Temper Tantrums

Anyone who says that dogs don't have personalities is full of poo.

Right now, our dog is throwing a temper tantrum and I have no idea why or what she hopes to gain.

Our dog is a very intelligent, border collie mutt. The only thing we're sure of is that she's border collie, but what else is in there is rather a mystery. She could be a pure breed for all we know, as we rescued her from the Pound.

Over the years, we've come to an agreement. She gets what she wants, and she doesn't make messes, release bodily fluids in the house, and for the most part does what she's told.

Unfortunately, today's issue comes under the category of "WTF does she want?"

I got up today, and my husband had put the dog in the bedroom. When he does this, its usually because the dog has refused to go outside, or its storming, or lawn people are going to be mowing the lawn.

Well its not storming. Its bright and sunny. Its also January, so no lawn people.

So that leaves attitudal dog, so I assume the tantrum she's pulling now is the same tantrum she pulled with him earlier today.

She is quite serious in her desire though, and let me explain.

Our dog has an intense trepidation of the linoleum tiles in our kitchen that extend all the way to the garage door. She only travels them for food, or if we're in the kitchen and its storming badly that she's scared to be alone. Otherwise, she doesn't venture that far onto the tiles, even if we have the garage door open and are trying to coax her into the car.

When I got up and went into the kitchen to fix myself something to eat, she went and planted herself at the garage door. She not only quickly traveled over the scary tiles, but she stayed at the door to the garage in the oasis of scary tile and wouldn't move. So obviously she wanted in the garage, but I had no idea what in the world she wanted in the garage to do. (She never wants in the garage.)

Well I needed to take out the recyclables, so I opened the door to the garage and into the garage she went. She wanted me to follow her, but I finished my task first. I tried to get her back into the house, but she wasn't coming.

So I asked her what she wanted, and followed her. She wants in the car, and since she can't talk I have no idea where she wants me to take her.

Places we take her in the car:
Nebraska - to my parents
Vet - pretty certain she doesn't want to go there
Work - sometimes Morten takes her to work, but he hasn't done that in a long time.

So maybe she wants to go back to Nebraska? Its been 8 days that we've been back, so we're not heading up there any day soon. And when we were up there, after 36 hours she was ready to come home. At 72 hours, she was begging us to go.

She doesn't take "no" very well as an answer when she wants something this badly, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her other than physically put her outside and hope her fascination passes.

Right now, as I type this though.. She's sitting in the garage with the door open to the house. She can come into the house at any time, but she is still sitting in there. I don't even think I could get her to willingly come in for some steak. *Sighs* I wish I knew what she really was trying to tell me.

I suppose I better go drag her out.

Bucket O Possum

Right now as I type this, on my back porch there is an opossum. It is trapped in a large galvanized metal bucket with chicken wire on the top. It is being haphazardly guarded by my dog, though I don't think it'll escape anyway.

The poor little thing is a baby opossum and is extremely cute. Then it bares it's teeth and you start to see what it would look like full grown.. Fortunately though it is just a little baby, it might be 5lbs when wet.

My husband used to always want to go to this Mexican eatery in town because once under the outside decking he saw a baby opossum. So I thought I'd keep it here until he gets home.

Even though when I called him to tell him that it was in the back yard and if I left it alone the dog would kill it. He told me to let the dog kill it.

Of course when I reminded him of the baby opossum he used to adore at the Mexican restaurant, and asked him if he would sit back and watch our dog kill it. He replied: "No, but YOU'RE the one watching the dog kill it, not me." (I shouldn't really type the names I calling him in my head.)

I tried calling a pest removal place. They couldn't come out and get it today, and I sure wasn't going to leave the poor thing out there to be mauled to death by our dog. Our dog won't eat it btw. She just likes to play with things until they're dead and no more fun. I'm sorry but watching my 45lbs. normally very sweet hearted dog (at least with people she is) maul to death a poor little rather defenseless opossum, is not on my list of things to watch today. Nor would it be on my list of things to watch ever.

I was advised by many to just dump the thing in the neighbors yard. Which would be fine, if I could be sure it would stay there. But see, opossum's don't understand fences as boundaries, so with the dog's water outside and my hopefully soon-to-be producing garden, I really don't want an opossum to be around to seal my veggies (like I don't have enough competition with the squirrels). Not to mention that the opossum's like to run around at night and cause my dog (and the other neighborhood dogs)to bark incessantly.

So the poor opossum is sitting terrified in a bucket, safe, waiting for my husband to come home so we can drive out to an uninhabited area and release it. That way my husband gets to share in my experiences today. :) Thats what he gets for trying to put the death of an innocent baby creature on my head!