ability to know where she is while traveling in the car! Every dog I have ever had, has been content to hang out the window or sleep if the trip was long. NOT JADE!! She is alert to every turn. The only time she sleeps is on the interstate and then, only if you maintain the same speed! The second that you take your foot off the gas to slow down, she is up and on the console, checking out where we are going. AND she remembers!! A good example is Jekyll Island. As soon as we get on the off ramp of 95, she knows! She gets excited immediately. The closer we get to the Island, the more excited and she will start to whine as we cross the bridge. Another example is the park here in Newport, or any of her favorite spots. She will get excited when she recognizes the route we are taking and then, if we turn and go a different direction after she has decided that we are headed to the park, she will have a fit! She will whine and pout! I could list about 15 different places that she recognizes long before we actually get there. If she jumps on the console and starts looking around and you say to her, "Jade, do you know where you
are?" Her ears will go up and she will look all around . You can tell
the minute she realizes whereshe is. Its amazing. If she could
talk, I wouldn't need the Garmin!

I just have to tell you all about "THE BIG FIX". Newport, Tennessee, is a little town surrounded by a bunch of even littler towns. We would be lucky to have one of everything, but we don't. Its a wonderful place to raise children though. Little or no crime. Absolutely beautiful scenery. And, more than anything else, a community that cares. Our local shelter put on a two day event where anyone who could not afford it, got their cat, dog or both, neutered/spayed and a rabies shot for free. Puppies also got a Parvo virus shot. Over Saturday and Sunday, 7 or 8 Vets; innumerable volunteers put through 140 animals a day for a total of 280 pets. It was amazing. Ricky and I volunteered on Sunday. Never again!!! From now on we will be there BOTH days!! It was the most fulfilling and wonderful thing I have ever done. We were blessed with recovery. We got the dogs after the operation. Our job was to make sure that they woke up in a reasonable amount of time and that they were breathing okay and everything was fine. I got to take care of Chihuahua's and great Danes and everything in between. I got more kisses in one day than I had in my whole life! If you have ever worked for someone and been taken for granted or not appreciated, you have to do this! You will leave with no doubt that you had performed a service that you were genuinely LOVED for! We were given breakfast and lunch of some of the best food ever! A man who didn't even have a pet brought in a quiche that was fantastic! I thought I had done something wonderful by being there for 8 hours until I saw a man that had put in 14 the day before!! I am so proud to be a part of this community. Please! Please, go to www.animalrescuesite.com , click like crazy and then go to the Shelter Challenge and vote for the Newport Animal Shelter!! They sure do deserve it!! If you are ever out our way, please stop in and see the best little town there is! We are nestled in the middle of the Smoky Mountains. Ya all come! Hear? :-)

I'm really proud of our Animal Shelter here in Newport. It may be a small town, but the shelter is on the "one". October 17th and 18th, they are having a free clinic for spay/neuter and rabies shots. Ricky and I have volunteered to help out. They also have a regular deal where they ship our unwanted dogs to cities that don't have enough! Instead of putting them to sleep, they are given another chance in another city! On average, 40 or so dogs and cats are put in a truck and taken to Cincinnati, and a couple of other places, where they are given homes. I don't know who thought of this, but they deserve an award! If you go to the Animal Rescue Site, and click to give free food to the shelters, they also have a shelter award program, where you can vote for your favorite shelter. Please go and vote for the Newport Animal Shelter in Newport, Tennessee. They deserve it!! After all, that's where we got our "baby" Jade!! If nothing else, she makes a great pillow!!

