March 27, 2004

Dog A and Dog B

Mrs. Frink has to work today, so I have some time to do some serious blogging. The odds are good that I won't though. Days like this I have a tendency to plan out all the things I need accomplished, then get distracted and get very little actually done. Currently the distractions are 2 large barky dogs that happen to live with me. Oftentimes said dogs are very cute, playful and generally adorable. Unfortunately that’s only about 50% of the time. The other half they tend towards loud and destructive.

Dog A is Matchbox, a lab-husky mix, as least as we can figure. He was a rescue dog I adopted about 6 years ago when I first moved down to California. He was cute and perfect and healthy when I found him at pet store adoption center. That lasted about week. He then became deathly ill and I was certain he wouldn't make it. He did though, and I still owe my mother for his vet bills. He also picked up an odd habit. When he was really sick we were unable to crate him, and he slept on blankets in on the kitchen tile. When I went to work my mother would take whatever clothes I'd slept in the night before and place them in his bed with the blanket. My mother told me it was to keep my scent around him when I was at work. Well, it did something, because to this day he gets into the hamper, picks out socks or boxer shorts or undershirts, and carries them around the house with him. Matchbox is a very healthy dog now; in fact he hasn't been to the vet for anything beyond his shots since. He does still carry scars of his illness though. When he was sick his puppy teeth fell out, and other then his molars, his adult teeth never grew in. The effect is fairly comical, his lips always seem askew, and his tongue never does manage to stay in his mouth. There is some additional drooling involved too. He's a bit standoffish, a bit on the paranoid side. For some reason he's terrified by our television. He'll be perfectly content and then suddenly realize it's on. He then scurries to whoever is closest, and hides the best he can.

Dog B is Jeffery, and we have no idea whatsoever what he might be. We think he has some pit bull, and maybe some Shepard, but it's guesswork, nothing more. Jeffery was an adopted dog too. Mrs. Frinklin and I had been seeing each other for just under a year. We were driving home from my apartment and we stopped to buy some food for her two cats. There was yet another adoption day, this one run by Baja Animal Shelter. This group has decided to do the impossible: attempt to rescue and find homes for the thousands of neglected cats and dogs in Baja, Mexico. When we pulled up I mentioned we should go take a look. This is always dangerous for us, we both are big softies, especially for animals. This is true; currently we have 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 birds and a 3-legged turtle.

When Mrs. Frink first saw Jeffery it was over. He was 6 months old, 12 pounds, about half of which was located in his giant batwing ears. He had been a Tijuana street dog, captured and brought to the TJ pound. They bring in about a thousand dogs each week, keep them for 48 hours and then put them down. They don't use drugs either. The dogs are kept in cages with wires attached underneath. When their time is up, a switch is flipped and the dogs are electrocuted. Baja is allowed to take 3-4 dogs from the TJ pound each week. One of them was our Jeffery. He was tiny and adorable, in that so ugly he's cute way. Mrs. Frink picked him up, held him close. He made a couple soft sighing noises, almost like a baby. We took him home, and you would have too. He was supposed to peak at about 30 pounds. He actually didn't stop until 75. He has run of the house, not only does he sleep on the bed with us; he does so under the covers. Jeffery is loud, often annoying, and he doesn't like strangers. He's also the cuddliest dog ever, when he gets tired he will fold himself into whatever space he can find on the couch between us and fall asleep within an instant.

Can you tell we love our dogs?

Posted by Frinklin at March 27, 2004 09:54 AM
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