Archive for July 2nd, 2010
Things I’ve Learned From My Dog – Part 9
It was the day before Thanksgiving and we were preparing for a big family dinner. Joker was in the back yard preparing to leave. He was digging his way to China. I looked out the window and I saw a dog in our back field that looked very familiar. I looked in the back yard and I didn’t see Joker. I went outside and called to him. He heard me, he looked at me, he wagged his tail and he took off, no leash,
free as a bird.
We spent the next several hours chasing after him. It grew dark and we returned home. No Joker. He had gotten out before but always had returned after a good run of about an hour or so, but not this time.
On Friday Morning when the humane society opened we received a phone call to tell us that Joker had come to visit them via the dog catcher. The dog catcher had picked him up about an hour after he got loose but decided to keep him over the holiday. He and Joker had become buddies. Joker would say, I’m hungry, and the dog catcher would feed him. This must had happened several times to this gullible dog catcher, because when we picked him up he had gained five lbs in two days.
When we arrived at the humane society we had to provide the information needed to verify that Joker was ours. At that point a young girl emerged from the kennel area. At the end of the leash was a very happy, very fat, and very determined dog named Joker. He looked around the room and saw a floor to ceiling Christmas tree that had just been put up and decorated. He pulled his
Way over to the Christmas tree and promptly lifted his leg and watered the tree. The administrator behind the counter promptly replied, I don’t believe what I just saw.
The first rule of dog ownership is to never name your dog something you don’t want him to be. Always expect him to live up to his name. We named our dog Joker.