Goodbye Sweet Larry

This post has taken me a long time to write.

It's been close to 3 months since Larry and Ginger took their last sojourn out together.

I still berate myself for not tying them up that day.

I remember distinctly looking at them both that morning and deciding, 'nah, I won't tie them up. They'll be ok...'

Boy was that one of the worst decisions I ever made.

We haven't heard a peep from anyone about Larry or where he might have ended up. We have yet to find his body anywhere. And to be honest, I'm not really expecting to.

This hasn't stopped me from still looking when we go out. But I no longer call out his name as we do the dog walk.

I've had to explain to wolfiepup that Larry went away and didn't come home. She has accepted it, as most matter of fact 4 year olds do. And she has told me matter of factly at random times how Larry went away, and hasn't come home.

Ginger has coped as well as can be expected. And is resigned to the fact now that if we go out anywhere she will be tied up. In fact she rolls over on her back in complete submission mode. As if she's still doing penance for not bringing Larry back.

She's stopped eating a mile a minute and eats sooo slow now it's ridiculous.

Yesterday I saw her finally lie back in Larry's spot next to wolfiepup's window.

I toy with the idea of bringing in another dog every once in a while, but my heart isn't in it.

Ginger is pretty neurotic as it is, and having both her and Larry at the same time emphasised how much work is involved in breaking in a new dog. Larry was so perfect for us - the two months or so that he was with us felt more like forever... he fit in so well with our routine. Was super affectionate without being over the top with wolfiepup. Came up to me every night after dinner for soft cuddles without being demanding like Ginger. Settled into Sit relatively quickly once I figured out his treat du jour was cheese (only eedjits like Ginger will settle for anything less, aka dry dog food). Was perfect off lead - I've never heard wolfieboy rave any more about a dog than Larry and about how well trained he was, or how well he took direction.

I miss Larry every day and wish he was still with us.

But I guess it's time to let go - because I can finally write this post without tearing up and having my heart break anew.

It is sad because I know lots of people went to a lot of effort to get him out of the pound in the first place. I feel bad about this. A lot. Of all the families he could have gone to, he came to ours and didn't make it past 3 months. And it was because I didn't tie him up and wolfieboy never reinforced the fencing.

That's on us.

I feel like I've betrayed a lot of people's trust. That too, has made me a little wary of bringing in another dog. I don't want to do that again. We're working with Ginger and her escape artist ways. But to have any additional expectations for a new dog, is just too much.

But really, the real reason for just keeping to one dog, is because I don't think I can handle it. In fact, after Ginger goes, perhaps I'll end up being dog free for a little while. Losing 3 dogs in less than 2 years is enough to stop me in my tracks for a while. My heart's just not in it anymore.

Larry, the Good Boy

The day started out so well. Sunshine and puppy dogs..

I caught Ginger jumping the garden fence twice - at the highest point, mind, not the lower ones. As if to show off to Larry who was better. When I went out to fetch her, I noticed Larry wasn't even paying attention. He was just sleeping outside wolfiepup's window...

I have to go into Canberra for work tomorrow and Friday and wolfieboy won't be home, so I shudder to think what mischief the two of them will get up to while I'm away.

Larry tried to play with Ginger a few times, but I don't think she was really up to it.

He's definitely pulled something though, because at one stage I noticed he was only running on 3 legs. Maybe he tried the jump same as Ginger and realised he couldn't get that high...

In the afternoon the clouds rolled in and gave us a dumping. Within 30 mins the pavers outside the front door were flooded.

But ten minutes after that the sun peeked through, so I took advantage and took the dogs out for a quick walk.

Larry's injury seemed fixed, and we trotted off. Not 20 metres down the path and a roo bounds past us. Ginger immediately yanked at her lead trying to chase it, and Larry hesitated and then started running after it also. I yanked that lead back and called to Larry. Good boy that he is, he came back promptly. Good lad. Ginger, on the other hand tried to pull at her collar to go after the roo. Goodness knows what would have happened if she hadn't been on lead. She's pretty much signed the death warrant on her ever being allowed off lead again. lol.

Larry: I'm the Good Boy, mummy!!

 Yes, yes, we know. No need to rub it in.. Poor Ginger.

Larry: Well, you know, she has to learn from someone. So she may as well learn from the best.

Larry: You know I'm the best, don't you?

adventures of the muddy kind

I made a point of washing their collars yesterday and running it through with some leather conditioner. The collars came up schmick again, and we had a lovely photo shoot in the evening.



