Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Not a Good Week for the Dog





This is Miles. He showed up just a bit over 3 years ago back when the only cats on the place were Sasha birdbane and the scraggly old barn cat, no dogs at all. Just like Sasha you could count every bone in his thin body when he showed up. Unlike Sasha the cat however this guy was chipped so we found out how old he was and where he had originated.

He started out as a new puppy at a trailer court about 8 miles away. The vet wouldn't tell me the original owners name just an address but when I went by there the place was empty. We knew his name was Miles because it was written on his collar and the vet did confirm it from their records.

Add one more pathetic life form to the Small-Hold menagerie.

As you can see he has put on weight and I can't really complain about him at all. At first he had a bad habit of tearing the barn apart looking for anything edible he could find, from cat food to horse treats. He also had an issue with the garbage can and would run like the wind if I walked outside with a flashlight.

We have on occasion let him come inside during bad weather or when the neighbor's dogs show up during feeding time but it doesn't take long before he begins to have some kind of nervous break down and starts whining at the door to get back out. We got him a big igloo type dog house and fill it with hay in a stall all his own but he only uses it during Winter. Usually he sleeps under the porch.

Last Winter one of the stray cats shared his igloo with him until she had her kittens in there. At which point Miles was evicted.

These days Miles thinks he has a pretty good life. He has stopped ransacking the barn every night. He doesn't chase the cats or run off on over night wanderings any longer. He has friends that visit but doesn't have to be second or lower dog in the pack anymore and he made him a cozy little spot under the wood furnace where he can keep an eye on his domain and bark whenever something comes around.

Everything was perfect until this week.

One of the nearby neighbors has a new dog. Slightly smaller than Miles but a good playmate that comes and visits two or three times a day. The problem is this particular dog has the same defensive mechanism that Miles thought he was the king of. Whenever the situation gets a bit too serious they take off running as fast as they can in huge circles. Miles would do this all the time as he was faster than any protagonist. Except now that he has put on weight this new dog has him beat in the speed department.

Miles didn't really like that.

Then the other day he went with me to check the pond and the back fences. On our way back through the horse pasture the biggest mare who thinks she is in charge pulled a stealth maneuver on Miles and damned near killed him right in front of me. He was sniffing the ground and not paying any attention and she snuck up on him. Got him pretty solid on the back of the head and the rump area with her front hooves. Luckily he was close to the fence and got under it while I was screaming at the horse.

Miles was stiff the next day but no blood or broken bones.

Yesterday I went to check the electric fence and once again Miles came with me. In the light rain he walked under the fence and got a very light shock to his back. Barely enough to notice really so he sniffed the fence to see what was going on and caught a sap right on the end of his nose.

Miles yelped more from the fence shock than he did from the horse trampling him.

I think he thought I had shot him for a minute there. He finally ran off down the road and was gone for over an hour. I haven't seen him leave the farm in over a year. When he came back he gave me a wide circle for the rest of the afternoon until I bribed him with lunch meat.

Poor Dog. I hope his week improves.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!






20 comments:

  1. Poor Miles. Bet he gives both the mares & the fence a wide berth now. Unless of course, the mare bribes him with lunchmeat.

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    1. Carolyn - Yes he walked down with me to check the fence controller this morning but he stopped way short of where he usually went to.

      I don't know what got into that mare. I never seen her do that before nor any of the horses. The donkey used to chase dogs but she is so old now she can't even see the dog to attack it.

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  2. hey - bad luck comes in threes - he should be outta the woods by now.. poor puppers!

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    1. Jamby - No kidding he should be doing good. Poor thing is not unfamiliar witht he school of hard knocks thats for sure. Good to see ya commenting again!!!

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  3. At least he didn't pee on the line...

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    1. Stephen - I placed the bottom strand high enough that I thought he wouldn't be tempted to do that. Its just about his back level should get the horses on the shin and the top hit em on the nose or neck. Or so I hope, the horses seem to know what it is and stop just short of it.

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  4. Our dog has learned to avoid fences as did thee steers and horse. Goats were another story, one of the dumbest animals on earth, would get shocked over and over and escape through the fence eventually after being zapped constantly. They never figured it out so I guess electric only works on smart animals.

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    1. SF - It was kinda a dirty trick on my part by accident. There had been an old electric fence out there which I took down that had been dead for years. He was used to just crawling under it.

      He knows now.

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  5. oh PP - i feel for you. you are so good to take in all of these strays. we do the same. all three of our cats are strays. i love miles. i think your time and interest and taking care of him will really pay off for you and the small hold in the future!

    your friend,
    kymber

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    1. kymber dear Miles is at least a pretty good watch dog. Since he chose us he is also one of those dogs that you don't have to worry about. Already road smart and happy to have a home he does run all over the countryside.

      Now let him hear children playing in the distance and he is gone. He cannot resist children running and screaming and playing it's like the call of the wild for him.

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  6. I love his name.. He reminds me of the black lab my father in law once found stuck in a fence on the side of the road. He was just a puppy, but my FIL freed him from the fence, took him home and got him all fixed up. He named him "hobo" and I want you to know that Ole hobo never forgot what my FIL did for him, that dog stayed by that mans side for years to come...they were quite a pair. So I think Miles will be the same with you. And he will be a great dog and addition to your family.

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    1. JuGM - He was very wary of me for quite a while after he showed up. My son had been playing with him and the wife had been feeding him when I wasn't looking. You could tell he was very wary of full grown males and I am sure he had cause. For the first year or so if I had any kind of stick, gun, rake, shovel etc in my hand or went outside at night with a flashlight he would disappear for a day or more in fear.

      Took a long time for him to overcome that and realize I wasn't going to hurt him.

      Of course now that he has figured that out I am his bestest buddy.

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  7. It's not good your own dog thinks you shot him in the back.

    On the other hand, it probably means all your neighbors are afraid of you, which is a good thing.

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    1. Harry - As I was telling JuGM above it took a long time for this dog to realize I wasn't going to hurt him. He has some real issues of fear around grown men and would run whenever he thought I had anything in my hand I could use for a weapon or bent down to pick up a rock.

      Really he didn't start trusting me until I began going out of my way to pet and play with him and began feeding him more than anyone else. Yet if I even acted pissed at him or yell at him to get back from something when he is curious he will revert back to fearing me in a second. Once we in the barn and he knocked a plastic manure fork over that landed on his back and he took off and hid for almost an entire day. I figure he took a year or more of sneaking food and dodging missiles before he found his way here. A real survivor but suffers a bit of PTSD or something.

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  8. I feel like Miles some days, minus the lunch meat.

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  9. What Stephen said. They usually only do that once, though.

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    1. RP - Ya I tried to place the bottom strand high enough to keep him from doing that. He isn't an especially large dog really. Definitely some lab in him but he comes in at a small female lab size. My guess is a Lab/britney cross.

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  10. PP,

    Miles just was a bit frighten by the different sensation on his back. Then when he checked it out, it scared the crap out of him.

    Miles knows you won't hurt him, you pretty much have saved his life. He's got it good there, he won't forget that.

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    1. Sandy - I don't know if he will every truly trust me. He has obviously had some bad experiences in his past.

      I do know that I can go outside when he is barking or to put wood on the fire with a flashlight and he doesn't run and hide now. That was a major step of trust for him.

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