RIP missy

[piranha]

that's our landlords' dog, whom we took care of just about every weekend they went away. they put her down after she became steadily more senile and lost control of her bowels. i took this picture just a couple days before; knowing she wasn't going to be with us for much longer.

she was a sweet, happy dog with us, but not trained, and crazy about chasing anything that moved, which means the cats all hated her. we tried to train her whenever we had time with her, but with 5 people in her immediate family who didn't know consistency from a turd on the ground, it never took for long. and so we always had to keep her on the leash when walking her. i made her a looong leash to make up for it a little.

still, she was a good dog. she didn't know any better, and i'll miss her. if there are eternal hunting grounds, i hope she's there and has a family who understands dogs, lets her stay with them instead of tied up on a chain outside, and lets her have all the chasing of (animatronic) rabbits, chickens, and cats she wants.

i am sorry i didn't do more for her while she was alive; i detached because they weren't exactly abusing her, and whenever i tried to talk to them about dog psychology they'd seem to listen, but not much stuck. maybe i should have tried harder.

Comments

[serene]

Oh, that's sad. I'm sorry.

[saluqi]

Run free Missy.

It's hard living near an animal that isn't being abused but isn't getting near as good a life as it could with a few small changes. When the animal isn't yours, I think you really do have to detach (or go crazy) - I'm sorry for your loss.

[piranha]

yeah; they wouldn't have had to change much to make her happy. they did change some things when i explained, but the big thing about having her tied up outside when they were all inside and within her sight, they didn't seem to grok that. or possibly they found it just more convenient.

for the last half year they kept her inside a lot more, so even that sunk in eventually. 10 years late...

i hope they won't get another dog. the kids are all grown now. they're not bad people, just ...

[pperiwinkle.livejournal.com]

What a sweet face. It drives me crazy when you're helpless to make someone else see what they're doing to their pets. You were kind to brighten her life.

[piranha]

yeah; helplessness is the worst, *sigh*.

we had lots of nice walks. she was always so enthusiastic (such a lab, *heh*).

[crantz]

Oh, she was lovely.

I worry about my own competence as a dog owner, because I have a bad habit of just letting the dog do her own thing, and then being horribly ashamed when she leaps on people. She never leaps on me, though, so I don't know. My sister encourages it D:

[piranha]

leaping on people who might be scared would be a bad thing. this sort of things leads to draconian rules for dogs in public places.

i'm generally very much in favour of obedience training -- not because i like to lord it over an animal, but because it makes the animal safer. a dog who listens to me won't run into the street, get hurt in fights with other dogs, get hurt by a human defending themselves from being lept on.

i mostly let dogs i keep do their own thing -- but when it's important, they got to listen.

much harder to do with cats, *sigh*.

[crantz]

we live out in the country, and the dog is enclosed in the yard via an invisible fence. She just... she thinks people want her paws on their chests and my sister's always like 'that's so cute!' while I'm doing a flying tackle to get her off someone.

I've managed to make her stop with me and always have her in a fullbody hold around people, but no one else is helping D: and I feel ashamed.

[piranha]

your sister is ... well, you know. :)

it's really hard to teach a dog when other people don't help, and in fact encourage them. you'd probably have to work harder training her to make up for that -- she _can_ learn this, even if your sister doesn't help.

get a good book on obedience training.

oh, and you could try and rope your sister into helping train her by luring her with the promise of teaching the dog to do much cuter tricks.