i suspect the unruly waves personally offended her, as a herding dog

March 2, 2024 9:08 AM

She is a brilliant fluffy asshole with a million opinions who barks at anyone with the audacity to walk past her property as though she is going to tear them limb from limb and has never, ever been physically aggressive with anyone. Content warning: pet illness; it's very very dusty in here.

Laura Jedeed previously on MeFi.

posted by spamandkimchi (14 comments total)

I got flustered by the sub stack disclaimer at the top.

Turns out they've already migrated but forgot to clean up the disclaimers.
posted by constraint at 9:52 AM on March 2

I follow Gatsby the corgi on YouTube, who also now has nose cancer. He's doing well so far, but nose cancer in dogs, well, it's in the article.

I'm glad Luna had a good life with her people and has done so well for 4 years.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:09 AM on March 2

I remain unable to train my dog to not lose her absolute shit when there's a delivery of some sort. My hypothesis is because "bad guy" shows up outside, she shouts at them, and then they go away. Hard to overcome that kind of instant reinforcement.
posted by tclark at 10:20 AM on March 2 [2 favorites]

We had a German Shepherd (mix). Also a rescue. Also named Luna. Who also was a "brilliant fluffy asshole" of a dog who was suspicious of strangers, insanely tolerant of clueless kids and fiercely loyal to her friends. And she also made it to 13, but that was all. So I'm a mess right now, but also feeling full of love, somehow. Thanks spamandkimchi and Ms. Jedeed if she ever stumbles across this.
posted by martin q blank at 10:22 AM on March 2 [1 favorite]

That's beautiful, thank you for sharing. I cried and my herding dog (rescue puppy) therefore will not let me type very well as he must lick my face.
posted by warriorqueen at 11:08 AM on March 2 [3 favorites]

Oh. I have an old dog, too. Tribble--my beautiful old lady, my first dog I ever got to choose for myself, also a kill shelter dog I was watching to reassure myself that someone else would come and get her, and then I did--well, the only game Tribble has ever learned to play with toys was also "retrieving items, mostly sticks, from water." A few months after I adopted her--also telling myself "If this turns out to be a terrible fit, I can always rehome her myself"--my now-spouse adopted a teenage tomcat, and a year or so later we all moved in to an apartment together. That was almost ten years ago.

I lost the cat--Peter--unexpectedly on Monday, to what we discovered with dawning horror over the course of the day was a diffuse and fast-acting cancer. I miss him very much. Tribble remains healthy, happy, and very much her usual imperious self, but she is also turning thirteen next year, and I am keenly aware of the unkind and inescapable march of time.
posted by sciatrix at 11:14 AM on March 2 [8 favorites]

Hugs to all who have lost their good friends...

We've lost two. It is just so hard.
posted by Windopaene at 12:00 PM on March 2 [2 favorites]

And she is a German Shepherd, by the way — I got one of those doggy DNA tests and there’s not a trace of Belgian Shepherd in her, despite looking quite a lot like one. The volunteers guessed wrong. She was mislabled. If they’d gotten it right, I never would have found her.
Wow.

But this is what got me: I went back in, knelt down, and promised her that I would always come back
Nov 30, 2023, I left sick Dexter, the beautiful grumpy stoic Shih Tzu, at the emergency vet overnight. Of course I would be back for him - he was not even 10, he was with specialists. But he did not make it. He left this world surrounded by strangers in a strange place. I still cry about that and tell him I'm sorry.
I think he would like the new girl, Stella. She's heard all about him.
posted by Glinn at 12:08 PM on March 2 [8 favorites]

