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We've had five dogs: Tsuki, Tachi, Nikki, Leah and Danno.
Their stories appear here in brief, along with links to my wife's pages about them. Clearly I need to scan in some pictures as we don't have many digital shots of some of Tsuki, Tachi, or Nikki.
In any event, enjoy what is here.
Danno is our first Siberian Husky, or at least we think he's a Siberian
Husky. He's a rescue, and a bit big for the breed. That's him with Anne,
shortly after we brought him home a couple of years ago. As you
can see, he's got the classic look of a Siberian. What the picture
can't show is the temperament, which is fun loving and sweet, without
any hint of aggression or dominance towards any person or dog on
the planet. If given the chance, he wouldn't be nearly as nice towards
cats, rabbits, squirrels, or any other small animals. But even tiny
little dogs are totally safe. Whenever we meet a strange dog we let
Danno take the lead. He's our "doggy ambassador of goodwill", and we
know he won't react badly, even towards an aggressive or scared dog.
I once had a dog try to start a fight with Danno. The other dog was loose while Danno was on his leash. Before it was over the other dog had his front paws on Danno's back and was biting at his neck. Danno, on the other hand, had simply walked as far away as the leash let him go and stood there. The look on his face clearly said "What is that all about?"
As I write this, I think he's about 4.5 years old, but we're not really sure. What we know is that his previous owners turned him in to the San Jose Animal Shelter because he was "too much trouble", and that he was there for 3 months before we took him home. And he might have been trouble if he wasn't walked daily for 2.5 or more miles. Once you do that he's a big, fluffy, loving marshmallow who only wants to be in your lap.
The only problem we have with Danno is his love of jumping up to greet people, particularly strangers. We're trying to train him not to do that, but he keeps at it. All he wants to do is lick their faces, and he generally doesn't put his weight on anyone, but he can kiss someone's face in a hurry, and not everyone appreciates that.
In our experience Danno is unique for his dietary preferences. This is a fruits & vegetables dog. He's particularly fond of carrots. If you peel a carrot anywhere near him, you'll have a drooling beast at your side waiting for his chance to eat the peelings.
If you ever want to lose weight, just get a Siberian and make sure to walk him or her daily for a few miles. The dog will love it and you'll drop some pounds.
Oh, the name. That's my wife's idea. She wanted to be able to say "Bark 'em Danno" in reference to Hawaii Five-O. And of course it would help to teach him to speak. But Danno had other ideas and it turns out he doesn't bark much at all. He talks and he howls along with sirens, but he only barks when frustrated at trying to get someone to play with him. Oh well. I like the idea of a Hawaiian dog with a heavy fur coat.
Update 11/13/08: Yesterday we had big fun. A neighbor invited us over to let Leah try herding her goats. Danno, however, decided that goats looked like food on the run, and things got exciting briefly until I got ahold of him. Apparently it isn't just small animals he is interested in catching - and maybe eating. Thankfully no harm was done to the goats, but we won't be letting that happen again. The transformation from lovable goof into wolf-like predator was astounding. Good thing he never does it with dogs or people.
Update 9/27/08: I am now working for Danno, getting the word about his own artwork out. Please see his Dog Art Page for details!
What can one say about a dog like that? Leah's another rescue, and
she's a "model year 1999 dog," as my wife puts it. When she arrived,
she immediately taught Nikki that all kinds of things in the house
were food and toys - things that Nikki had been ignoring.
Before we got her, she'd been turned in to the Santa Cruz SPCA twice. The second time for "catching and holding down a chicken." First off, who is going to let a herding dog out around loose chickens? Secondly, who is going to turn in a dog for doing that? And thirdly, can't you just hear Leah thinking: "I wasn't gonna eat it. I just wanted to see what it tastes like. And it tastes like chicken!"
No one really knows what breed she is. Some say she's got Australian Cattle dog in her. Others say she's a Catahoula. In fact, as of this writing, the Wikipedia page about Catahoulas contains a picture of a dog that could be Leah's litter-mate. It's called a Patchwork Catahoula.
From the goofy photo on this page it's a bit hard to tell, but Leah is about 70 pounds, and pretty active for a nine year old dog. She can be a bit leash aggressive (which is why we lead with Danno when meeting other dogs) but mostly it's all the "I'm an old dog and I'm in charge" show, rather than really looking for a fight. If, however, another dog goes after her, she will fight back, so we're always careful. She loves all people, and has never shown any aggression towards a person.
Leah's favorite thing in the universe is to be let out on the deck. She charges through the door out to the railing and barks several times. Then she pauses to see if she can see or hear anything she might have startled into moving. If so, she charges off in the appropriate direction barking even more. It's so rewarding because (of course) whatever she barks at always leaves!
Unlike Danno, Leah is a meat & potatoes dog. Fruits and vegetables are clearly not food. Like Danno, Leah thinks her people are the most important things in the world, and she wants nothing more than a constant belly rub - until her fur is gone. Oddly, though, she's not a lap dog. She won't cuddle that closely for some reason.
Update 11/13/08: In the above mentioned goat encounter, Leah basically didn't care. No herding, no chasing, nothing. She'd rather spend her time with people these days. Particularly if those people are being nice to the dog!
Our friends Rob & Chris found Nikki by the side of the road, exhausted, muddy, and terrified. Chris pulled over and opened up the car door to help if she could. Nikki took her chance and leapt into the car. That was that, except that Nikki was a bit big for their home at the time, so she became our dog. We were dogless after losing Tachi, and Nikki was as good for us as we were for her.
