Nea's Dog Diary

I was born in Finland, 4th of June 2004 in an apartment house in Vantaa. We were 10 puppies in the litter and my mother was huge. Some of my siblings were short tailed, some of them had a half tail but I had the longest tail of all. My fur looked like German Shepherds' but some of us were more furry.The owner was quite poor and needed money, so she sold all of us to make money. It was OK because we were well taken care off.

The people who came to see me, was a mother and her daughter who adored all of us but picked me from the flock. Later on they returned, paid 100 euro to the owner and took me to the vet. That was almost unnecessary because I had all my vaccinations and checks already. They took me by car somewhere and I got a new home where there were no other dogs.

I started my new life in an apartment in Soukka, Espoo and there was a balcony but I was too small to see over it. I could pee on the newspaper and there were a lot of them on the floor so I did not know exactly where I should do it. I grew fast and my owner went to work every morning. I could not wait to get out, so I tasted some furniture in the hall. It was lovely to chew the corner of the table. I also had to find out how a Christmas Calendar tasted but I guess it was not very good because that caused my owner worries and phonecalls to the vet. All because I ate the small chocolates. Once I also had to sniff a cheese cutter from the kitchen sink but that was too sharp when I licked it clean. One day I studied a book about different dogs, just to see if there was a picture of me or my family. I also tasted a bit..uppps, half of the book was gone.

Otherwise my life was ordinary dog life, going out, waiting and waiting, playing, peeing and pooping, sleeping and growing. My big ears were straightening and after the first one, the other one got up too, and I started to look different. Once I was out with my owner and we went to the nearby forest. I was discovering the smells there and suddenly a huge enemy was rushing towards me. My owner could not do anything than scream and so did I. The man who owned the enemy seemed almost to enjoy the attack. I ran more than I ever had done and was scared to death. Afterwards I had nightmares about it.

Next exiting moment in my life was the travel with horses. I was put in the huge horse trailer where some very expensive race horses were transported to Normandie, France. I would travel with them and our own QH, from Finland to Luxembourg. I was quite scared but in the end we arrived safely after 48 hours travelling to the stable where I could meet my owner, her mother, the other dogs, a lot of horses and some cats. My life changed and I became the second dog in the family.

I was less than one year old and the other dog was much older, male Coton de Tulear. His name was Fido. It was funny because he became so interested in me very soon; it was time for my first heat. We played and shared time together, he was quite different, small and gentle, but he could not leave me alone for a second. It was OK at daytime, but when the night came he could not sleep at all. He wanted to lay on me, instead of his bed. When the owner found out that it's becoming too hard for him, they closed the glass door and he was left in another room the night.

It did not help much because he could see me all the time and cry. Then they decided to castrate him. Poor guy; he had stitches in his belly and because of the pain, he managed to pick them off during the night, in spite of the lampshade he was wearing. I swore that I would never wear such a thing (but I had to!).

We had wonderful life together, he teached me to protect the flock when we went out walking, chase the cats at the stable and catch the balls from the ocean when we were on holidays.

He tried to teach me how to swim, but I never dared. He also showed me how to bark from the balcony and how to behave in the car. That was good because we travelled alot. He was excellent in ball plays and I never learned the tricks as well as he did.

My favorite hobby at the stable was to fine stones they threw in the middle of the cornfield. I never wanted to go back because it was so much fun.

 

Fido also opened the Christmas presents for me. I knew that there was something inside but did not quite understand how to get it out.

We went together to the vet and he was more calm than I. I had to bark because I did not see what was happening behind the doors. He got medications and I understood that he was seriously ill. He had enlarged heart and water in the lungs. The family had to make a hard decision before one Christmas eve and put him down. It was a sad Christmas. I did not understand what happened to him. He would have turned 10 years old just a month later. After that Christmas my owner went back to her studies, so I was all alone without my playmate. It was hard and I became sick in my stomach and that lasted for months. Until the family decided to hire a dogsitter who was with me ALL the days. That was wonderful.

We also had to move to another apartment other side of the river and I became resident of Germany. That was cool. The village was smaller but there were nice walks around. I did mice hunting, stick catching from the river, we spoke German and ate delicious ham from the butchery shop.

The family found me a dogwalker in the village and I just loved that new family of hers. They had a black dog so Mira and I became best friends.

Mira came along when Laura took me out every day and sometimes I could go to their house and play. I loved that. I also stayed there over night sometimes. I heard the families talking about adoption but I did not understand what it meant. Before my next big "move" they took me to the vet and yes, they gave me something.When I woke up, I had huge pain in my stomach area and could hardly walk. They had neutered me!! When we got home, they put that lampshade on me, and guess what, I could not breathe. I could not see too much either and the salive just dropped from my open mouth on the floor and became a puddle. It became night and I sat there, in the living room, scared to death and pain everywhere. In the end they took that alien thing away, put a t-shirt on me and that was embarrasing, but better than the previous. Within one week I was ok and swore again, never to put that lampshade on me again.

