Kira

This is Kira (pronounced Kiera rather than keera). She is some sort of lab mix owned by my best friend's sister. She was initially a rescued dog but her previous owners had problems with her such as escaping. I had the pleasure of taking her to the dog park every weekday for most of the summer and taking care of her for a few weeks while her owner went out of town. She is kind of a weird dog which i credit to the fact that she was a rescue. She is very shy but will eventually warm up to those she is around a lot. She doesn't play like a normal dog. When i took her to the park she would mostly sniff around the entire park and follow around dogs that were playing with each other. She doesn't listen very well and is not super interested in pets or treats so it would be pretty difficult to train her. She does have problems with destroying furniture and getting into the trash and things like that but shes been medicated and doesn't typically have problems while on her meds. She's pretty adorable and i enjoyed pretending she was my own while i had her .

Dylan the Cat

Although this is a blog about dogs I think it's only right I make a post about my recently deceased :::(assumed) cat Dylan. Last weekend I visited home from college and the first thing my mother told me when i got back was "our cat is dead." It was some sucky news. She explained that they assumed he was dead because he hadn't been seen in over a week at that point. He was mostly an outdoor cat who came inside to eat and during harsh weather so after a fews days of not coming to get food we can assume that he died.

Here's the story of Dylan:
My half-brother who is 16 years older than I am was living with his wife who at the time was his girlfriend at our house. They ended up taking a cat from an abandoned litter and bringing it home. They intended for it to be theirs but probably a few months after the fact they moved out into an apartment that didn't allow pets. They intended to take him back when they moved out of there... But then Dylan kept wanting to go outside. He was very persistent but my brother and his wife didnt want an outdoor cat. Eventually he started escaping and coming back every once and a while but then we stopped caring as much because he was doing fine as an outdoor cat and even got rid of all the mice in our garage. When my brother got a house they didnt really want an outdoor cat and we didnt really mind keeping him so he officially became our cat.

He was a pretty good cat. He didnt care too much for getting attention but he was a successful hunter and eater (he was really fat). He wasnt very involved in my life but i still miss him :(

Ziva

This tiny little dog is my grandparents' when she was a puppy. Her name is Ziva named after the NCIS character and they got her in March. She is a Yorkshire Terrier so she hasn't gotten too much bigger to date. She is a little all of pure energy and never stops harassing your shoelaces and pant legs as she tries to play with you. Not really sure why my grandparents decided to get a dog at their age especially why they decided on getting such an energetic one. In my time spent at their house it seems as though they haven't been training her and they get fed up with here energy levels. She's a pretty cute little dog though.

Ellie the Golden Retriever

The dog in the picture above is my friend’s dog Ellie. She is a three year old Golden Retriever. As many retrievers are, she is full of a lot of energy and loves people. Some basic info about golden’s thanks to Wikipedia: “The Golden Retriever is a large-sized breed of dog bred as gun dogs to retrieve shot waterfowl such as ducks and upland game birds during hunting and shooting parties,[3] and were named 'retriever' because of their ability to retrieve shot game undamaged. Golden Retrievers have an instinctive love of water, and are easy to train to basic or advanced obedience standards. They are a long-coated breed, with a dense inner coat that provides them with adequate warmth in the outdoors, and an outer coat that lies flat against their bodies and repels water. Golden Retrievers are well suited to residency in suburban or country environments. Although they need substantial outdoor exercise, they should be housed in a fenced area because of their instinctual tendency to roam.[4] They shed copiously, particularly at the change of seasons, and require fairly regular grooming. The breed is a prominent participant in conformation shows for purebred dogs. The Golden Retriever is popular as a disability assistance dog such as being a guide dog for the blind and a hearing dog for the deaf. In addition, they are trained to be a hunting dog, a detection dog, and a search and rescue participant. The breed's friendly, gentle temperament means it is unsuited to being a professional guard dog, but its temperament has also made it the third-most popular family dog breed (by registration) in the United States,[5] the fifth-most popular in Australia,[6] and the eighth-most popular in the United Kingdom.[7] Golden Retrievers are rarely choosy eaters, but require ample exercise (of two or more hours a day).[8] The breed is fond of play but also highly trainable.” (Wikipedia). As you can see, Golden retrievers are very popular and useful dogs for many reasons. Ellie does not do any of these things though. She wasn’t trained to do any of these things so all of her energy builds up and she seems like an exceptionally crazy and stupid dog. Every time I go over to his house she seems uncontrollable. She gets overly excited and does not listen. I personally don’t mind having a dog all over me but some other do. Ellie is an awesome dog despite being overly energetic.

My Dog Tucker

          The first dog I have to talk about is my own. His name is Tucker and he is a Jack Russell, Schnauzer mix. He was born on April 10th, 2009 which makes him 7 years old.

His first day with my family

       

A recent picture of Tucker

          Tucker is a very spastic dog. He's very smart and knows lots of tricks and even knows the name's of everyone in our family but he is too hyper around other dogs and new people. He's part Schnauzer so he gets very vocal. He whines, howls, vibrates and barks when he gets excited. He also is a rough playmate with other dogs. He must seem to think he's big and powerful because he bullies any dog that is near his same size which is why he can only play with bigger dogs.

          His favorite thing to do is going camping. My family owns 140 acres of land that we go camping and he loves running around, adventuring, riding ATVs and playing with other dogs that come. One thing that surprises people is his drive to hunt. Since he's so small and cute, most people don't believe me when I say he's a killer. Since Schnauzers were bred to hunt rabbits and Jack Russells to hunt badgers, he has a strong drive to hunt. He regularly catches and kills rabbits, he has killed at least one skunk (not fun experiences), he brings us turtles that he can't manage to kill himself, and he has even managed to take down and inflict likely mortal wounds to an adolescent deer (we pulled him off and the deer got away). Unfortunate as it may be that's what he's good at. He doesn't like to swim but he'll get himself all sorts of muddy in the creek and cover himself in burs from the forest.

           As ridiculous as he may be, he's pretty cool and my favorite dog. Being away from him while in college is ruff (sorry I had to) for both of us.