Keepin' On

I am going to take a minute to seque over to the dogs.

We have a boxer.  You might remember him - Keeper.  We got Keeper to keep us safe on the park.  Keeper is a little tough looking and he has one ear that stands up so he got the job done...despite being TERRIFIED of nearly EVERYTHING.  Especially big men, trucks, machinery and strangers.  He is, however, a sinewy muscled, masked brown dog with the inner-disposition of a curious toddler.  He thinks Charlotte & Ruby are FUN and really COOL.  He plays with them, without getting annoyed... he's gentle. 

We knew next to nothing about Boxers when we picked him.  I wanted a dog with a lab/golden personality but a pit bull/bulldog (aka serious tough dog) "look", alas: Boxer. 

I wanted a well-bred specimen, because let's be honest...Boxers can be seriously ugly.  There is nothing pretty about a pug-nose.

Charlotte was 18 months old when we decided on a big dog...we weren't getting a puppy.  So, we researched and drove all the way out to Cha'ston and figured he'd do.  Because watching him with Charlotte was like watching two little pondering, exploring friends figuring things out together.  I'll never forget Charlotte & Keeper watching kittens together.  He kept looking back and forth between her and the kittens, tail-wagging, fully behaved, excited and engaged.  And when my dad met him he asked me if I was sure he wasn't used for dog fighting...

Good combo: kitten lover, playmate, could-be-in-dogfights "look".
We fell in love big time. 

Then we noticed a hitch, then he went down and didn't want to get up. 

Bilateral hip dysplasia. 

Had his hips rebuilt at Auburn.  Spent a month at the University recuperating.  Lost twenty pounds.  Temporarily lost control of his bladder because it was nicked by the epidural during the procedure.  Pressing on your dog's kidney to help him empty his bladder is something you do only with a dog you plan on keeping a while.  And it kind of bonds you in a way nothing else can.   

Good as new. 

Keeper was born & raised in the country.  After we brought him home Adam tore down the old fence, had the yard re-landscaped and built a new fence, doubling the size of the backyard.  Boxers are ultra high-energy; Keeper can leap 7 feet straight up in the air from a stand-still.  He breaks his toe every couple of months and doesn't slow down (no, really, we have x-rays to prove it - he just limps a little and alters his running gate). 

Moses, God bless him, is ten years old this month, and has moved with me eight times.  And he loves the girls and the girls love him.  Moses, as you know, is perfect in every way.

The girls gave Eloise a panic condition.  She moved in with my parents and has been prescribed Xanax.  Without it she won't drink water out of the water bowl.  And I had her de-barked so many time she had to have re-constructive throat surgery so that she could breathe. 

Keeper.  How would he handle a move with us?  How would he adjust to apartment life?  Because Keep's kind of a deal breaker.  We have a hell of a lot invested in this dog.  Emotionally and financially, let's keep it real.

There is a dog park here, in Peachtree City.  I mean a nice dog park.  You walk a trial to the three-tiered dog park, and everybody is nice and courteous, dogs too...for the most part. 

Mose & Keep have been about four times.  All of those nice, positive experiences have done what three years of walks around Lakebottom failed to do: they've given Keeper confidence.  Not all strangers want to "get" him.  And he has great dog park manners.  He runs and plays but isn't annoying, from what Adam & I, as humans, can discern.  Keep is pretty cool, we think.  Another Boxer owner did ask if he was a Boxer, though, I assume because they aren't use to seeing such a pretty one...and then there was the "mini-Boxer" comment...

Charlotte had a doctor's appointment.  Mom drove over to sit with Ruby.  It was the middle of the day in the middle of the week and I decided to be spontaneous.  Two adults, two kids, two dogs.  We've got this.  Let's go to the park!

We now live in the type of town where a man leaving with a collie, turns around and walks back into the park with us so Keeper will have somebody to play with.  And all is well.  And my mom is perfectly content and distracted because she's found another dog lover to gab with.  The girls are running and exploring and throwing the ball for the collie(?) and for Keeper(?) but keep retrieving it themselves to throw again? And the collie is gently herding them. 

I am waiting for Adam to call me.  Charlotte & I just left pscyhologist number 2, ADD diagnosis #2, referral for meds #2 and I desperately need to share the information to process it.  Right?   I'm an engager - "share" to "process".  Finally he calls.  I'm on the phone about 100 feet away from the girls (I needed a bit of quiet).  Keeper is way off exploring the perimeter and Mose is with mom & the girls, the ball-throwing and the gentle herding. 

Then I see two dogs high-tailing from the entrance gate to the middle of the park where the adirondacks and the collie, Mose, Mom the other dog lover and MY TWO LITTLE GIRLS, whom, by way of posted rules and common sense, at the dog park are: never more than an arm's reach from Adam or me.  One new dog definitely has pit somewhere in the DNA and the other is a golden doodle, come to find out, but still...

My mother, God bless her sweet soul, is completely oblivious to the situation, chatting about "dog" something or other and then the pit descendent tackles Charlotte, then jumps up and runs to Ruby and is jumping, back and forth, all over them, not aggressively, I assure you, Noni would have snapped out of the chatting and drop-kicked the dog BUT STILL: all over them, WAY more than I, mom, was comfortable with.  So I holler, then take off towards them - when OUT OF NOWHERE Keeper bulldozes the $h!t out of that little mutt, knocks him over on his back and pins him down.  And there is, what I think was meant to be, an almost snap and definitely a growl. 

Noni is snapped out of her fellow dog lover reverie to notice dog "abuse" and comes to, starts fussing at me to take control of my dog.  I snicker a little, thinking, 'HELL YEAH! KEEP!' - and Moses is yapping, backing him up old man Schnauzer style...

And Keeper didn't move, didn't get off the ill-behaved, child-mannerless dog until I was there and told him it was okay (and that he was a good boy).

The collie owner left before all of the crazy went down but before he did, he shared with us that his first love has always been Boxers.  He had had them his whole life.  The last one  passed away from a congenital heart defect and was "irreplaceable".  But I learned some things while I was talking to him...mainly that Boxers are insane, crazy-hyper, on average 20 pounds more muscle than Keeper, but all heart, ALL HEART and the BEST DOGS IN THE WORLD.  If you have one you understand, because it takes bringing one into your family to "get" it.

Moses is on move eight.  He's my heart dog and he is ten years old today, or here 'bouts. 

This is Keeper's second move.  He is Charlotte's keeper and is four years old today, or close 'nuff.  He walks nicely on a leash, lounges around the house and runs up the steps, down the slide of the neighborhood playground.  Which we all think is pretty awesome. 

We're gonna keep on keepin' on.  And today is Moses' and Keeper's Birthday (observed).  Bring on the homemade cake & the Boxer gas.