My "heart"

I just had to record a milestone. Jade has learned what "go pee" means!!! I was always able to tell Max to "go pee" and he would. I thought that was really cool and came in handy many times, but I never thought that I would have another dog who would do that. For those of you who are unfamiliar with doggie habits, males will pee immediately and on anything. Its called "marking territory", but females can be a real pain in the legs. They do not go immediately and sometimes can take hours to go. They have no desire to mark thier territory and will go only when they have to. There is no way of knowing when that is. However, Ricky thought that Jade was smart enough to learn this trick and surprised me by teaching it to her. All I can say is: you go girl!

Jade's vacation

We went on vacation to Florida, or at least we thought it was our vacation. It turned out to be Jade's. The first hint should have been that while we drove for 12 hours straight, she slept the whole way. Then when we got there, we were exhausted and she was bright eyed and bushy tailed. Thank God for Capone. He is my daughters West Highland Terrier. Fortunately for all of us, he has as much energy as Jade does. So, Capone took over babysitting services while we rested. If I hadn't seen it for myself, I never would have believed that two dogs could play non-stop from 7am to 11pm. With the exception of putting food into the body and getting it back out again, they played!



People tell me that I spoil my dogs. Could be. At any rate, Jade's dinner consists of Beneful Dog Food mixed with whatever meat we have had for dinner ourselves. Her favorite dinner is when we go out to eat. She sits in the car and patiently? waits while we eat. When we come out of the restaurant, we had BETTER have a doggy bag! She knows that she will get a small treat then and has to wait until we get home so that I can mix it with her dog food. That's my way of easing my conscience. If I mix it, I'm not feeding her people food, right? I'm just making her food taste better! At any rate, my daughter is very strict on the "people food" thing. Capone is absolutely NOT allowed! The first thing she had to do was train her mother, and then the dog. It kills me. I'm convinced that my "grandson" feels that I don't love him! He is also convinced that if he doesn't eat it, Jade will get it! The funny thing about that is, Jade could care less. She is so used to getting people food that its not a novelty to her. Any dog could come up and push her aside and eat her food. She would wag her tail because she KNOWS that her owner will just give her some more! BUT, the bad part was that this little 20 lb. Terrier was trying to put down 40 lbs. of food every day. He would eat his bowl of food and then attack hers. ( That is the dry food that stays in Jade's bowl just in case she gets hungry during the day. By the way, it is possible for a 20 lb dog to eat 40 lbs of food because his digestive system is in high gear at all times. He is the only dog I know that can poop twice or even THREE times in one walk!! He did this every day that we were there, which was one week. He also managed to down a large Milk Bone dog biscuit and a small rawhide daily. From now on, whenever someone says something about "being full of it", I will think of Capone!

Now, Capone is a very well trained dog. At least that was until Jade got there. In order to keep her from getting food before him, he managed to get into the garbage and eat 3 large Ravioli's. He had spaghetti sauce all over the kitchen floor. My daughter also informed me that he had diarrhea for 3 days after we left. Like I said, "full of it".

Capone is the proud owner of a doggie door. It is the smallest one they make, I think. Jade weighs approximately 65 lbs. If you have ever seen a really fat woman try to squeeze into a girdle, you would get an idea of what it is like for Jade to get through the doggie door. She was not about to let it get the better of her though. She absolutely loved the idea of being able to come and go as she pleased, so squeeze she did. In and out, in and out. She had a ball. Like I said, this was HER vacation! The only bad part is that after she gets home and sleeps for a couple of days, she is very depressed. You don't dare mention the name Capone. After she spends 5 minutes of running around trying to find him, she then pouts for hours.
It took us longer to get over "her" vacation than it did her. It will be awhile before we try that again. We are hoping that we can get Capone up here in Tennessee for "his" vacation. We live in the woods on the top of a mountain. There are all sorts of animals that Capone could only dream of, having been city born and bred. I'm sure that it will be a vacation to remember!

