Duke, PezDog, and the Blabbies

Most of our canine gang lives inside. They're either older, or Special Needs, and they enjoy both the company and the shelter.

However...there are a select and hardy group who actually prefer the great outdoors, and who resisted every suggestion that they might like a warm spot by the fire on a cold evening. Go figure.

The first of these is Duke, a black and tan coonhound. He came from a no-kill shelter, where by the time he was five months old he drove the staff to wits' end. We thought, well, we can tame him. Wrong.

Duke defines 'wild'. He's immensely strong, energetic, and almost completely uncoordinated. Bringing him in the house resulted in pawprints high up on the wall, and at least one door that had to be re-hung. In a huge run, he's happy as a clam.

PezDog, otherwise known as Elvis, steadfastly resisted any attempts to housetrain him. A black and fairly small Pit, he's Duke's neighbor and pal. He arrived one day when I was driving with the windows down. A small black shape darted into the road, and to miss him, I slid into the ditch. Elvis leaped through the driver's window, and bounced into the back seat. He curled up and quickly closed his eyes. "See? I'm asleep!"

He's called PezDog because he can walk on his hind legs, head thrown back, mouth open, waiting for a treat to be dropped in.

The Blabbies are two Black Labs, Bernard the Ninth and Labby. Bernard turned up when we lived in Texas; he was visiting with all the neighbors until a geriatric poodle decided to take a few pieces out of his underbelly. After that, he camped out on out porch until we took him in.

Except that he was terrified to come in. He's got a run which he absolutely will not leave. We've worked with him, but seven years later he's still afraid of his own shadow (literally...his shadow is another dog, in his eyes).

And then there's Labby, the imaginatively named newest addition to the group. Barbara was driving home from work one evening when she saw him standing in an intersection. She opened her door to see if he had tags (he didn't), and he smoothly jumped into the car, got into the passenger seat, and waited to go. "Well? I'm here, let's go!"

And I love them all.