Ginger gave me her brown eyed girl bedroom eyes..



 Some side profile work..

Ginger: My collar is so schmick and shiny! Good job, mummy!

And some light modelling..

And Larry gave me some blue steel..



This morning, confident in their ability to be found, Ginger and Larry hared off first thing.

I let them out of the laundry, and 40 mins later as I went to get them for their breakfast, I was a little confused as to why there was no one running to the gate.

Somewhere in that 40 mins between me dealing with wolfiepup the wolfies had escaped the pen and gone haring off.

I walked down to the dam, and down to where I know there is a wombat hole, calling for the dogs the whole time. Came up with nothing.

Walked halfway up to the water tank, thinking maybe they'd gone up and found a muddy patch. Nothing.

Came back to the house, to see what the go was and inspect the fence. There were no gaps in the usual spots. Wolfieboy had a look also and found nothing. The only thing that must have happened was that they jumped over the fence... Unless they were smart enough to cover their tracks this time...

I notify the neighbours to keep an eye out and decide to go down the driveway, as that is our usual walk route. Nothing.

I hear barking in the distance, but as my neighbours own maremmas that bark constantly, I didn't think anything of it. However my neighbour messaged me to say that she had seen her dogs go off in one direction, and I decided I may as well investigate, since 3 out of my 4 compass points were yielding nothing. I gave up walking down the driveway and headed home.

I get to the top of the hill, still calling for the wolfies, and who do I see haring down, but Ginger, shoe polish brown, wet to the gills.. GRRRrrr

*sigh*

I send her packing to wolfieboy and start looking for Larry, who is nowhere to be seen.

I decide that I'll have to trespass onto my neighbour's property and see if I can find Larry. Perhaps I'll discover the dam they're in. I kept on having visions of a bleeding dog wagging its tail limply at the sound of my voice. Luckily that vision did not appear. And five minutes later, I spot Larry coming back. Again, brown, wet and oh so stinky....

Back we go home.

By this time it's 9am. Wolfiepup needs to go to school and I'm still in my pjs and nightgown.

I get ourselves sorted and then head out to grab some proper dog shampoo. In the meantime wolfieboy hoses them down to get most of the stench and mud off them.

My errands all done by midday, I come home and suds them up.

All shiny and clean, they get their breakfast and then spend the rest of the afternoon drying out.

Their newly cleaned leather collars are of course nowhere near the condition I had them in yesterday. But they're going to have to stay that way until tomorrow.

Larry: Sheesh, mum.. calm down..

 How can I calm down, Larry? You managed to get your face scratched in EXACTLY the same place this morning as two days ago! Are you asking to have some butch scars on your handsome face??

Larry: I don't want to be viewed as effeminate..

Ginger: You know, Larry, she's got a point. You do look a little worse for wear..

Larry: C'mon.. with a face like this, how could you not love me more??

What makes you so adamant that I got mauled anyway? Maybe I just barrelled through your gate instead..

I mean, how could I get the exact same marks twice, anyway??

eh? eh? EH??

Yeah, good point, Larry. Well, we've moved the sleepers over, so we'll see what happens tomorrow, then, eh?

Now, STAY HOME!!!

dirty blonde snails

In the bright light of day, it turns out the hose down was not enough. There are still clumps of mud stuck to their fur.

I need to get some dog shampoo. But I think if the dogs had their way, they'd happily spend the rest of their lives licking the rest of the mud off their fur.

Friday ended up being another full work day, and the dogs got out again, despite some more fence proofing.

This time they came home without rolling in the mud.

However it looks like they met with a native animal of some description.

Larry has a graze under his eye and marks all over his head.

Ginger looks like she got half a bite on her leg.

Luckily both of them only got grazes. Larry's under his eye was the worst with a touch of bleed when I washed it out with salt water.

You can see how ineffective the rinse job here:


 On the plus side the mud has finally dried out to the same colour (ish) as their fur.

I swear they were brown the night they came home though.

Last night was the first night I came home without Larry coming straight at me. I figure he'd had too exhausting a day out.

Those beds look pretty filthy though. I think I need to make some more while I get these washed.

Ginger: I quite like them the way they are. They smell like home. Don't touch my blanky, mummy..

When blonde dogs become brown

Two days in town, dogs left to their own devices sans human, and what happens?

They find a new escape route and check out the dam.

Wolfieboy came home first to find Ginger outside trying to find a way in. Larry nowhere to be found.

