Shaggy Dog Story about Tiger
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| Tiger |
If I had decided to adopt a dog, a shaggy, Papillon (Squirrel dog or Ghost dog) would not have been high on my list. I might have chosen a golden retriever or a border collie. At least something a little more macho than one of these little "lap dogs," bred for royalty in Europe. But, now we have one.
Meet Tiger
He showed up at our door and adopted us. It was raining and the little dog was cold, wet, scared, shaggy, and hungry. Against what we thought was our better judgment, we took him in, warmed him up, and fed him a boiled egg and some bacon — we had no dog food. "We will find his owner or something tomorrow," we thought. But, he had fleas so we placed him back outside when the rain stopped. We advertised on our neighborhood website that the owners could find him here. But there were no replies. The next day we washed, treated him for fleas, and took him to the vet to check for implant ID. No luck. So, if anyone wants a very cute, intelligent, and loving Papillon-like, canine, we have one for you. Otherwise, he may just stay in Pat’s warm lap and keep her smiling.
I actually first saw Tiger as I was driving home. He was running down the middle of our road in the company of two other dogs. The two dogs were obviously neighbor dogs who left this small pack to return home as I approached in my car. Tiger was apparently lost, but he kept running and running down the center of the road while ignoring the fact that I was approaching in a car. He was definitely not car smart. I felt very sorry for him but assumed that maybe he was in the process of finding his way home, so I pulled over onto the shoulder of the road to pass around him. Then, I could see him following far behind me in my rear-view mirror -- still running. "Good luck, little dog," I thought as I pulled into our driveway. The next day, Pat saw Tiger trotting across the driveway. A day later, he showed up at our door, and you know the rest of the story.
Separation anxiety
When I am in our home, Tiger stays very close by -- usually lying down with his back against our rear door so he will know when I leave the house. Yes, he is a guard dog. He guards the back door so I cannot escape the house without his knowledge. Inside, he sleeps very close to me so that he will wake me when I leave the room to follow me wherever I go. As it has turned out, my bedroom also serves as a dog kennel. Every evening, Tiger becomes impatient for me to open my bedroom door and his cage door, where I feed him a treat after he enters the cage. Then he is happy to be locked in and can relax for the night. Sometimes, during the night he whimpers softly. So I speak a few words to him so that he knows I am present in the dark, and he is comforted.
When I go for a walk in the woods, he feels much less constrained. He leaves my side to hunt armadillos, squirrels, neighbor cats, deer, possums, snakes, lizards, and such -- ranging far and wide across our 20 acres. But, he will not advance within 30 yards of a raccoon, even if it is dead. Why? I don't know. However, he hunts but seldom seems to actually catch and eat anything. But, he did catch and eat a gopher.
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| Squirrel Dog |
He will sometimes cross our fence line onto our neighbor's property but seldom stays long. He strikes fear in the hearts of armadillos as he chases them into their burrows, then stands by the entrance and barks until tiring of the game. But, if he corners a possum, he barks a lot but does not attack directly.
Tiger can usually find me no matter where I am on our miles of trails. When in doubt, he heads for home. But, his need for freedom to hunt and explore never exceeds his need for my company. After 10 or 15 minutes of separation from me, he becomes more and more anxious to find me. After a separation of 10 minutes, he usually can find me anywhere on our 20 acres -- maybe by following my scent. After he finds me, he usually exhibits his joy by running past me as fast as he can. As if to say "Ha, ha, ha, you can try to hide from me but I will always find you. You cannot escape."
Little Dog
There are certain advantages of having a dog that weighs only 12 pounds. Their barking voice is too soft to annoy neighbors very much, it requires less expensive food, takes up little room, fits easily on a lap, and is easy to pick up for petting or moving.
When Tiger first arrived, I wondered if he might choose to wander, get lost, and never find his way back. But, apparently, once he chose me as his alpha human male, Pat as the source of unconditional love, and with an abundance of tasty, nutritious food, he became less and less likely to wander. The exception was that he once attempted to follow me out the gate and down the road. So, I had to confine him before leaving. According to Pat, he whines and moans when I leave him at home, and displays a happy dance when I return.
One day when he was hunting alone in the woods, I decided that he would not know if I drove without him to our neighbor's house. But, somehow he knew that I was gone and began his search. When he left our gate and reached our road, he turned right when I had gone left. He showed no fear of a speeding pickup truck -- which had to stop to keep from running over him. Anxiously witnessing this adventure from my neighbor's driveway, I quickly drove back home. He followed me safely back home where he was tied up. It was I who learned the lesson -- not the dog. How do you teach an ignorant little dog to fear traffic on the road? One partial solution was not to keep him from traffic but to expose him as safely as possible. He now mostly avoids the road.
His previous unknown owners must have been taught "sit", "stay", "twirl" and sometimes "down" (if the command is vocalized in a deep, loud, serious voice) and he tends to follow well on a leash. He usually responds to "come in" if I'm standing in the door, or a "get in" invitation when I'm seated in the pickup, motorhome, or Polaris
Ranger. He especially enjoys riding in the Ranger with the wind blowing in his face. However, if he becomes excited about something, verbal commands seldom work, but a loud whistle will usually stop him in his tracks. However, we are not dog trainers so we have no interest in teaching him to roll over, walk on two legs, or do other such tricks.