I'm not much of one to get caught up in people's stories about their fur friends unless I personally know said furry buddy, but this grabbed me.
It sounds like the werewolf is her heart dog. It would have been really, really hard for me to have had my heart dogs live clear across the country. I've been fortunate to have had two dogs hold my heart. The others have been nice dogs, good friends, but not ones that I would live in a hovel or sacrifice for.
The current dog is sort of... just a dog. I wish she were more my dog. Fortunately, she's a husband dog, she's owned by two cats, and I do fun things with her, so she's a happy dog. We just wish she wouldn't do this horrible bark thing. It's one single extremely loud and very startling bark for no apparent reason that will alarm anyone within 30 feet. There's no way to train her not to do it, because it's so sporadic and we can't relate to any triggers or predict it. Scolding her is not good, because she already looks upset after she does it, but sometimes it will scare a Holy Crap reaction out of one of us. Just one roar, then done. Oh, she barks cars in the drive, any shady-looking visitors, birds in Her Backyard, lets us know when the cat(s) need in or out, but those are not scary and are controllable barks at a tolerable volume and easy to figure out. She will quiet when told to stop. This kind of weird is what you get with a wired-up heeler from the pound, but it's still extremely disconcerting even after two+ years.
She's good with the horses and chickens, but I can't let her out of out of our small, fenced yard to run and play in the big, fenced areas because she eats hay strands and chokes. Poops are one long strand of undigested fodder that occasionally drags behind. Ugh. With our incessant wind, occasional strands of hay will blow into the yard despite the chain-link, and she invariably finds them. Again, can't seem to train her not to eat them. Short of muzzling every time she goes out, it' just another weird thing to deal with. I'm waiting till she gets a very expensive compacted gut or throat blockage. My husband always was very frugal, and not inclined to go into veterinary debt on our limited retirement income, especially when we are starting to have health care issues of our own. I'm still paying for a sinus trephination for an infected tooth on my well-loved mule, and $10,000 of surgery with a questionable outcome for this dog is not going to be an option. Even with insurance, crap happens.
posted by BlueHorse at 12:25 PM on March 2

Glinn - I'm sorry that happened to you. It happened to me as well with my heart dog, Cookie the Wonder Dog. She'd had spinal surgery years before and so we were always cautious/paranoid - one day she was in apparent pain and I rushed her off to the emergency vet where I dutifully checked the books for heroic efforts despite thinking "she's 10, she's fine!" and then I got a phone call at 2AM that she'd suffered a fatal heart attack. I still, 8 years on, kick myself in the metaphorical shins over not being there.

And I can understand Luna's reaction to Baldwin Park - it's not a great place to be in. The Shelter staff is overwhelmed and striving as best as they can and UHA (mentioned in the article) is out there promoting the animals, but Baldwin Park is a massive shelter, loud and unnerving for a person, let alone a dog.

We adopted a frail, sick and tiny little chihuahua girl from there, Betty. She was my wife's little shadow. Sadly we lost her just shy of 16ish from oral cancer. Radiation helped, but only for a few months before it became too much. I'd have killed for 4 years.
posted by drewbage1847 at 7:01 PM on March 2 [2 favorites]

Cookie and Betty look like the best girls...
posted by Windopaene at 8:49 PM on March 2 [2 favorites]

Like every one's dogs, they absolutely were the best. Cookie was my girl. She had IVDD and when she had surgery (due to her going paralyzed), I slept on the floor next to her crate for 2 months to take care of her. To say I was gutted when we lost her is understating it. I went into a deep, deep funk for a while. (To the point where my wife made me go out and adopt Hugo because I needed another stumpy dummy in my life [he's currently snoring at my feet])

Betty, on the other hand, tolerated me, but she adored my wife like she was the sun, the moon and all the rainbows in the sky. When my wife would come home, Betty would do this crazy spinning waggle dance just for her. It was like watching a nearly out of control Cirque de Soleil performer twirling a tiny little body on outsized stilts.

Towards the end when I took her for her radiation treatments and made sure to give her extra treats, she decided I wasn't too terrible a human being. (We really suspect she had bad experiences with men in the 7-8 years before we rescued her)

All of this is to say that dogs are the best and in general there's really only a small number of people that I don't prefer my dog's company to. :)
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:32 PM on March 2 [1 favorite]

drewbage-thank you. So sorry that happened to you, also. Beautiful Cookie! We do the best we can.
Hugo looks like an utter delight. Thank goodness our heart can always grow a bit bigger for a new friend.

there's really only a small number of people that I don't prefer my dog's company to.
Yes, this.

BlueHorse, many people would have abandoned your difficult, ridiculous dog. Maybe that girl will surprise you in years to come but either way, you're handling it like a very good dog friend.
A mule! I hope the mule is doing well. (Mule pic?)

sciatrix, so sorry about Peter.
Windowpaene, so sorry to hear that.
posted by Glinn at 7:14 AM on March 3 [1 favorite]

I loved Luna's story. Very glad you and Luna found each other.
posted by dutchrick at 10:49 AM on March 3