Awwww!!! All of these balls of fur as so freaking adorable!!
I shall now add my crazy four legged furry child to the mix.
This is Savannah, a dog I recused from the back yard of someone who was abusing her years ago. I got her when she was roughly 10 months of age. She just turned 5 earlier this summer. This is a slightly older picture from back in the winter, as you can see she's pretty fluffy! In the summer I normally shave her body down, shape up her tail and shape her mane albeit I trim it shorter so its not as fluffy as what you see here. She's a little heavier set here than what she is now. I gave my family a MAJOR ear full about feeding her things she's not suppose to have when I'm at work. They've since stopped giving her treats and she's slimmed down. I believe she was 80 pounds here. Now she's down to 67 pounds and more energetic. The vet said so long as she doesn't go below 60 she is fine, however they do not want her above 70 if it can be avoided. And, for those of you who own a fixed female animal...watching their weight is a chore all on its own.
From what we were able to gather about her linage without conducting and ultra expensive DNA test...she's a mix between Chow, German Shepard, and Golden Retriever.
Here she is doing her 'let's rough house!' stance. I was messing with her to keep her attention in order to take a picture. She's pretty camera shy. Her back legs are also longer than her front so when she gets excited she bounces like a rabbit. It's pretty funny! She also paws the ground like a horse and will actually hop around like a rabbit too when I play with her. She utilizes her front paws far more than any other dog I have ever met. A lot of her behavior is rather cat like...and I know for a fact there were plenty of out door cats around her sad little dog house she was kept in by her previous owner. It wouldn't surprise me if she picked up traits and behaviors from them. She is also extremely comfortable around cats but not other dogs unless they are roughly the size of a cat or are puppies. Anything else she get's really weird about.
She's too damn smart for her own good. Very observant of her environment and you can see the gears turning in her head when she tries to solve a problem. She actually sits and thinks about something before she does it. She figured out how to open up actual DOOR KNOBS through watching myself and my family do it. Figuring out handles was a joke for her. She also figured out how to open up the kitchen cabinets by placing her paw on the top of the door, curling her toes..which are abnormally long for a dog when you see them up close..and pulling back thus yanking the door open. She's figured out after watching myself a few times that if she steps on the peddle of the trashcan the lid opens. Oddly enough she doesn't actually try to eat anything in there. Instead she specifically searches out anything that has a personal scent of myself or my mother and will drag the object [[regardless of how gross it is]] back to us and give it to us.
My mother is terminally ill and Savannah is ultra attached to her. She follows her around like a silent shadow and of her own accord actually helps my mother with things. We never taught her any of the stuff she does, she figured it all out on her own just by watching. My mother walks with a cane and wears thick-iron man looking braces on her legs to keep herself at least somewhat balanced. She's a stubborn as fuck woman and refuses a walker. Savannah will walk alongside her and keep right up against her legs with a slight amount of pressure to help stabilize the movement and keep her on balance. When she goes to get up from a chair Savannah will immediately stand in front of or alongside, brace herself, and allow my mom to use her as a support to push herself up with.
She also will pick up things and drag them over to my mom without command. If she sees what my mom is going for she'll get it. We've expanded upon this by teaching her the names of certain items that are used on a not so often basis so she can fetch these as well.
She's very protective of my mom. Whenever she's upset or the medications aren't helping her that day, Savannah will guard her and actually place herself between my mom and anyone who attempts approach her when she's like this. She's not aggressive about it but firm. Several times my father has approached and been upset as well and Savannah has actually shouldered him in the legs to push him back so he doesn't cause any more stress in the situation.
She's also developed a habit of forcing my mom to stay in a chair or go lay on the bed whenever she detects the chemical sent of an approaching violent spasm or vertigo attack. I've kept a chart and she's sensed these attacks upward of 45 minutes prior to them actually happening. Needless to say my mom certainly pays attention to the dog whenever she starts acting out of character and starts trying to herd mom to some place she considers safe.
Needless to say I could not be more thankful to have Savannah. It certainly makes me feel a hell of a lot more comfortable when both my father and I are at work.
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