Garden crew - Gods and dogs

Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement, and love without penalties. - W. L. George

--> Krusty, Kristy and mummy

You have already met the Gods, now it's time to meet the Dogs.

"He is my other eyes that can see above the clouds; my other ears that hear above the winds. He is the part of me that can reach out into the sea. He has told me a thousand times over that I am his reason for being; by the way he rests against my leg; by the way he thumps his tail at my smallest smile; by the way he shows his hurt when I leave without taking him. (I think it makes him sick with worry when he is not along to care for me.) When I am wrong, he is delighted to forgive. When I am angry, he clowns to make me smile. When I am happy, he is joy unbounded. When I am a fool, he ignores it. When I succeed, he brags. Without him, I am only another man. With him, I am all-powerful. He is loyalty itself. He has taught me the meaning of devotion. With him, I know a secret comfort and a private peace. He has brought me understanding where before I was ignorant. His head on my knee can heal my human hurts. His presence by my side is protection against my fears of dark and unknown things. He has promised to wait for me... whenever... wherever - in case I need him. And I expect I will - as I always have. He is just my dog." - Gene Hill

NERA


Ladies first. Nera (age: 8) is the oldest of the three. And she's the Lady of the house. She came 10 months after my first dog died. I thought I would never get over it, I kept hearing his sighs whenever I passed by his favorite sleeping spot... I will save that story for a special post. A tiny, mischievous pup named Nera( after her black, velvety fur), brought happiness and life back to our empty home. She grew to be one wonderfully good-natured and beyond tolerant dog. She's one of these dogs who think all people are alike and dog-lovers, and she would like to shake paws with each and every single one. Definitely not a watch dog as she's too friendly and naive. When it comes to dogs though, especially males, she can be quite coquettish one second and pretty harsh the next. Respect! I always thought that's one of her nicest manners (lol). Her dad was a Rotweiller (a pretty aggressive one as his owner was a total nutjob), and her ma was a German Hunt Terrier (owned by a poor, old man living in an old shabby house, on the edge of existence, but caring more for his dogs than himself). We used to help him since kids age, and found home to many of his pups. That's how tiny Nera ended up in our home. She's also one of the most voracious dogs I know. She lives better than most people, and has everything a dog could wish for yet if it was up to her cheeky self, she'd probably be too obese to walk. She eats anything from carrots, garlic, bananas, apple pies, pancakes, all the way to stealing roast chicken and BBQ stakes when the chef suddenly gets distracted by a phone call. Her middle name is 'Omnivora', giving new meaning to the phrase ' You are what you eat'. Even though well-mannered (???) , she once ate my dad's birthday cake even though it was high up on the kitchen cabinet. Chocolate stuff are her favorite flavors. Although we try not to give her any sweets, every now and then she steals a cookie. Or two.She used to be the fastest dog in the neighborhood and the friendliest too. Now having a yard of her own, and proud male dogs to keep an eye on, she's just happy to show the boys who the boss is. She is quite timid when it comes to sporting and football events, New Year's celebrations and fireworks, and thunderstorms. Her usual episodes of anxiety include hiding, shaking and looking for safe places. We often try to mask the football mania and the firecrackers by playing the radio real loud, and her favourite is the ' Hound dog' obviously.