Interior decorating by Jade

We absolutely love Subaru's. We have had 4 now. Our last one had 189,000 miles on it and all we ever had to do was give it oil changes and replace the brakes once! Terrific cars!! So, when we decided to get a new car, of course, it was another Subaru. Now, Jades nails grow at a ridiculous rate! We try to keep them cut, but it is almost impossible to keep up with. Up until now, we never had a problem, other than my arms which look like chopped hamburger most of the time. The new Subaru has been outfitted with the cheapest, lousiest material they could find. I don't know why. They always had beautiful material before that outlasted the car. The Forester has a console which Jade has claimed as her "throne" from which she survey's the world as it passes. She wasn't in the new car 5 minutes before I noticed that there were several holes in the material from her nails. Then I noticed that there were also holes in the door under the window. I was able to make a cover for the console, but I have no idea what we are going to do about the door. Thinking of keeping her off of it is mute. I know that all dogs love to lean out the window and have the wind in thier faces. Doggie heaven! But Jade takes it one step further than any other dog I have ever had, just like she does with anything else. She leans out so far that her face is actually in the front window! I have watched her struggle to stay out there even when we are getting on the interstate and doing 70 miles an hour!!! Most dogs give up at 40 or so, but not Jade! The wind has to try to rip her ears and lips off of her head before she returns to the inside of the car. Even then, she will try a couple more times, just in case the car has slowed down since the last time 40 seconds ago. Then she looks at me with complete disgust and lays down on the back seat and goes to sleep. That is, until she feels the car slow down and then she is up and at it again. If we happen to have all the windows closed and the air or heat on, she figures that her rightful place is in my lap! Now, she weighs 67 pounds. She is not what you would call a "lap dog". You can't tell her that though. I have seen her contort her body in ways that would make a pretzel jealous. I humor her when I am not driving, but trying to tell her that she cannot be in my lap when I am driving has turned into a war of wills. First, she tries bullying her way in. If that doesn't work, she tries the "sneak approach". She can slowly inch her way in without you even realizing it before its too late. Finally, she gives you the "hang dog look". She makes you feel as though you have just destroyed any hope of happiness in her life! She can bring you to tears. I haven't figured out how to make her understand that its a matter of safety. She only knows that her "Mommy" is rejecting her! Its bad enough that when she stands on the console, her "flying nun" ears are directly in my line of sight. As a matter of fact, they have even been known to hang out directly in my eye. I have also been the recipient of a huge wet kiss on the lips when I turn my head to check out whats next to me or to see what I am backing into.

When we bought the car, we were really only going for an oil change. We took her with us, which we do most of the time. We just walk her around while we wait. This time, however, it was very hot out. We were trying to find a shady spot with a breeze, when one of the men came out and told us that they were "pet friendly" and that we could bring her in! I tried to warn them, but they didn't believe me. As is her normal nature, she thought that everyone in the show room had been put there for her to play with. She gets down on her elbows with her butt sticking up in the air, tail wagging like crazy and she begins to bark. Either that or she leaps up on them and almost knocks them off thier feet. Then she tries to tear around the area as fast as her little? paws can carry her or until she comes to the end of her lead and is brought up short and almost choked to death. Of course, everyone thinks she is adorable and incourage her to more antics until my arms are almost torn out of thier sockets. I think that we will leave her home from now on when we go to the dealership. I do have to give them credit though. How many car dealers allow you to bring your dog into the show room? If you are ever in Knoxville Tennessee, be sure to stop in Grayson Subaru and tell them that Jade sent you!

So, when she isn't hiding or running away, she's destroying. She loves toys with squeakers in them. She can find one and remove it in a record time of 27 seconds. We timed her! She can have all of the stuffing out almost as fast. The worst problem with this is that she will eat it. The squeaker, the stuffing, it is all edible. She has also developed little idiosyncracies. She knows her way around. She also knows what belongs and what don't. If she notices anything, and I stress anything out of the normal range, she goes crazy. We had an old car with a cover over it, that sat in the same spot for a year. One day we were trying to sell it, so we removed the cover. She went crazy. I bought a plant, I hung a wind chime, a limb fell off of a tree, and each time, she had a hissie fit. I will give her credit though. No one would dare come into the yard without her noticing it immediately.

