DEER
Chasing wildlife is fun. There are lots of deer out here and Rocket thinks they would be the most fun to chase, except he isn't allowed. Generally he is only allowed to watch them from a window, while pacing, whining, and generally being a nuisance. Occasionally he flushes one while running about outside and he bounds after it leaping into the air looking very much like a miniature deer except that he really looks like Rocket. During hunting season he wears a bright orange collar to help differentiate himself from the deer. When he goes to Michigan during hunting season he wears a bright orange vest with yellow reflecting stripes at least until he managed to lose it somewhere in the woods.
In 1999 a nearly all white doe was born. Unfortunately for it, Rocket can see it a lot better and has chased it on occasion, but he gives up quickly, being white does not make it any slower!
BIRDS
Sparrows are also great fun to chase. They have this tendency to fly low from tree to tree and Rocket runs back and forth and round and round in circles. When I feed the birds in the winter he has many more to chase. Fortunately he can't seem to scare them off permanently.
Turkeys are great fun to chase too, and there are lots of them on his new property in Michigan.
Rocket has on occasion caught mice, much to their detriment. Recently has he has seen his first squirrel but as he was on a leash in a rest area somewhere on the way to visit his cousin, he was unable to give chase. Ground hogs (aka woodchucks) are also prevalent in this area. And one afternoon Rocket chose to try and make friends with one. Go to woodchuck encounter.
I have it on the authority of Rocket's Dad that skunks, ermines, minks, etc belong to the stoat family. Often if I smell the skunk variety in the area I check outside around the house before letting him out in the morning. But it's those times you don't smell them that they become dangerous. Go to Skunked
CRICKETS
He caught and ate quite a few as a youngster but he seems to have lost interest. And while the grasshoppers are fun to chase for a moment there are entirely too many of them to be bothered with for long.
FOXES
Oddly enough when Rocket sees them he generally just stares and they stare back before darting away through the high grass. But on our morning walks he usually picks up its scent from its own hunting forays and chases about nose to the ground in hopes of coming upon it.
TOADS and TURTLES
The one toad Rocket met he kept trying to pick up even though he couldn't figure out why it didn't taste very good. I had to hide the toad when he wasn't looking. He also met a box turtle in the woods but was afraid to go near it probably because what he saw waddling along suddenly disappeared inside its shell and to a puppy that is very bizarre indeed.
Rocket's Philosophy on Smells
Rocket follows a very simple philosophy on smells. If it has a unique smell and fits in his mouth it's consumable. However, if he decides it's not edible, then at the very least it's roll-in-able. In this latter category are wildlife excrement and the nastiest gray sludge-like clay to be found at the bottom of streams exposed by drought. We have had a drought all summer. There's a lot of exposed clay. Needless to say, he gets hosed down a lot.
Rocket's Philosophy on Found Items
Again Rocket's philosophy is simple. If it's not attached to something heavier than he is it is probably mobile. He has brought home many items; neighbors' toys, his friends' bones (they however, reciprocate in kind, his sister being the biggest bone thief in the neighborhood until she got her invisible fence). He has brought back large sticks, preferably of an 8 to 10 foot length, which he seems to intend for lawn mower fodder. He does not drag them but carries them balanced carefully in his mouth, pausing to adjust as he runs up the hill. I have even found Smokey's humans' welcome mat in my yard. Sometimes he even brings home Smokey, minus his collar.
Rocket's Philosophy on Play
Play is a good thing. He loves chasing things, retrieving things. He enjoys a good tug of war with his rope. He also has many balls as well as numerous squeaky toys. The hollow vinyl ones with a hole for the squeaker rather than an internal squeaker last the longest. He is particularly fond of a 4 inch long orange football. With it in his mouth he will roll about on the floor squeaking it and squeaking along himself in perfect harmony. If I can ever catch it on videotape I will be sure to upload it. He likes to drop his toys down the stairs. I'm not sure if it's the sight of them bouncing or the noise when they hit the hardwood floor that he enjoys the most. I try to discourage the dropping of those hard rubber ones, thy bounce high and leave irremovable marks on the walls. Only paint can make them disappear. Dropping bones from the second floor onto the hardwood first floor also seems to be great fun. There are now gouges in the wall where they hit!