MALENI

Nera's younger brother, actually they had the same mother, that was run down by a car on Xmas Eve six years ago, just a few weeks after Maleni was born. He also ended up in our home, we were supposed to find a nice, new family for him but never got to that part. Motherly Nera took such a good care of him, she'd never had pups of her own and I guess she finally felt like a ma to someone. If there's anyone or anything Mali loves beyond expression in his dog universe, it's gotta be Nera. He's always by her side, wherever they may go. We don't know exactly who was his father (we have a few clues, but it was most likely something that looked like a wild piglet). People used to stop me and ask what a strange sort of dog this is, and where'd I get him from. He was the last hatchling and significantly smaller than all of his brothers/sisters. He was so tiny he could fit in the palm of my hand. Thus he hardly ever got the chance to get some food and his rear paws barely had any bones in them. When he lost his ma, we took him home and he was on huge calcium enriched milk doses. Some people said we should eutanize him but that wasn't an option in my world. Although he was named Maleni ( a tiny one) he grew up to be a well-formed lad, and his paws are just massive. His body structure is a bit...well, he's not reading this so I can give you a clue... a bit disproportiona l... but in a cute way more than anything (big head, massive front paws, strong shoulders and a tiny, piglet-like, muscular body. Too cute if you ask me. And if you ever compared cats and dogs and concluded dogs had no personality - well Maleni is here to prove everyone wrong. He's also exceptionally smart, not even as a tiny pup did he ever make a mess (we used to go for long, puppy walks and he would wait and hold it in until we came home and he could do it in his box lol). When he feels like going for a walk, he opens the door, goes downstairs to fetch our shoes, brings them back upstairs and makes sure we get the point. Even though he's already 6 years old he's still as playful as always. He loves to fetch apples and eat them or chew on wood, any type, he's our very own carpenter. He jumps like a kangaroo as if he had trampoline paws. A scene you could never get enough of. He's his own little person and nobody orders him around. He is very well behaved and even though male dogs get into fights a lot, he is just so friendly with everyone until proven wrong. Then he can get quite dangerous, but the only fight he had was with Bobby, our third dog, and all out of jealousy. He's also amazingly friendly with all other animals, starting from birds, rabbits, hedgehogs to cats. Nera on the other hand proudly points out that her ma was a Hunt Terrier and the only cats she can tolerate are Kristy & Krusty ( when outdoors she can chase them through the yard but once in the house, it's a whole new world - Cat world - she even has to leave the comfy armchair if her feline master orders so, yes, the cat claws never feel so brutal as when she's dreaming away her dog dreams and Kristy suddenly decides that the armchair isn't big enough for two ). Maleni is also afraid of the claws, but he's too friendly to be mad at anyone. Except when it comes to food. He turns into a beast and barks away in menace, making a few square meters of his imaginary corridor that nobody is allowed to enter while he eats. A charming little multiple personality.

'A piece of grass a day keeps the vet away'
(unknown dog)

BOBBY

Now that you have met the privileged two, it's time to finally get to know Bobby. By privileged, I mean that they didn't and will never have to experience human cruelty. Bobby on the other hand didn't have that privilege. He was bought as a kid toy when he was only a pup (obviously). I didn't even try to imagine what his growing up must have been like. Eventually, and quite predictably with THAT sort of 'humans', his family soon got fed up with the dog, as the kids didn't like the notion that he will not remain a puppy to be brutally played with forever. So how did they 'dispose' of him? They threw him out of a moving car, in one of the most busiest avenues. My mom saw all this from her window and ran down to see if the dog had survived, and luckily the nearby newsboy had saved the perplexed dog from the road. He then called the police and gave them the car's license plates, but since there are no strict animal abuse rules in my country, all they did was ' Sure thing mister, we'll see what we can do about it'. We then took him to the vet, where we discovered he also had multiple wounds and bruises that were not the product of his recent road trip. I needn't go into details; we were once again caring for one doubtful, traumatized dog and it took quite some time and effort until he could finally trust us. Since we had two dogs and were in the process of moving, our initial plan was to save him from the streets until we could find him a good home. And we did, he stayed with all of us and moved to Lady Greenthumb's garden. Today he is a prideful watch dog and he owns the yard. Both the postman and the rest of the garden crew know that ;-) At first, he preferred to stay out in the garden, his DIY dens dug out under pine trees, or in his bed in front of the main door ( I guess somewhere deep down in that innocent heart, he still dreaded the humans. He even bit my dad when he tripped over him in the dark LOL) But then he realized that Nera and Maleni were not doing so bad up there in the house, and he too decided he needed a little bit of that human touch. And warmth. Need I say he's the one with the best manners and I guess his fear of being rejected or 'disposed of' again makes him not even think of any foolish and mischievous deeds that Nera and Mali are constantly up to. He is in constant supremacy competition with Mali, but then they're males. No comment required. In their little quarrels and daily outwitting they don't even notice the female dominance.

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace." - Milan Kundera