I come home half an hour later, which coincides with Larry's return. Except my blonde smoochmonster has turned into a brown shoe polish dog who desperately wants to turn my work outfit into the same colour.

Suffice to say they spent most of the evening outside, got fed right before bedtime and sent straight into the laundry sans bedding.

The good news is that once the mud dries off it just falls off like powder. This is what I was met with in the morning:

 

And this is what I found on the front door.

That would have happened after they realised they weren't going to be allowed in that night. The scrabbling at the door sounded like they were knocking to be let in. lol

The next morning wolfieboy gave them a hose down.

They were NOT impressed.

Larry: That was NOT cool, mummy..

Ginger: Not cool at all..

Well neither was either of you escaping the pen and covering yourselves with filthy mud, busters..

Ginger: I don't know what you're talking about mummy. We are completely innocent..

Uhuh... Your muddy coats say otherwise. :P

Ginger: Hrmpff

So why don't you just go and dry out and chill out, eh?

Ginger: Maybe. But that's MY choice. I ain't taking no orders..

Larry: Umm.. and uh, what about me? You gonna let me off anytime soon?

Larry: Coz like, I was just following the pack. Team player and all that. Y'know?

Uhuh..

Ginger's cone of shame

We went back to the Vet today. Wolfieboy has been busy washing Ginger's wound with salt water. I did it last on Saturday evening and swore that I could smell something off and worried that it was getting infected.

So we left pretty early this morning to go to the Vet. I hadn't actually looked at it last night or this morning before we left. So I was pleasantly surprised when the Vet turned her over and we saw that it was healing. In fact it was already starting to fuse. Amazing what two nights of salt water will do. I swear you could still see the gaping skin between wound and muscle on Sat night.

I swear.

The bandages had been an absolute failure by Thursday night. With it wrapped and secure around every part of Ginger EXCEPT for the wound. And I would have sworn she'd pulled out the gauze herself on Wednesday.

I ended up cutting it all off and trying to rebandage myself, but it got me nowhere.

I half expected the Vet to rebandage her today, but she was happy with the progress and said not to bother. I explained that Ginger had kept on licking on it, so she offered me a Cone of Shame, which I happily agreed to.

Ginger, not so much..

OMG Mum, do I *have* to?!

You don't know what they're going to do to me in the school yard..

 According to wolfieboy, Ginger and Larry didn't even play with each other. She spent the entire day looking glum, while he spent it around the other side of the house..

Larry: It's embarrasing mum! How could you let her hang around with me? She's ruining my cred!

Ginger: That's mean Larry. I'd still be your friend and play with you even if you had to wear the Cone of Shame
Larry: Stop making me feel guilty..

Ginger: But seriously, mum, did you have to?!

Larry and Ginger: This sucks.

breaking leads and getting new collars

Ginger is still being incarcerated. Which means I tie her up with her lead before taking Larry for his walk. It's worked the last week. But the other day, Ginger decided enough was enough. As we set down the driveway I hear rustling behind me, only to discover Ginger had pulled so hard she'd broken her lead. WTF Ginger!!!

I dragged her back up and grabbed the second lead and tied her to a more sturdy pole, thinking nothing of it. The lead has survived 3 dogs after all, so it was probably just getting old.



She sits placidly enough. But the minute Larry and I hit the driveway, I hear a bang and a wrangle of chicken wire. I turn around to see my dog who is supposed to be resting, about to burrow her way through the chicken wire in my veggie patch. I cry out in displeasure and I make my way back to the gate. She stopped upon hearing my name, ears cocked and alert. But gave up that pretense soon enough and before I could reach her, all 31 kilos of her was barreling towards me. My Goodness, Ginger.

I ended up locking her in the laundry before setting off for the *third* time for Larry's walk. The only good that came out of that was that Larry got to run three times chasing me up and down the driveway as I dragged Ginger's sorry carcass back to the house.

Methinks Ginger doesn't like to be kept out of the fun when it comes to walks and being part of the pack. Here's one example of where pack mentality isn't necessarily a good thing.

Never underestimate what 30 kilos and the desire for a walk can bring.

Here are the results of all her hard work. The second lead was one we got when we got Elsie. So that's about 6 years old, but really, we hardly ever used the leads after the first year or so, except when we went to Vets, visit family or down to the beach where a lead was really required. At home, they were pretty good off lead.





