Tom and I cracked up at Rutlie in his Harley cap. Tom dug out a photo of our late dachshund Pete from The Compound archives for you to see. Ten-pound Pete thought he was Rutlie’s size and he was a total badass. His bite was entirely as bad as his bark unless you were part of his pack. Not many of us were.
Hahaha! He has that ‘I’m a badass’ look in his eyes.
The eyes truly are windows to the soul!
Was Pete a hard dog to train?
Pete was poorly bred and lived the first seven months of his life in a tiny cage, so he was never socialized. We bought him from a pet store because I knew as soon as I looked in his eyes that he was dying inside. Dachshunds desperately want and need a person to love, and for Pete, that person was Tom.
We had no idea he had the potential to be aggressive, so it never occurred to us that the love of his life probably shouldn’t have been Heidi, a doberman. He thought he was the same size as her (and she put up with EVERYTHING from him, bless her heart). We were living in a new city with only Lynne’s family as our friends, and they were part of his pack. The first time a new person approached him who was NOT part of his pack, he charged and bit.
From then on, he had to be constantly supervised when anyone new was around. There were some people he tolerated and some people he adored. But now and then, there’d be a person he liked to terrorize. These included my nephew Josh, Tom’s sister KT, and oddly enough, Tim the Dog Whisperer (Pete probably knew Tim wanted to be the boss of him).
He was the most loving dog in the world to Tom and me, would have been willing to die to protect us, and our vet loved and understood Pete. Pete did go through obedience classes, but he was just so damaged. We loved him every single day of his twelve years with us, and even the people he tormented still speak of him with affection. Except…Josh, KT, and Tim!
That’s how I’ll always remember Pete, lunging at me from a dark alley with a switchblade.
Oh, please, that only happened ONCE. All the other times, he used the Glock, and since his eyesight was fuzzy, he only clipped you a couple of times.
It was just a flesh wound! Come back and he’ll bite your kneecaps off!
Hahaha.
hahahahahah first laugh of the day! And that’s 4:47 am here. 🙂
He looks so “tough” in that jacket.
I will put Rut in his big SPIKE collar and hat and take some photos for you and Tom.
This was wonderful. Thanks Becky!
HAHA!
yep, you can tell, he was a total badass.
i love the stories that go with your animals. 🙂