A few things he likes are:
Frisbee chasing, catching is strictly for dogs desiring dental problems
the Kong© nearly impossible to catch off the bounce, plus stick a biscuit in the hole to drive him nuts
a 10" hard plastic ball for rolling about with his nose into the tall grass or briars and leaving there until I retrieve it for him and in high summer stays lost until the grass dies down enough to fall over and reveal its location.
and a little red ball that lights up when moved and which he catches really well
a really hard back scratch, he actually purrs
Riding in the car - Rocket has his own seatbelt that snaps into each car's seatbelt holder and then clips to his harness. (Always in the backseat, just like a child and never attached to his collar)
Chasing the ATV (all terrain vehicle) He loves doing this, unfortunately he has this tendency to play chicken and run right in front of it.
He adores the sound of lawn mower engines. Lately I have to keep him in the house while I start the riding mower otherwise he tries to stick his face into the moving parts. He leaves it alone after it's running. I can only assume he likes the starting up sound and not so much the running sound.
Stuff Done to Me that I Don't Like!
I don't know why mom insists on brushing me! My hair is too short to get tangled. I don't LIKE it. I try to run away and she grabs my collar. I can tell it hurts to brush hers (she yelps) so I don't see why I have to put up with it!
Toenail clipping, if I get enough biscuits I'll go along for awhile. I can eat a lot of biscuits.
Getting left at home alone. Mom hides biscuits before she leaves but it's never enough. Sometimes I'll wander around the house checking the secret places just in case she put out more. Sometimes I even find one!
Getting my teeth brushed isn't that fun but boy that chicken flavor toothpaste is really yummy! I wish I knew what a chicken was.
Visit Doctors Foster & Smith Dog and Cat Catalog. Lots of toys and good things to eat; All kinds of medicines too. Now they even have stuff for wild birds.
I've got lots of nice doctor friends. I've met 3 so far at the clinic I go to. I used to love to go there until one time when I got stuck with needles a lot. My mom says it's my own fault. I sure didn't do it on purpose! It all seemed to start in January 1998 when I had this operation they call neutering. I was only 5 months old so I don't really know what it was all about, I feel fine. But boy, did I get to visit the vet lots after that!
Here are a few things that have happened in no particular order.
Giardia- a real nasty intestinal parasite that human campers get from drinking un-boiled stream water. Generally I'm pretty immune I guess but I had caught a cold and drank from my favorite stream and bam, I got it. It's really gross and takes weeks to recover if you're a 5-month-old puppy. So from mid January until April I was not a happy camper. It was a particularly nasty case which if anyone is interested Mom will discuss via emailt's one of those things that can take a vet a few tries to pin down. I had to take lots of pills and eat rice and special vet food for weeks. Yuck. I haven't got it since, but then my stream dried up this summer (1998)!
Conjunctivitis (pink eye) I don't know who I got this from, my friends won't own up to it. Lots of eye drops for this. I gave mom a terrible time with those drops! And I seem to get it ALL the time, in fact it's been an on and off thing for the last two months of 1998!
Then I went with dad to take this big rolling green bin down the driveway and somehow got something nasty in my eye! It hurt and I couldn't see anything. The doctor said I got sharp grass pieces embedded in my cornea and they had to make me sleep to get them out. And oh boy, did mom have fun with drops and ointments 4 times a day for a week!
Worms (a puppy thing) nasty, made my tummy upset, had to swallow this nasty goop for three days, yuck.
Then of course I had to have my nose glued shut when that silly animal bit me! Wasn't a very friendly thing to do! And I got shots too!
Lyme Disease Vaccine there is now a vaccine for dogs for this nasty joint disease spread by deer ticks. There are 3 shots, the first, the second 3 weeks later and then a third 12 months later and yearly after that. Incidentally the treatment is also now available for people with the same number of shots, but as with any human medicine, much more expensive. Many insurances do not cover it yet. I got it for Rocket though because it's a lot harder to find an remove deer ticks on him than on me.
"Woof Woof"
