My father passed away suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack last July. He and my Mom had gotten a little Australian Silkie Terrier named Kitty Marie about 10 years before to be a companion to their Yorkie, Bubba.(full moniker - Bubbalicious, don't ya love it) Mom and Bubba were gone but Kitty remained. An orphan.
She was all alone. Abandoned. An orphan, like me.
I brought her home with me and the retraining began.
She is 8.5 lbs. soaking wet.
I am petite but more than 12 times her size.
The "Big Dog" is 25 times her size.
It took less than 1 week for her to get us trained. We were a little slow but showed promise.
A little background here: We have never had a little dog. My husband had a Great Dane/Wolfhound mix growing up and also raced sled dogs for a couple of years. We always have had dogs, beloved family members, BUT I never thought I would like a "phoofey" little dog. You know the barky, whiney type that run the household like a canine tyrant.
I like a dog to smell like a dog and act like a dog. I consider freshly dug craters in the landscaping and big wet smoochey kisses just part of life with a dog. Soooo, I didn't think a little barking prima donna would fit in too well with our previous dog profile, but I had to bring Kitty home. She was all I had left of my parents. My hubby, TW, (affectionately known as "The Big Guy" but for this tale, "The Big Dog") kept his own counsel on the Kitty subject. (We have been married 39 years for a reason)
Now, I need to tell you that my parents spoiled Kitty rotten. She was fed tidbits of chicken, ham, & bacon in a doggie gourmet way -prechewed- from the table and wasn't real crazy about dog food. Hhhmmmm..wonder why?? She always slept with my parents in their kingsize bed as well. Life was good for Miss Kitty.
Now back at the suburban ranch, The Big Dog declares, "no dogs in our bed !!!" setting his posture on Kitty's sleeping quarters. I am compliant (remember the 39 year thing) and put her bed next to ours on the floor. We go to bed. She whines, barks, tries to jump up, and generally raises hell about being left off the bed where The Big Dog and his petite pooch are trying to sleep. After 5 minutes which seems much longer, Kitty is removed to the back room, bed and all, to teach her a lesson and let us get some sleep. This is the pattern for 2 days. We don't get much sleep and Miss Kitty goes on a hunger strike.
I won't go into details here, it gets nasty. Just sum it up as a $ 250.00 lesson that entailed a trip to the vet, 2 late nite trips to the pet store to get a $5.00 an ounce can of special dog food, close perusal of $5.00 an ounce dog offal, and lots of worrying about whether a now svelte little Kitty would pull through. The Big Dog jokes that the free dog is costing about $35 a pound.
I'm sure you can guess the end of the story.
It was determined Miss Kitty could come back into the bedroom-in her bed only. She slept but decided a predawn trip outside was needed. After 2-3 days of not much sleep and a well-aired dog, it was determined Miss Kitty could probably come up on the bed, " if she would settle down."
WELL, Miss Kitty has settled down, right into
the down comforter, snores like a long
shoreman, and thinks "Life is Good!"
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Copyright by Bonnie Westbrook 2008
Contact: 1-888-240-1968 x 0 toll free
Website url: Terry Westbrook.com
Email: bonnie@terrywestbrook.com
Miss Kitty photo by Bonnie Westbrook The Bed photo courtesy of Mavieenrose3 at Flickr.com BIG DOG photo courtesy of Marre58 at flickr.com
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