The main event: watching movies together. We enjoy our time together.
One thing I have never told you about (or maybe only mentioned briefly) is about her dogs. Maybe you would be interested in learning more about that.
N is mostly retired and works in animal rescue--especially with spitz-type dogs, which include the malamutes, the samoyeds and her favorite, the keeshonds. Those are the dogs that are bred for the kind of very cold, snowy conditions she endures in winter. And they get plenty of snow there, out in the woods just south of Lake Superior. This is a picture from earlier this month ...
The lake-effect snows relented long enough for me to visit in mid January, and during my visit I talked to her (with my little digital recorder) about her dogs and the stories behind them. I also got some photos of "the furry herd" ...
"The furry herd" is how she refers to them when we exchange e-mails. I met the furry herd when I first visited her, close to two years ago. As you know, I am more of a cat person--we have two cats at home, and they are dear to me. We never have had a dog. Not that I don't like dogs. I just like cats better.
With N, though, the rescue dogs are a fact of life, and if you can't deal with that, the friendship isn't going to last long. She has some other boyfriends, and a few have asked her to move in. "Can you imagine me in a little house in town?" she asked me once, waving an arm at the herd, in various states of repose on the floor nearby. She likes her independence.
Her dogs are big, and they can bark--like they did the first few times I visited her place. Yes, I was nervous around them. At first.
But we quickly got to know one another. After holding out my hands to them, to make sure they sniff them and store my scent in their memory banks, I reached out and rubbed their heads, and the dogs quite enjoy that. Six of the eight dogs sleep indoors. I have to carefully step around them when I need to get up in the middle of the night, since several of them typically sleep on the bedroom floor.
Long story short: The dogs know me well now and come around to get petted when I visit. Even the blind ones. You can't imagine my amazement the first time I saw a large, furry, white dog with clouded eyes slowly walking over to say hello and get its head rubbed. N was very impressed when she first saw that. "Boy, you're getting to be popular!"
There are occasional additions and subtractions from the furry herd. During this last visit I turned on the recorder, and N gave me the rundown on each of her dogs, starting with the newest addition.
This is N, telling it in her own words, starting with her newest.
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Jack came up from Green Bay. He was found wandering in the woods. He was totally covered in burrs and knots--his tail was burred to his back. We cut about 15 bundles of burrs off his fur, and from underneath his front flanks we took the equivalent of two handfuls on either side. Got his tail cleaned up. We wanted to save his fur so he wouldn't have to be shaved down in the middle of northern Wisconsin winter.
Twenty-five pounds. He's a little hearing-impaired. Just had eye surgery--he had a little growth on his eye. He can see, and he can panhandle with the best of them. He is currently under adoption and availability with the Keeshond Lovers United. He's probably 10 to 13 [years old]. He had a couple of teeth removed when he had his eye done, too. He's the only male in the group, and he doesn't seem to realize that he's got a harem. Not that it's going to do him any good.
Goldie [a golden lab] came up from Chaseburg (WI), near the Iowa border. Her owner had been a quote-unquote lumberjack. Evidently she had gone into the woods with him and had encountered some limbs and ended up with detached retinas. She went from being an indoor loved house dog to being kept outdoors. And then he had to surrender her. I guess he cried pretty bad when he did. She went into Lab Rescue, and an appeal went out. Ninety-one pound blind dogs don't have much of a chance, so she ended her journey up here, where she'll spend the remainder of her days unless somebody takes a shine to her. Since the dogs here usually have no other options, she'll probably remain here. She's probably six to eight years old. She responds to commands, and she's housebroken, as all of my dogs are.
Lucy has been here five or six years. She came up from southern Wisconsin. She was found wandering in a swamp near Poynette. When we got her, she had no fur from her ears back. She is a red cinnamon chow. A very laid-back gal. Makes a good speed bump. Snores like an old bear in hibernation. Very mellow, very good with the other dogs. Just doesn't bother. But don't try to cut her nails or trim her, because she'll probably try to take your arm off. Her eyes do need some attention. She's probably seven to nine years old.
Then there's Shadow, who's probably 16 or 17. Her owner died a year ago on the Fourth of July--she was an old friend from Keeshond Rescue. She came up here, since there was no place to take her--she and another gal who were bonded came up. The other bonded member of the pair, Stormy, just didn't make it, so she's now in a home in Bucks, Pa., doing very well. Shadow is a sassbox, a panhandler, a nag. The verbalizing one.
Then there is Duchess, alias Ducky. She came up about seven years ago. Her owner died in Milwaukee, and the son was going to euthanize her. So a railroader transport was organized, and the guy had no courtesy--he left the first leg of the transport, a young mother with a three-month old baby, sitting in 90 degree weather. They got him up to the big truck stop in Madison. My husband had left the house at 4 in the morning. He was going to sleep at the truck stop till he got her. He came in at 11 o'clock with this little pile of fur, who promptly took over. She's a very laid-back, good girl. She likes to dance and bounce around here. She does quite well. She's approximately 16 or 17 also. Another keeshond.
We have a blind Sammy [Samoyed], Tia, who was sighted originally when she came in. But with age ... she's also 16 or 17. She's the oldest one here--she's been here about 12 years. Her owner decided she wanted to get another dog that was more in fashion. We took her in. She's most laid-back, quiet one of the bunch. She just goes in her corner and has her little babies that she arranges and plays with. Kind of a false pregnancy at times. She's the most unoffending dog you've ever met.
Then we have the two kennel dogs [ones that always stay outdoors]. We have Rikka, who came up from Arenac County, Michigan. She was already in the shelter when they did a seizure of 48 or 49 other malamutes. They did a railroad and brought her across the U.P. to us. We picked her up in Escanaba. She is learning to mellow out and get along with other dogs, but she will sing to you and howl with you. She loves people, but other dogs still send up her hackles, and you can see some of the fur come up once in a while. But she is mellowing out. She's been here about seven or eight years.
Krissy is a keeshond--and what the other half is is anybody's guess. Every leftover part. She had separation anxieties. I don't have a lot of history on her. If left in the house, she gets really wild if there's nobody around. She's very rough with her food bowl and other dogs sometimes. She currently will sing and howl at you or just go into her house and let the world go by. She's about seven to nine years old.
****
That was the lineup during my visit. Sadly, it changed the very next day, just a few hours after I left for home.
N discovered that Rikka, the malamute, had developed a massive growth in her throat and windpipe, and it ruptured. She took Rikka to the vet, but she couldn't be saved. N loves her dogs very much (even if she growls at them at times when they don't behave) and grieves when she loses one. Once she called me at the office, in tears, after one had to be put down.
This week, N told me that Krissy "is now in the house full-time. Quite an experience with her. Now really have wall-to-wall fur."
I took some more photos of the furry herd during my visit. Here is Goldie ...
This is Jack ...
We have to take steps to have a little privacy when we eat, so we don't have hungry eyes gazing up at us. Here, I'm not even at the table yet, and Jack and Lucy are already on the scene, with the others right behind them ...
So she closes a gate, and they peer through the openings like prisoners. Hungry prisoners ...
That's Jack in front, Shadow and Duchess (I can't tell them apart) behind Jack, Lucy (the red chow) on the floor to the left and Goldie and Tia.
Here is Tia with her babies ...
And finally Rikka. RIP, Rikka ...
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