Well, our little girl is certainly grown up.
She has gone from the scared little puppy to this! She now frolics in the waves like it is nothing. She still hasn't tried swimming, but I haven't gone in with her yet. I am definitely going to do that next time. We had a little problem this time though. A man came up to me and said that I was not allowed to take the dog off the leash. I had to educate him. Yes, it is the rule of the hotel that all dogs must stay on a leash and so, whenever you are on their property, you must do as requested. However, it is the law of the land, no one can own the ocean. So, up to the high water mark is public property. As such, you may do whatever you want. I say that hoping that everyone is smart enough to know that it is never okay to take a vicious dog off the leash. It is never okay NOT to pick up after your dog. Other than that though, as long as your dog does not go beyond the high water mark, go ahead and let them have fun!! On Jekyll Island, the beach is seperated from the dunes by large boulders. The high water comes all the way up to them, so there is no problem. The dogs cannot go beyond the high water mark unless they climb the boulders. I have seen dogs capable of doing that, but that's the exception. Most dogs do not even want to try. Go Jade, GO!

Well, Jade has had quite a week! Unfortunately, my camera has a problem. If I leave the batteries in it, they go dead in a week or less. If I leave them out, I miss all the great photos! Any ideas, anyone?
She had some bad news to begin with. We had gone out of town for 5 days and when we got back, the dog food bowl was empty. That had never happened before. The "boys" haven't been back since. She misses them horribly. I'll have to see what I can do.
In the mean time, her week began with her going out her dog door to find a raccoon eating her food! She was so shocked that she backed back in!!! The food bowl is about 4 feet from her door. Now I know why the food ran out when we left town! Thats going to be a hard one to overcome. The raccoon left quickly as he was as surprised as she was. Then, we found a fox cub in the middle of the road. I think someone had hit it with a car or something. Even though there were no signs of injury to its body, just the fact that it was sitting in the road and didn't run at first when I approached it, let me know that it was confused and maybe even in shock. When it finally did try to run from me, Jade tried to catch it for me. Of course, she never got very close (chicken through and through) but she did try! It was very young, looked healthy and since there was no other signs of injury, I'm praying that it was found by its mother and has made a recovery. Although it didn't run very fast, it didn't take it long to disappear in the long grass. I wish I could have caught it and taken to the vets. I think maybe with rest, it would be okay though.
Then, Jade was surprised when she went out in the morning. There were two absolutely beautiful young deer in the front lawn. They seemed to instinctively know that she was no threat, so they didn't even run when she barked at them. They just stood looking at her and her at them for several minutes. Of course, I ran and got my camera which didn't have any batteries in it! By the time I got it set up, they were leaving! The funny part is that Jade has gone from a couch potatoe to a porch potatoe!! She doesn't want to miss anything!
I love my camera, but I don't ever want to miss another shot like I did today, so I guess it will have to go for repairs. In the mean time, Jade is on watch!

The picture that I added was an old one. Probably about a year. Jade, Ricky and my brother in law, Berle are standing in front of a caboose that is in our town park. Our town is small, but we have a really nice park! Newport can be proud!

Jade got to go to Washington DC on vacation. She wanted to see President Obama, but no such luck! She did get to see a lot of other wonderful sites. She particularly liked the blooming Cherry Trees! That's her in front of the Reflection Pool and the Washington Monument. She also got to see the Viet Nam Wall. It was too crowded to get a picture, but I'm glad that she is a "she" and I didn't have to worry about her lifting her leg on it. There weren't any other dogs around, but she did make a friend. A little girl fell in love with her and spent about a half hour petting and playing with her. Of course, Jade ate it up. Any attention is right up her alley. There were so many squirrels though! Jade would have loved the chase but I couldn't let her go and as a result, I almost had my arm pulled out of its socket several times. I know that when I'm a few years older, I won't be able to hold her back. Either that or I can plan on spending a lot of time on the ground.

Well, my daughter was here and fixed the problem I had with pictures. So, here are the latest in Jades life. She now had TWO boyfriends!! I wish I had been that popular! These guys actually belong to a neighbor, but come up here at least twice a day to eat and play with Jade. We have named the boxer, Jake and the lab, Bob. We don't know what their real names are. The boxer is as big a chicken and Jade is. He won't come here without Bob and last night, he barked at something, Jade ran into the house and hid behind me and Jake ran home! I went out to see what was happening, expecting a bear, bob cat or something ferocious, but nothing was there. Who knows, Jade will run from a turkey!