I'm wondering if part of the reason for her success might stem from the fact that the wolfies got some new bling. I finally got around to ordering some collars for them with their own names on them. It hurt my heart to put Fred's collar on Larry so soon after Fred's passing. But common sense ruled out after the second time Larry got out of the pen. It just wasn't worth the heartache.

I got these sweeties from a seller in Etsy, and I absolutely love them.

Larry: *sniff* *sniff* what are these strange things??

It's the same place that I got Fred's from, but with an additional layer of leather in a contrasting colour, and the trimmings are gold/bronze rather than silver.

You can see the difference between the two collars from the same seller here.

My previous ones were also from Etsy but from a different seller who embroidered the names onto the collars. Unfortunately the dogs' claws would scratch up the embroidery and eventually the name and numbers fell apart. Elsie's collar stood up to a bit more, and hers had a suede backing to it. Ginger's been wearing hers since April. It's great quality and stood the test of time, although I admit that the embroidered name and number was getting a bit tatty, in terms of colour and was getting harder to read.

These new collars have the name and number engraved onto plating, so wear and tear shouldn't be as much of an issue short of the dogs managing to scratch it off. So far Larry's has already started scuffing on the leather part, but that's ok. It's part of the charm.


I ended up getting different colours, if only to help wolfiepup differentiate between the two dogs. Ginger got orange for obvious reasons, and Larry got a spiffy blue. I was originally going to get a lime green but they were completely out. I'm actually pretty happy with the blue, so all's well that ends well.

Larry modelling the spiffy blue.

The collar is also  contrasting nicely with her blue bandage. It's already getting dirty here on day 0, after she started playing with Larry the minute she got home.

But yes, the quality of these collars are such, that I think they probably gave Ginger a bit more leverage in being able to break those leads. That, or she really just found some super human strength in spite of her injury. She was *that* desperate to go on the walk with us.

Meanwhile, you will notice that her bandages have been changed from that lovely fashionable yellow with smiley faces to a more sedate and classy blue.

Different vet at the clinic this time. Different bandaging technique. While the Vet bragged about her abilities, I'm not convinced that the one sided sling look is all that practical. In this case perhaps the first Vet knew a bit more about what she was doing, having Ginger in that crop top.

Yesterday morning her wound was pretty much available for access. I was tempted to unbandage it all (I'd watched the Vet put it on her), but it seems the wound has stuck to the bandage. They'd intitially put some webbing in between the wound and the cotton bandage. But Ginger had managed  to pull that out completely.

I can't help it if I don't want to be bandaged up. I'm normal, just like the rest of you...

In between her own fussing and Larry's harassment and her own desire to play, that bandage is a sorry state of affairs at the moment. She looks like she's been through a number of wars. And I'm not really due back at the Vet's until next Monday. I may need to insist this time that they put the crop top back on her. I had made a few ventures in that vain, but obviously I was too subtle at the time. Because the Vet kept on reassuring me the wound was covered. Which of course, it isn't now.

Larry: It wasn't me, mummy. I didn't do it. She did it herself!

Ginger: Yeah yeah, pull the other one Larry. It was all you...
Larry: C'mon Ginge. That's unfair. You were as responsible for it as me..

Larry: Let's not fight now. Kisses?

Miserable Ginger and Fatty Larry

Ginger is either a fashion designer or a nudist.

She has started tearing up her bandages bit by bit. Tomorrow won't be a moment too soon for us to go and take her to the Vet.

I noticed she a little scrape on the inside of her other leg now, and I wonder if that's from her inside leg rubbing against the bandage.

She spent half the day inside, and the rest outside where she just lay down looking sad and glum.

My heart hurts looking at this.

Ginger: I hurt, mummy...

 Larry's not too happy about it either.

Larry: She's hurting mummy. FIX IT!

He tried to run at her this morning to play and she wasn't interested at all. She's still limping too. I think she hurt it yesterday when she ran to us for the walk. Silly thing.

I made a point of tying her up again when I took Larry for a walk and all she did was just lie on her side until I came back.

Larry: Why isn't Ginger coming with us mummy??

 Because she was silly, Larry.

Larry: Huh...

 Do you need to process this?

Yeah, maybe..

OK, I get it now.

 Good. Shall we continue the walk then?

Umm.. I guess so.

 What are you doing now???

Well you stopped, so I sat. See?

 Yeah, I see. Hey, look, you're fattening out now too, now that I've stopped to take a better look at you!

Hey hey now, no need to get personal. Let's go. Are we doing this walking thing or not?!

 So vain, Larry ;)