When we talked about moving to the new house, one of the subjects was whether we would get a dog. I had planned to eventually get a guard dog for when we have livestock, and maybe a dog for hunting such as a beagle or retriever. But definitely nothing that would become a house pet.I wanted a dog that would earn its keep and not just lie around the house all day being petted.
If you read my earlier post about the water problem, you will appreciate the level of stress we had in the house for those sixteen days. Well right slam dunk in the middle of that our friend Joyce tried talking us into taking a stray pup that had turned up at her door. To say that Jack is a good looking dog would be a lie, but he has one of those faces that you can read too well. And when we went to see him, just out of courtesy for Joyce as she had been helping us with our water problem he kind of worked his magic on us, or should I say he worked his magic on Lea Ann.
Lea Ann will tell you that she is a cat person and not a dog person. She will tolerate them but only if they don't bother her by asking for affection. I expected her to come up with some valuable excuse for us not to take Jack, but it never came. Instead she started talking about getting all the supplies and equipment needed to keep a dog. So much to the delight of the kids, we were going to have a dog. But not yet. We all decided that until we had the water problem sorted, Jack would stay with Joyce.
We finally picked him up a week later and brought him home. He quickly settled in and apart from tearing the carpet under the door that separated the mud room from the sun room on the first night, he was a perfect puppy. And clever too. He quickly worked out that if he was to get his feet under the table, the one person he would have to impress would be Lea Ann. She went round mumbling things like "Darn dog" and then when she thought no one was paying attention, she had him in her arms or on her lap, tickling his ears or rubbing his belly.
We are still working at house training but even that is going pretty well. I have to say that for a terrier type of dog, we aren't sure what he is specifically, he is probably one of the sweetest natured dogs I have ever come across.
