[kdryan]

... because I kind of hope Harley will go through the kind of insane, bipolar, lunatic phase young Labs have such a reputation for. I mean, the great noble beautiful grown up Lab is a good thing and I do hope he gets there, but I am also looking forward to the 'Marley and Me' kind of dog too..

We had a Yellow Lab about 12 years ago and were totally unprepared for the hurricane we adopted. I mean we had no idea whatsoever what we were getting into. This dog ate a CLOCK RADIO! for gosh sake! We left it for him so he would have some noise while we were gone and when we came back, half was missing and the rest was in pieces. We found Calvin a new home shortly after that, but in the intervening years, we have always remarked how much we missed Calvin and it has always gone without saying that when we got a new dog, it would be a Lab. So here we are again, and now I'm looking forward to the insanity. I kind of feel like "Bring it on..."

BTW, the Harley/Marley rhyming thing is just a coincidence. Don't blame me for the name, I wanted to call him either Hobbes or Dante...

Kevin

 

[kdryan]

Not because of the radio, but because we realized we weren't prepared for what owning a blonde Tasmanian Devil entailed. We truly loved Calvin, but we lived in a small second floor, two bedroom apartment. This was before any thoughts of children, when we were just married a couple of years and very much into ourselves and our little wants. It just wasn't the atmosphere he needed to be in, and we weren't capable of giving him what he really needed, which was space and LOTS of attention.

Now, we are much older with different priorities, we have 7 yo boy/girl twins, a house with a yard (actually a duplex, but plenty of room and we'll be moving to a house soon).


Kevin

 

[kdryan]

Fair enough, I think it was great that you recognised that and found a good forever home for Calvin. Your first post didn't read like that though lol... sorry! Harley is a cutie BTW, and I am sure you will get your fair share of mischief with him in the coming months!

I think I sometimes come off as angry when I mean to be lovingly sarcastic. It happens a lot with me...

When I speak of that radio (and when talking about dogs, that one inevitably comes up), it's not out of anger, but amazement. I never in my life pictured a dog chewing up a radio, and to this day I wonder if he didn't get a free electro-shock therapy session out of it. I really thought he was the most insane animal I had ever seen, but even at his worst, my anger was directed more at the insanity of the act and not Calvin himself. In all the time he was with us, I never hit him (and never would ANY dog), never shoved his face in poop (I could never understand that one. The dog doesn't even remember he pooped after 30 seconds), and I always tried to be reasonable about disciplining him.

I mean really, if you treat anyone or thing like that, how can you ever expect them to really trust you?

Kevin

 

[kdryan]

Did you ever see 'A River Runs Though It'? There's a scene where a guy comes home from college and the whole family is sitting around and the family dog shows up. The guy starts playing with the dog, wrestling and grabbing his muzzle and generally working him into a frenzy until the dog accidentally nips the guy's hand, for which he receives a (hard) smack on top of the head and goes running from the room.

Now I grew up in a sort of, shall we say 'low life' family that never even thought twice about hitting a dog to punish him. The when I saw that scene, the stupidity of it grabbed me and I have tried since to treat dogs with respect to their um... diminished cranial capacity and unconditional love. To me anyone who would hit a dog gets tossed into the same category as someone who would hit a 3 yo for messing his pants.

BTW, I don't hit children either...

Kevin