Finally Home-Lessons on Life from a Free-Spirited Dog (9 page)

He shook his head and politely interrupted.
He kind of chuckled, put his hand on his chin
,
and said, “That is not the one for sale. That one costs full price.
Let me get the one that
is
for sale.”

With a slight sense of
confusion
, we
just sort of
looked at each other and waited patiently for the inexpensive dog.

After about three minutes, we heard some footsteps coming from the back room, followed by panting, running feet
,
and rattling
chains
banging against the side of the wall.
In an instant
,
the employee returned somewhat out of breath, gained his composure
,
and said
,
“
T
hi
s
is the dog for sale.”

There are certain
times
in
a person’s life whe
n
things just fall into place and start to make sense.
This was one of those said times.
The price tag on this
particular dog was marked down
for a very good reason.

We surmised that the
impish
dog that was brought in panting and carrying on must have been Buddy’s younger brother.
He was jumping all over th
e place, barking, stealing toys, and
climbing
on our laps
.

He displayed
the same type of insane, ludicrous behavior
that
we had grown to know all too well.

Michael and I looked at each other,
glanced
at the disheveled employee
,
and kindly said, “
T
hank you, we
have
changed our mind.
We have to go now.”

I don’t
recall
who ran out first or whether I pushed Michael or he pushed me, but all I
do
know is
that
we immediately ran out of that store
as if it had caught
on fire.
It was
that particular episode that
forced
us
to
analyze
our decision
,
acknowledging
the fact that a new dog could quite conceivably
behave
just like Buddy.

We joke
d
about that experience
later
, but I can only hope that
the
pup got
adopted into
a loving home
,
as
it was easy to see that
he was another sweetheart of a dog.
I
pray
the person who was blessed with him had tons of patience and even more understanding.

A lot of times people buy dogs because they are cute as puppies or they think it would be a nice gift for the kids.
They do not
take into consideration
that these puppies do grow
. I
f
not trained
properly when they are young, they develop habits that are
often
difficult to break, as was the case with Buddy.

This can lead to many different avenues, but some of the more common
ones
are
that
either the grown dog gets returned because the owners do not know how to handle them or the dog gets abused
. Some
peopl
e are convinced that “tough love” will
train the dog.

We just were not capable of trying to train two of the same
kind of high-intensity dogs
.
We knew Buddy would consume most of our time
,
and we could not have two uncontrollable dogs w
ith
bad behavioral issues.
We decided to keep looking.

After a few days of searching, we finally narrowed it down to two dogs
that
we really wanted.
We joke that the one I wanted was a boy dog for $255
,
and the other one that Michael wanted was a girl for $195.
Both were adorable, of course.
She was a little older (six mo
nths) and little less expensive. A
fter some careful deliberation, we decided that
both
her age and the reasonable price tag w
ere
the determining factor
s
that made her “the one.”

One thing we both agreed upon was that her name was
going
to be Brandi
with an
i
at the end.

We
adopted
Brandi on October 6
th
, 2001
. She was exactly six
months old and had a little more of a reddish color for her coat.
Once again, we had the ride home all planned out.
I would sit in the passenger seat while Michael put her on my lap.
We were
prepared
for another night just like the one driving home with Buddy.

Michael started the car
,
and we waited.
Brandi just sat there
as
calm as c
ould
be
with her front paws crossed over one another like a proper lady
.
She did not move the entire time.
If this was to be a clear indication of how perfect she would become, someone must have been watching over us.
She was the exact opposite of Buddy.

We could not wait to bring her home.
Buddy would be so happy to have a playmate that could keep up with him.
It would be awesome.
We figured this would totally subdue Buddy if he had someone to romp around with all day.
We drove home trying to remain calm, anticipating Buddy’s ecstatic reaction…or so we thought.

As it turn
ed
out, Buddy was not ecstatic.
He was not even remotely amused. He looked about as happy as someone who
’d
just
been
fatally stung by a swarm of bees.
If I ever thought a dog could curse me out,
it
was
at
that precise moment.

