the nursery's best friend

14 Dec '06 10:36 pm

[quote="smits'spot"]meet Edward. He's a cross great dane and rottweiler and he's the best friend of our local nursery. Not because he goes to visit, but because he tramples our poor plants before they have a chance to grow!

What a handsome dog he is.

I've met dogs who must have graduated from the same secret nursery training school. Our own doesn't roll or crush, she specialises in bone burying. The butcher brings her a large fresh beef knuckle every week, she immediately buries it to "ripen". In the course of the next few weeks it wil be repeatedly dug up,chewed for a bit and reburied in a new location. She knows perfectly well we don't approve so she always slinks out of sight; I've seen her furtively looking around to see if anyone is watching. The muddy nose is a giveaway. Every so often she digs up the entire gruesome collection and arranges them all together on the lawn,like a garage sale. A little party of neighbourhood dogs comes to call, and I'll find them all lying in the sun crunching away.

18 Dec '06 2:58 pm

I love the look of your pets, particularly Edward. Looking at that first photo I can see the similarity with our dog Brandy who is part rottie.
It isn't always obvious on her but that side profile of Edward reminds me so much of her (except she's a rusty tan colour. No idea what else she has in her mix).

28 Dec '06 8:16 pm

great news! My friend Melanie gave me some mint which I secretly planted next to the water tank and its still there! And its growing some lush new shoots. Could it possibly be that Edward has given up his herb-eating habits? Hope so! Rolling Eyes

30 Dec '06 5:53 am

LOL! Well if he hasn't and he finds the mint at least he will have sweet-smelling breath! Mr. Green

~ Just read your post Jay Bee! The mental image of the doggy garage sale....priceless! Very Happy

7 Jan '07 5:17 pm

Hi, folks-

Here are a couple of pics of me and my Blue Heeler, Joey. Joey is extremely shy of the camera, so it's really hard getting a good picture of him. He always puts his ears down and looks rather mean, but he's really a very gentle dog, although very protective towards me. He's the one that forced me to build the fence around my veg. garden, not because he ate or trampled the plants, but because the neighbour's cat used to sit atop the roof of her shed and I was afraid that one day, Joey would try to use my cold frame as a launching pad to jump over the property fence after her! That wouldn't do the glass any good, now, would it!

Cheers,

gordonf

9 Jan '07 2:46 am

Poor little Joey, I do feel for him! He's such a lovely-looking doggy, he should be showing himself off rather than hiding! I have to admit, I've never actually known a dog to be scared of the camera, most of them that I know are real show-offs! Rolling Eyes

Thanks for your pics, Gordonf

9 Jan '07 3:46 am

Hi Gordonf, I loved your pictures of Joey. He reminds me of my own shy dog, Willie. Willie is a mixed breed dog that we adopted from the Humane Society eight years ago to help us get over the grief of losing our oldest daughter Cathy. Her husband, Jerry, convinced us we needed a dog.

Willie has been a great comfort and companion to us. He is a very loving dog, but is also very shy of strangers (and strange objects like cameras). Being very black, complicates the effort to take good pictures.

Jay Bee, I loved your story about the bones. It made me laugh out loud. We had to stop giving Willie bones, because they seemed to cause him stomach upsets; but this past fall when I began to dig up my sweet potato crop I caught him trying to steal a potato from the pile. It wasn't until a week or so later that I found all the ones that he had successfully stolen already and left lying on the lawn.

9 Jan '07 5:21 am

Dear Gordon, your beloved companion is so lovely! I just loved seeing you with him!

Faith, your sweet Willie looks a little sad in the photos... Maybe, he was like this when still very young, like all baby orphans..But it was great what you did, really! I know what precious comfort and meaningful company the animals can be for us... Thank God...

9 Jan '07 6:57 pm

Gordon, Joey is beautiful. I love his coat. Just lovely. Smile

And Faith, Willie is also beautiful. I'm glad to see we have so many dog lovers on this board. Truly my favourite animal.

9 Jan '07 7:09 pm

Hi, Faith- Willie is such a great dog! He looks SO cute in his puppy photo! He's now about twice the size of my Joey, though! I used to have an English Bull Terrier named Sherman (named after the tank of the same name) who weighed 40 lb. when he finally passed on at age 14. A while later, my doctor told me I should get another dog for company, so I got Joey, thinking that he wouldn't get as heavy, so that, as I get older I'd be easily able to carry him around if necessary (as I did with poor Sherman for his last 3 years as his paws were so sore). Well, Joey is now 6 years old and weighs - get this - 40 pounds!! And he seems quite slim compared with the other heelers around here!

But no matter his size, I love him dearly and he loves me (for more than cookies, I hope!).

It's so nice seeing other gardeners' pets; makes one remember that gardeners aren't just garden lovers! I don't suppose any of you tropical gardeners have pet parrots or other exotic pets, do you?

Cheers,

gordonf

the nursery's best friend

Re: the nursery's best friend

minty fresh

Joey

Aaaah...

Shy Dogs

Lovely companions.

Willie