Bob always has dirt on his nose! I wonder what he does with it? I would like to see what he looks like without it. Both are just the sweetest boys in the world. Jade goes out every morning and stares up the road, looking to see if they are coming yet. She can't wait for them to get here. Ah, puppy love!

Too young to date?

Gee, I thought that when my daughter became 21 years old and I didn't have to worry about her anymore, it was over. Now, my newest (daughter?) has a boyfriend! She has great taste because he is soooooo handsome! AND he really loves her! The question is: is she too young to date? She will be 3 in January. I guess that makes her 21 too. So, I had better stay out of it. Anyway, he showed up at the house one night with a few of his buddies. She only had eyes for him though. It was love at first sight. He returned many times after that. Always with friends. Then disaster struck. His friends refused to accompany him and he is much to shy to come by himself. So, the love struck ( is it puppylove?) lovers have been apart ever since. Since we know where he lives and since she can't drive yet, we take her by there every chance we get. He runs out to the car, she whines and carries on something horrible. He puts one paw on the door where she is leaning out and they touch noses. Its too cute! I have tried to take a picture many times, but as soon as he see's me, he runs! So, I keep the tinted window up and just watch through the side view mirrors. I would let her out to be with him, but there are two brothers who come running out to the car too. They want to chase us, and I'm afraid that they might not take to her, so she only gets to whine longingly. He is a gorgeous boxer with huge brown eyes. Like I said, very handsome. I keep hoping that some day, when he's older, that he will get over his shyness and come to the house for her. She will be waiting. After all, they are soul mates.

Jade in heaven!

I wish I had a picture to go with this, but unfortunately, I wasn't there when it happened. I had dropped Jade off at the groomers. I take Jade to The Grooming House every 3 weeks for a bath. The "owner/groomer" is Kim Grimmette, whom I highly recommend to anyone in the Newport area. Anyway, there is a day care right across the street from Kim's. Somehow, 10 little rugrats waddled over to see Kim and what she was doing. Jade just happens to LOVE children. The problem is that she gets SOOOOO excited that she sometimes knocks them down. Kim solved that problem by keeping Jade on the table. That way, all the kids got to pet Jade without being mauled by an over exuberant Jade. Of course, Jade was in heaven. 10 little hands were within licking distance! Not to mention that she was the center of attention, which is where she likes to be the most! The love went both ways too. The kids got to pet a dog and learn that not all dogs are mean or dangerous, plus they got to see what a dog groomer does. It was a good day for everyone, but especially for Jade!

OOPS!

Do you see the picture of Jade in the trunk? Well, she did it again, only this time it was my brothers trunk. The trunk in the picture was empty except for the one piece of luggage, my brothers trunk is anything but empty! She was back out as fast as she went in. It was so quick, I couldn't even think of getting a picture! She was truly surprised by what she landed on. I don't think she will be doing that again.
I was working on the property, trying to get it cleared. Someone had run over a Vole and killed it. I took the rake and threw it as far as I could. The next thing I knew, Jade was bringing it back to me. I threw it again, telling her NO at the same time. She thought it was a game and brought it back to me again. I finally gave up. We now have a dead Vole in the yard that is probably going to rot there. She goes over to it every now and then and tries to get it to play with her. Obviously, dead is not something they instinctively know about. I don't think I will put a picture of that on the site. Your welcome.

Merry Christmas

We took Jade for her bath right before Christmas. Kim, at the Grooming House in Newport, always puts a bandana around her neck or something to make her even prettier. This time, we were surprised with a Santa's hat! She told us that she had bought one for all of her customers, but Jade was the only one that would leave it on. We had to have a picture of that! The only problem was that although she would leave it, if you let her move around, the hat wouldn't stay on the top of her head. It would end up under her chin! We happened to have our own Santa's hat, so it only goes to say that this is the picture we took! Merry Christmas everyone!!