She is also a waterfall. Her tongue is enormous. She can hold a cup of water in it. When she finishes drinking, water pours from her mouth where ever she may go. I have to keep a mop by her water bowl. I made the mistake of giving her a drink while we were traveling down the road. Everything was fine until she finished, and decided that she needed to stick her head out of the window. Needless to say, the waterfall was immediately blown back into the car. Everything and everyone was covered. She is also a lover. She loves to give kisses. Now, I appreciate the sentiment, but have learned the hard way to avoid kisses immediately after drinking. That big tongue of hers can wet you down normally, but after drinking, you need several bath towels to try to stem the flow. You will never need makeup remover with Jade around. My daughter allowed us to keep her Westie over night once. Of course, all that playing meant that a constant supply of water was needed. I can only tell you that poor Capone looked like a drowned rat the whole time.

Life with a tornado

Jade also turned out to be a big chicken. I was out on the deck, sweeping the autumn leaves off when I moved a table to clean under it. Wasps had carved out a home there and I found out the hard way. One of them attacked me and stung me on the foot at least 3 or 4 times. Jade was laying by the door, minding her own business when it decided to attack her too. It stung her on the nose several times before I could get her in the door. It was horrible, poor little thing. Now, whenever she hears the hum of a bee or wasp, she either runs for the house and if she can't get in, she will run for the first person available or hide under something. At the time this happened, she was very little, maybe weighing 20 lbs, if that. She now weighs 70 lbs, so she's not a little puppy anymore, but she will try to get under anything. Sometimes its so small that only her head is under, but she thinks she is hidden. AND, of course, if I'm out there, she wants me to pick her up! I would love to talk to the Dog Whisperer about this.
The first time we took her to the dog park, she refused to get out of my or my husbands lap. She was sure that every dog out there wanted her for lunch! She finally found a little Terrier and sensing no threat, attached herself to the poor dog. Even though she was a puppy at the time, she probably weighed 20 lbs more than the Terrier. As much as it tried to get away from her, she was determined to keep it as protection. The second time we went, she was a little braver, with emphases on the "little". She would run for the little dogs who would run from her and then if a big dog approached her, she would run for our laps. Its still that way today. The closest dog park is 50 miles from our house, so we cannot take her as much as we would like. I'm sure that if she could go more often that she would overcome her fear, but we can't. We did take her to my daughters. My daughter lives about 800 miles away. She also has a dog. It is a West Highland Terrier named Capone. Believe it or not, they are a perfect match. Capone has endless energy and sometimes plays too hard. They alternate between trying to kill each other to seeing who runs out of energy first. They range from the lowest corner to the top of the highest piece of furniture. For Capone, this is natural, but for Jade, who thinks she is the same size and will not be outdone, she will follow him no matter where he decides to go. When we have to leave, both of them will mope for days.

Jade was unlike any dog that I had ever had before. She was very easy to house break, but that is where "easy" ended. Everything else was a fight. She had enough energy to power the electric to New York City. She could pull all the stuffing out of a toy in 2 minutes flat. Unfortunately, I became her favorite chew toy. My arms and hands were covered with blood everyday, AND she bit HARD! I tried every method know to man to get her to play a little gentler, but found that the only thing that worked was biting her back! Have you ever had dog hair between your teeth? I do not recomend it. BUT, it worked!
She would and still will, eat anything! She ate weeds, rocks, wood, bark, paper, cardboard, material, and anything else she could get her teeth on. One time, I emptied a roll of papertowels and thought she might like playing with the tube. I threw it to her and then answered the phone. It couldn't have been more that 2 minutes that I looked at her to see if she was playing with it. It was gone! She had devoured it. Of course, everything that went down came back up. That is how I discovered a lot of things that I didn't know she had eaten. The Vet had given me some pills to try to stop her from throwing up all the time, but nothing would keep down things like cardboard. Max's favorite toy was a pair of socks. I would put one inside the other, balled up and pushed to the very bottom, and then I would put a knot in it. It looked like a ball with a streamer. Jade ate hers. I have several boxes in the back bedroom. At least one edge on every box is chewed. She never leaves a mess, she eats it.