Mama "Kiki"
"Cody", "Dot" and "Dash"The “Mom and Kittens of the Wood” are doing fine. It wasn’t intentional to name the white kittens “Dot” and “Dash”, like Morse Code, but we’ve decided to have a little fun with it. The kitten we called “Woody” is now “Cody” and the mom we called “Princess” is now “Kiki”. Of course, when they are all adopted, their names may change again and that’s fine.
That’s what we did. “Jonesie” used to be “Brody”.
Jonesie (Rhody is on the floor in background)***************************************************************************************
I took Sheila for a walk the other day. Because she gets scared sometimes and starts pulling, I stopped walking her for awhile when my back was healing. Now I only take her every other day or so unless Charlie can come along too. That morning he had a dental appointment.
There were not many people at the park when we arrived, so I thought Sheila would be okay and it would be a nice enjoyable walk.
Everything was going fine. We were walking along, me listening to my itunes on my ipod, Sheila on alert as always. She usually turns to check behind us several times. No one can sneak up on her.
Suddenly Sheila turned to look behind her. I saw a startled look on her face and she jumped. I turned to look back and there was a man on a bicycle about ten feet behind us. By the time I turned back to check Sheila, she had already started running away. The leash would extend to 16' and she was at the end of it already. I was caught off guard so the handle of the leash was jerked out of my hand. Sheila was running down the road. I called her and my voice fell on deaf ears. She didn’t stop and wasn’t about to. She never even looked back at me. Then she turned and ran into the thick brush.
The man on the bike apologized, but I explained that Sheila was afraid of people and it wasn’t his fault. He offered to stay and help me, but I told him that it would make her worse. She’d never come if a stranger was there. He went on his way. I had seen him many times on this road before and I’m sure he thought we knew he was behind us.
I went to the place where Sheila ran into the brush. I called and called. I could hear her in the brush when she first went in, but couldn’t see her. Then I didn’t hear her anymore, although I was calling for her.
I walked up and down the road, calling “Sheila! Come!” It didn’t do any good. She was not coming.
Then I looked back up the road and there were three guys on bikes. I’d also seen them on the road before. They were stopped and it looked like they were contemplating a steep hill to climb with their bikes.
I sometimes don’t have my cell phone with me, but this time I did. I called Charlie. He was on his way home from the dentist. I told him what happened and I knew Sheila would come to him if he called her. He started over to the park. It took a few minutes for him to get there, but we stayed on our phones. While I waited, I walked back and forth calling Sheila.
I asked the bikers if they’d seen a dog when they were coming down the road and they said no. They wanted to help find her, but I knew that as long as Sheila knew they were there, she definitely wouldn’t come.
Charlie was in the parking lot now and had started walking down the road to meet me. Sheila and I had walked about 15 minutes when she got away, so Charlie had a few minutes to get there. I started walking back to meet him. We were talking on the phone and both of us were calling Sheila’s name.
Suddenly I heard Sheila barking. It was a very frantic, desperate bark and some whines. I knew I must be walking away from her wherever she was and she heard both of us calling her. She was trying to let us know where she was.
I still didn’t see Charlie yet and I could tell he was running now. He had also heard her barking through my phone.
One of the bikers was still on the road. The other two were watching from the top of the hill. They thought they had seen her on the other side of the canyon. But, the barking seemed to have come from the place that Sheila had originally gone into the brush.
Then the barking stopped. I asked the biker to go on up the hill because Sheila would not come out if he was there. She wasn’t even barking now. He went up to join his friends.
Charlie went down into a clearing to see if he could see Sheila in the bushes. When I called her, I could hear her moving in the brush, but she didn’t appear.
Charlie is in there, but you can't see him
This is very thick underbrushCharlie went into the brush in the area I had heard Sheila rustling earlier to see if he could find her. It took a few minutes. He completely disappeared from my sight, that’s how thick that brush is down there. Then I heard him yell that he saw her. It was hard to get to her. She was totally tangled up. Her halter was caught and she was unable to get out of it. Then, because she had that long leash on, it was also wrapped around and around the limbs and branches. She really hadn’t gotten far from where she had left the road and disappeared in the bushes.
Charlie finally got Sheila loose and brought her out. He had left the leash and then went back to get it untangled. I think the thought occurred to him to just leave it in the brush, but that thought quickly vanished when I asked, “Are you going to go back and get the leash?”
That took a few minutes and Sheila and I waited on the road. The guys on the bikes were watching everything from the top of the hill. I heard them laughing and saying, “I think she’s lost her husband in there now.” But, he finally came out with the leash.
Sigh!Sheila (and Charlie) were no worse for the wear. I don’t think Sheila learned anything from this entanglement. If she gets scared again and gets away, she will run right into that thick underbrush again. Charlie said it was a miracle she didn’t get into the patch of cactus there.
As for Charlie, he had so many stickers and thorns in his shoelaces, he has decided to throw the shoes away and get a new pair. (He needed to replace the shoes anyway, this will make sure he does).
I felt better when we learned that Sheila was not coming back to me because she literally could not. I had decided that I couldn’t take her out there anymore if she wouldn’t even come back to me when I called her. But, when she knew I was walking away from her, she barked to let us know where she was. She didn’t want us to leave her there. Of course, we weren’t about to stop looking for her.
It’s been awhile now, but there have been a couple of times when there was no one on the road anywhere. I felt enough confidence in her to let her off the leash, especially if we weren’t far from the parking lot. But, both those times, something or someone spooked her. She ran into the bushes. But, when I called her, she always came back onto the road. Her harness was kind of twisted and I knew the underbrush must be thick to do that. I then decided that I couldn’t let her off the leash anymore.
Last May when we were at my brother’s house in South Carolina, we let Sheila out of the RV. We thought she’d stay with us since we were parked in my brother’s driveway. No. She saw my brother and headed for the woods. Charlie managed to get her back without having to go too far in.
I don’t know if we’ll ever get that fearfulness out of her. Probably not. We don’t know why she’s like that. When she’s in the house with us, she is the most loving, playful dog. She loves the cats and they (most of them) love her too. It’s amazing to watch her play with them, wash their faces and ears. Our youngest, Rhody, is almost seven months old. He walks over to Sheila, falls down and grabs her tail and plays with it like it’s a toy. Sheila not only allows it, she encourages Rhody to play some more. I was watching them tonight. Rhody was asleep on the floor, where he likes to sleep most of the time. Sheila went over to him and started licking his face. Rhody didn’t even wake up.
"Rhody", our seven month old "kitten"He's about 10-1/2 lbs. now
Sheila isn’t the perfect dog, but I don’t know many people who have a perfect one. We were just happy that she got along so well with the cats when we got her from the shelter. It would have been very hard to return her if the cats had said “She’s got to go!” Around here, the cats rule.
More later...........
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