Tuesday, August 24, 2010

What you DON'T see......

Along with our horses, we have 4 dogs: Lexi, Spike, Chopper and Max, and they are family.

First, we have Lexi. Lexi was a shelter dog so we are not real sure about her lineage, but the first question we are always asked about her is if she is a "cur," so I guess we can just go with that. She has a very quiet and easy temperament and is extremely good-natured. She will "load up" and stay loaded until you tell her she can get out..... Well, unless she rides with you to the co-op, because they have lots of cats to keep the mice population under control, and Lexi likes to eat cats for breakfast, lunch and supper. During such times she doesn't stay "loaded up." Instead, she is sits at the door of the co-op with a string of drool that goes from her mouth to the concrete as she longingly stares through the glass at the big, fat, lazy kitties stretched out across the 50 pound sacks of horse feed. (Needless to say, this is the reason why we do not have any cats at our house and why we DO have lots of mouse traps.....) Lexi also loves her mama's biscuits and gravy :)

Here you see Lexi:


Next we have Spike. Spike was also a shelter dog. He is not long out of the puppy stage and he never strays far from home. He lacks the adventuring spirit of the other three dogs. He always runs with them......but only to the edge of the property....and then he is over it. He is a very simple, playful little fellow who loves to nervously eat up all the slobbery sweet feed dribble from his very precarious perch underneath the horses. He loves to play fetch, but only on the front end. He needs a little practice on the part where you actually bring it back - ha. And at the end of the day when the other dogs return from their follies chasing beavers and wrangling snakes along the creek (where they suffer multiple snakebites that have to be doctored), Spike accompanies them only from the edge of the woods, running triumphantly to the house with the other three, just like he has been with them all along and is finally returning from his courageous journeys....

Here you see Spike:


Next we have Chopper. Chopper is the only one of our dogs that was not a shelter dog. But he was the neighbor's dog. Now, we didn't take him from the neighbor, nor did the neighbor give him to us. The only way we knew his name was Chopper is because our daughter rides the school bus with his daughter, who informed our little one that the only reason Chopper was at our house was because our dogs were in heat......which obviously wasn't the case since all of our animals are "fixed" - except Chopper. The neighbor actually came and got Chopper several times. He tied him; he chained him. Chopper always came back. Having three dogs already, we didn't really see the need to have a fourth dog. So, when it became apparent that the neighbor had given up on trying to retrieve his faithful companion, we decided that we would let Papa's cousin have Chopper, who subsequently broke the log chain they hooked him to and was back on our doorstep the following morning. At that point we delcared Chopper an official part of the Pounders family and took him into the folds. He is a very cheerful sort of chap; a big-footed baby. He always has this worried look on his face and he LOVES to play ball.....tennis balls are his favorite :)


Here you see Chopper:


And finally, we have Max.

Max is some sort of Jack Russell mix. He is the smallest of all the dogs and probably does not break 12 pounds. He is missing part of an ear from an action-packed run-in with a groundhog. (Those things are MEAN!) He will ride on the 4 wheeler with the best of them and can be very loving and affectionate when he wants to be. He is very protective of us and for some reason seems to think that Spike is a threat to our safety. Or maybe he is just trying to toughen Spike up?! Regardless, whenever Spike tries to play with us, Max always jumps in as the Alpha Male in an effort to subdue our evil tormentor. Now that we have figured out what he is doing, we can just act like Spike is bothering us and Max comes to our rescue. I often feel sorry for poor, innocent Spike as we have many laughs at his expense. To his credit, Spike usually is completely oblivious to Max's heroism and usually just stands still until Max has backed down and then just goes on his merry way.

Max is the biggest dog on the hill. Or at least he thinks he is. Just ask him...... The UPS guy is terrified of him. He reminds me of a crochety old man. And, his teeth are all jacked up..... poor little Maxey.....

Alas, I would love to show you a picture of Max. However, whenever I try to catch a shot of him, he always seems to elude the camera. You see, he is a mighty beast who hunts creatures unknown in the vastness of the forest behind house. Max's adventures have almost reached legend status at this point and Max sightings are now talked about over supper tables all over the hillside.

So, instead of a picture of our beloved Max, I will show you this fabulous picture of Papa's plant that he has had for a VERY long time.


I am quite certain that he believed we couldn't see him.

~~Gena

1 comment:

  1. Gosh. Too bad you couldn't show a pic of Max. Nice pic of the plant though. Tee hee. ;)
    Suzanne

    ReplyDelete