Trauma
He does sometimes experience some traumatic-like condition that does not appear to be related to his separation anxiety. As I was taking him to the vet for the first time, he began a nervous shake all over and appeared to fear that something horrible was about to happen. I pulled off the highway and set him on my lap while I drove. It seemed to relieve him a little, but he still seemed to be very much afraid. He continued to shake while the doctor examined and treated him. He did not really relax until he returned home. Unfamiliar places still sometimes trigger this nervous, shaky response. I can only wonder what events might have happened to him before he adopted us or if he is just naturally anxious and somewhat neurotic.
He does have one disturbing habit. When he becomes playful or excited he will jump up on us with his claws unsheathed. The vet trimmed his nails and I have ground them down, but he still sometimes playfully scratches us until the blood runs. Our working solution is to keep bare skin away from him when he becomes excited. Also, I refrain from playing games with him in the house that makes him too excited and dangerous.
Sometimes, when he is very happy, he will run in circles as fast as he can. And, Papillon dogs are also known as "Ghost Dogs." I understand because he was sometimes seen to appear out of nowhere. I have been known to whistle loudly for him to return home from the woods, only to turn around and find him standing there. Yep, he is a ghost.
Otherwise, he is certainly a good-natured, smart, friendly, cuddly, sweet, playful, inquisitive, brave, and energetic, a dog who loves to run and race the Polaris ranger.
Therapy
As much as Tiger may need some therapy to minimize his traumas, little does he know that he provides a sort of therapy for us. Pat is 84 and I'm 86 and we more and more enjoy comfort over excitement. Thus, we enjoy staying at home here in Pat's National Park. It is truly a handsome 20 acres, filled with miles of trails, interrupted with meadows, glens, a hill and a dell, Senderos, big trees, nature, wildlife, a garden, an orchard, relative quiet, and a stream, As far as we know, we can identify all the trees, shrubs, animals, native grasses, ferns, flowers, and many of the insects, weeds, and such. It provides a near-perfect habitat for Tiger's roaming and hunting pleasures. All of this provides a calming therapy for us. Tiger's presence simply adds to whatever therapy we may need. Thanks, Tiger!
The lure of "faraway places with strange-sounding names" still haunts me. We will never be able to visit all the interesting places in this world, but we have already visited so many of them during our lives so that it become less and less important to visit all of them -- largely because it is fundamentally impossible. So, we have a motorhome to explore maybe less exotic stateside locations -- that we can use when we feel housebound. And, Tiger also accepts it as his home away from home too.
House Trained
Tiger is considerate. He poops off the trail, in the woods where humans seldom tread -- when we go for a walk. Good boy! He also marks weeds, shrubs, and trees to delineate his self-proclaimed territory -- even when his urine tank has mostly gone dry. So far, he has seldom messed up our home. A major exception happened when he became overly excited playing in the house with my brother Scott's dogs in Georgia, and he marked Scott's couch and chair. Bummer!
He befouled our pickup and motorhome when he threw up from motion sickness. Even months after these events, there is still a faint odor of dog puke when I enter our truck. Tiger still sometimes suffers from motion sickness when we drive city streets in our pickup, but seldom ever becomes sick when traveling in our motorhome. City driving with lots of stops and turns is especially nauseating to him. We sometimes feed him a sedative, but it is usually a waste.
I'm not sure why I named him Tiger. It just seemed to fit his hunting instincts. However, the name seems to elicit expressions such as "Never wake a sleeping tiger," "Hold that tiger, hold that tiger," or "I've got a tiger by the tail." Of course, a real tiger might eat this little dog in one bite, so the name is simultaneously ridiculous and easy to remember. However, I have been known to claim that we named him "Tiger" because he eats tigers for breakfast. Nobody has yet provided evidence to the contrary.
Shaggy Dog Stories
"A long, rambling, pointless story or joke, especially one with an absurd punchline" -- is one definition of a shaggy dog story. Writing a story about a "shaggy dog" might also deserve this appelation but I hope this story does not deserve the first definition.
My History with Dogs
I grew up with dogs. There was Thunderhead, Big Lady, Little Lady, and Max. The first three dogs shared my joy of wandering and hunting the woods and pastures of west Edinburg when I was a young teenager. They also functioned to scare the bejesus out of any stranger who came walking by our house. Max (part Beagle) came later in my life -- after we moved to College Station and then had 3 kids. When I took a one-year sabbatical to Queensland, Australia, we left Max with my parents in Schulenburg. A letter from my parents explained that Max had wandered onto a neighbor's property where he had been shot dead in the head. Losing a family pet like that was very painful and likely played some role in choosing to not adopt another dog during much of my life.
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| Brian, Max, and Pat |
After Max, we had no other pet dogs for maybe 54 years or so. A dog just seemed to be a complication that we did not need in our busy, traveling lives. Consequently, we had no plans to add such a complication -- until Tiger accidentally came into our lives. Now, it seems to be such a natural thing to do at this point in our lives. Yes, there are costs and benefits of owning a dog, but now the benefits seem to outweigh the costs so much that it is difficult to imagine life without him.
So, what is the moral of this story? Well, I'm glad that every time the weather becomes cold and wet, cute, hungry dogs don't show up at our door or we might have adopted a pack of them by now. Dogs certainly have a way of capturing your sympathy and affection. In Tiger's case, we both feel that we are better off for this accidental meeting on our front steps in the cold and rain -- in spite of his sometimes neurotic behavior.
But, was it really an accidental event or was it pre-planned by some canine God or something? Who knows?
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