Even though they
had
bathed her at the shop, she did not have that adorable, sought-after new puppy smell.
Instead, Brandi had a very undesirable
and
distinct odor to her.
We thought it was just from the puppy store
,
and we would bathe her again when we got home.
She was twenty-nine pounds, so we were able to easily
place
her in the sink
to wash
her.
Well, Buddy smelled it
,
too.
As soon as he saw her, his face said it all.
He looked at us with disdain
,
and then we noticed
that he
was foaming at the mouth.
Not in the rabid sense, but foaming nonetheless.

Brandi, still sporting the crazy, big, ridiculous bow from the puppy store, was thrilled to
meet
him and began lavishing him with puppy kisses and jumping on him with pure delight.
Buddy quickly walked into the other room, disgusted.
As much as Brandi wanted to play with him, he gave her the cold shoulder and
walked
away.

Here
wa
s precisely whe
n
we learned that when Buddy
wa
s upset he actually mope
d
in the full dramatic sense of the word
:
head hanging low, feet dragging
, and
eyes drooping.
He even occasionally thr
ew
in a heavy, exasperated sigh for added effect.

We found out after three more baths and an initial trip to the vet that the putrid smell was no
ne
other than disgusting ear mites.
It was the most repulsive and unforgettable
stench
.
The vet
informed us
that this was most likely the reason
that
Buddy froth
ed
at the mouth.
We immediately
picked up
some medicine for the mites
,
and we had to
sanitize
anything that Brandi had been near.
This included washing all linens,
cleaning the crates, and
vacuuming
the carpets
…again.

We also
discovered
that we must have signed up for the
bonus package as
Brandi had left the pet store with worms, no extra charge.
Unfortunately, we found this out while we were eating our dinner
—
not something you really want to discuss.
Again, we
acquired
some more medicine for this
,
and she was
as
good as new.
Buddy, on the other hand, was still adjusting to the fact that he was no longer the only dog
,
but when he wasn’t looking we did catch him
studying
Brandi with intense curiosity.

The first few days we suffered from buyer’s remorse.
Since the initial problems with the ear mites a
nd
worms, we
were no longer sure
that
a second dog was such a smart move.
After all, there was so much work involved with training Buddy, and a second dog would be double th
e work
.

We hadn’t even thought about the
extra
expense that a second dog would bring us.

Through a few discussions and some tears, we needed to take a break to get our thoughts together.
Michael
locked
Brandi in her crate while he took a long-needed nap
,
and I ran to the store to clear my head and get out for a while.

When I came home, Brandi’s crate
was
still locked;
however, she was
sitting outside
of it
just looking at me.
I
surmised that
Michael had lost his mind and forgot
ten
to
put
Brandi in her crate before he locked it.
I put her back in her crate, locked it
,
and went to wake Michael.

When I woke him, I gently asked him if he
’d
forgot
ten
to put Brandi in the crate.
He looked at me like I was
insane,
and I told him
where she was
when I came home.
We went back downstairs and sure enough, there she was sitting outside of her crate again, with the door still locked
.
We nicknamed her Houdini, since we don’t really know how she got out, but she never did it again
after that
.

After
the initial shock of owning two dogs
, we were still
deciding if we should keep her.
Michael decided to have a private talk with Brandi by our backyard tree discussing the rules of the house.
We often declare
d later
that she understood, because she
was
nearly perfect
after
that day
,
and
,
yes, we did keep her.

A few days later
, Buddy determined that it was time
for him to show
Brandi who was
the
boss and the king of the house.
Even though he was neutered, he decided to meander to where Brandi was sitting and mount her time and time again.
Again,
through
our research
,
we found out this was not a sexual
thing
but more
about
dominance.
He was trying to show Brandi he was in charge.
Brandi was fine with this for the most part.
She was well adjusted
and did not feel the need to compete.