Then there came a day, spring 2009, that I took off from Europe. You heard right; took off with a huge Lufthansa airplane from Frankfurt. My destination was California!! Of course I did not know what it means but, boy, I tell you it was awful in that kennel box. It was noisy and it lasted forever. I heard the other animals, mainly cats, meaowing something about that it's hot in the destination. I did not know how hot. Until we had arrived and they had cleared all the paperwork (and it was alot) and I could finally get out. It was at least +35C that day. I did not care, I just sniffed all over because the country smelled so different. No humidity at all..

After anohter 3h painful waiting and travelling in a big truck (OK, it was more pleasant than the plane), we arrived to a place which was huge.

A ranch with horses, house, mountains and trees. I was not very concerned because I had done such before; traveled long distance without knowing where I will end up. The place seemed to be nice: There was one housecat around, and they talked to another one, which I was afraid because of his hissing.

But quite soon, because of his desire of regular meals, he started to come and eat with me and for me it was not a problem. Actually my food tasted better when he was around. They called him Garfield.

He was quite bossy when he was around: he could behave that the whole porch was his kingdom and I could not say much against it. Or he would show his claws and try to attack me.

So I just had to stay cool and pretend that he was not there at all. Sometimes he could walk in the living room and I became thrilled about the idea to have a cat sleeping with me. But every time he got panic if the door was closed and he started to run and wanted to go out.

Much later on, somebody thought that HE was the food, and that's why he never came back. It was sad but it's the law of wild animals.

When the rats were visiting us, I did not know what to do first: I just smelled them. They moved so quickly but actually did not do any harm.

They tried to get under me and hide but I jumped on the side.

This guy made regular checks across the ranch and sometimes I chased him with Bud, but he did not care too much of us. He just trotted away like nothing happened.

I got a lot of new friends from the neighborhood: there were new arrivals and old stuff. Back neighbor rescued plenty of dogsfrom Humane Society. That's how Bud also became a regular house dog.

There was Bud (who shared the house with me), Blackie, Hursey and Luna.

There was also Daisy who came mostly after snacks. She was too afraid to stay and to be petted. She used to bring newcomers around; to show them the place.

Bud and I loved to go and buy hay from the hayshop. First I was afraid to jump on the truck's back seat, once I'd hurt my leg and got scared, but later on I did not have much choise. I wanted to come along and so we did, every time.

Going to the beach was one of our best moments of the day. No matter if it was early morning or late evening. Beach, beach, go to the beach. Yeaaah! Bud learned quite quickly what it was about, but first times he was afraid of the water. He had never seen the waves and did not know what they were. He thought they would wipe him away. I showed him how to catch the sticks and in a couple of weeks he learned. What he did not learn was that he should not take the sticks from ME. He tried to get everyone. And normally succeeded because I'm so nice.

My favorite place on the yard was in front of the gate where I could see the driveway and the possible visitors coming. There I could bark and tell everybody to be prepared.

The rabbit family who lived on the yard, normally did their morning activities behind the house where there was a sunny spot for them. They used to clean their coatendlessly and hopp around and play chasing. If I happended to be around with Bud, we would participate in the chasing. But they were always too quick.

EXCEPT except. Yesterday 23 March, after some rainy days, we were able to get closer to them. Wow. That was something. One of them did not notice us in time and and... I got him. Yes. I did. I have waited this for years, actually. I started with the mice in Luxembourg. I got some of them at the stables but my owner always saw that and shouted, so I had to drop them down. Now, I almost escaped with the rabbit, but Rex saw me and took him away. What a shame. He smelled so wonderful...

December 2011:

We got some nice surprise for Thanksgiving Day. A gift basket full of Italian snacks etc. We (I and Bud) knew it was actually not meant for us but... We were left indoors one day because the neighbor was making a cement floor on his property and did not want us to mess around. It was a loooooooooooong day, I tell you. Don't remember exactly but we sniffed around in the house and found the smell of something exciting, the snacks. We took one bite and then another. Suddenly we ate them all. With wrappings. Which did not taste so wonderful but it was hard to open them. As well as the olives. That we could not taste. For Rex the surprise was an empty basket, except the olives, when he came home. I was looking guilty as usual, Bud just continued his daydreaming on his bed. Next day he trew up tough on the carpet.

Another day I sniffed a bit too high in the kitchen and found some peppermint candies. Then there were some of my itching pills left on the counter too. So I took them to help Rex to remember when to give them!! 

Sometimes postman brings some boxes to the gate by the highway. One day he brought a brown box but we could not read exactly what was on it. So we decided to look inside. Luna and Hersey came to assist and we all managed to open the box and what did we find: another box full of Milkbones!! Can you believe! There was plenty and we shared that all, almost. There was also two big bones in the box but Luna was too quick to get them with Hersey. So they run away with the bones and then we left the box there until Rex came home from work. We heard him later to talk on phone about it and I guess it was again ordered by Erja. What a mess we made because she had to re-order all the items plus clear out why the PetSmart did not send the bed she had ordered for Bud. It all sounded so complicated that I told Bud it's better we leave the boxes untouched until we have some human to assist us.