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Sunday 28 October 2012

Numbers 88 and 89

After more than ten years of thinking, discussing, and putting it off, we have a new addition to our family.  We have a new dog called Runner.  He's a Walker Hound that we got from the Lanark Animal Welfare Society.  They reckon he's somewhere between four and six years old (I give him two - maybe).


So here is the story behind this dog.  My husband has been hunting with the same group of men for about 40 years.  Before that, the group was their fathers.  And for all these years, the group has used Beagles to chase deer through the woods.  And all this time, my husband has never had a dog to bring to the camp.  When he was single, the guys let it pass.  When we lived overseas, the guys let it pass.  But they've been getting vocal about it now that we're back and have lots of land and he's retired so he can take care of a dog.


So we found a lovely dog.  He's people friendly; good with my son and his friends and gets along well with our other dog, Jake.  But oddly enough, this dog - despite all his people skills - has clearly never lived in a house before.  He was mystified by windows, the TV and stairs - he could get up alright, but didn't know how to come back down.  He didn't know what to do with a rawhide bone when I gave him one, had no idea what a Milk Bone biscuit was.  But he knows how to walk on a leash, was crate trained and mostly housebroken.  That being said, there have been no accidents for a few days now, so the soiling could have been a stress response.

So as part of getting the dog ready to go on the hunt, we had to get tags for him.  We live in the township of Drummond/North Elmsley so off DH went to get tags for both the dogs - it's the bylaw and since they're both fixed and chipped, it was very inexpensive.  But I had to laugh - Drummond/North Elmsley has a population of just under 7500. Of those, I figure 2/3 have a dog(s) - on my street alone, there are at least 8.  Yet when we got them tags, we got numbers 0088 and 0089.  I'm guessing dog registration isn't a big money maker for the township.

So I'll leave you with a final picture of the dogs.  This is a far more typical pose than the one above.  What you can't see is the two tails wagging furiously.

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