That little experience with Chris's car was indicative of Nikki's personality. She was literally terrified of all strangers, but she would get into any open car door any time, with anyone. She might have been raised by someone living in a car, as she had no idea what a house was when we brought her home. Kitchens were entirely new to her, and she had no clue that food sometimes came in plastic bags. She did understand beer, though.
It was years before she was comfortable enough to roll over and let us rub her belly willingly. We called her the agoraphobic German Shepherd, and it was true. Being inside was critically important, and being in a car was even better. Wind, lightning, and fireworks were terrifying beyond belief. She arrived with only three canine teeth, and during a wind storm she chewed through a couple of redwood two-by-two boards in a gate to get to "safety", breaking off the remaining three canines in the process.
Eventually we brought Leah home as a companion to Nikki. That worked out well and Nikki learned a lot from Leah. It was good to have two dogs in the house, too.
Where Nikki surprised me the most was the time we went to a friend's house a couple of months after a new baby had been brought home. This made me nervous, even though Nikki knew these people. I had no idea how she would react to the baby, and kept a very close eye on her. But to my amazement she knew exactly what a baby was, and clearly knew who the mother was as well. At one point the baby was in a swing and Nikki was fascinated. She wasn't smart enough to stand to one side, though, so she stood in front of the swing stretching and compressing her neck to keep her nose close to the child. It was hilarious to watch.
A few minutes later the baby started crying and Nikki was on alert. She checked out the child, then went to the mother. "Hey, you, fix it!" She went back and forth several times, and I have rarely been able to read a dog's concern so simply. The cry meant the child needed mom, and Nikki was doing her very best to get mom to do her job. Her thought process was probably something like: "If it was mine I'd feed it or lick its butt. Go do one of those things!" I would never have imagined she had a maternal streak given the likelihood that she'd been abused as a puppy, but she did and it was quite strong.
In the end, sadly, Nikki's body started to fail her. She was losing control of her hips and legs, and with her constantly worried temperament it was hard on her well beyond simple things like falling down stairs and injuring herself. We had to make the decision to put her down for her own good, as her quality of life was dropping rapidly. She had a few very good years with us, though, and for that we are grateful.
We had her for just over a year. During that time she improved quite a bit and got to know a few people, but she had clearly been abused and needed a lot of TLC. Then, on a holiday vacation, she escaped from the house we were staying in and we never saw her again. We did everything we could. She had tags with our phone number & address, we posted flyers, contacted the local shelters and so on, but she was a runner and she disappeared, probably into a forest preserve. This was in 1997, and it broke our hearts. Even now, 11 years later, I choke up just thinking about it.
During college I'd taken care of a neighbor's dog for a while and was quite impressed. Her name was Nellie and she was an Akita. I'd never encountered the breed before, but once I did I was bowled over. Nellie was fun and huge. She weighed about 90 pounds, was striped like a tiger, and even walked like a big cat. So when we went out to get our own first dog, we decided on an Akita.
Eventually we found a breeder and got Tsuki. She was a mostly black, double coated (long haired) Akita. She wasn't show quality - that long coat was an immediate disqualification - but she was still wonderful. In her case we learned a lot about what to expect on our first visit to see her. She was the only female in a litter of four puppies. Just before we arrived a UPS truck had come to the kennel and interrupted dinner. Tsuki's three brothers had stopped eating to investigate the UPS truck. Tsuki, though, stayed at the bowl and ate all the food in it - four meal's worth. When we saw her she was so stuffed all she could do was sleep. She looked like a (sleepy) shoe box with legs.
Akitas have a reputation for being aggressive, but Tsuki was always good. She played well - if a bit rough & tumble - with dogs she knew, and loved most adults, though she did bark at smokers and people dressed all in black for some reason. To be honest, we didn't have her around kids much, so we were always careful, but we never had a problem. Tsuki was a dominant dog, though, and made sure other dogs knew it. She was so self confident it was almost funny.
We loved that dog, and she loved us right back, but she also had an independent streak that let us all have our space. She enjoyed being out on the deck, surveying her domain, and she'd spend hours out there even when we were home.
She once got past a fence - no one ever figured out how - and killed a skunk without getting sprayed. But then, being a dog, she had to sniff its butt and got skunk scent on the tip of her nose. It was that evening at a friend's house that we learned tomato sauce doesn't do much for skunk smell, despite the popular myth that it does.
Tsuki (short for her full name, "Tsuki Tan'i", which means "Moon Unit" in Japanese) was a wonderful family member, but she died very young - just six years old - of liver failure. We still miss her terribly. The local vet's office has a picture of her and one of the folks there can find it very quickly in the album. Tsuki made an impression on everyone she met. Two final Tsuki stories illustrate that point.
We took her to the vet shortly after getting her for her checkup and some additional vaccinations. We got into the examination room and the vet came in. He looked at Tsuki thoughtfully for a minute as she looked back at him. I offered to pick her up to put her on the exam table but he replied "No need. She's going to be a floor model anyway." He gave he a scratch and an exam and she loved going to the vet ever after. All our other dogs hate going to the vet's office, but Tsuki really loved it there.
And finally, one year we were in Yosemite with Tsuki on a walk. We rounded a corner and came upon a park ranger who took one look at Tsuki and said "Ah! The first bear of the season." And that's how I remember her: huge, furry, and soft, like a bear. But also totally alert to her surroundings, watchful of our moods and needs, and fun to be with. She was a great dog.
For those who are considering a dog we strongly encourage you to go to a shelter and adopt a dog there. Too many dogs never find homes - the number of euthanized dogs at a single local shelter is staggeringly high. Every adoption of a shelter dog makes room for one more to live.
We also feel strongly that your dog should be neutered. There are too many dogs in the world now. So many lead short, painful lives. You can help that problem by making sure that your dogs don't add to the population.