Don’t Know Jack

By

Gerry Niskern

“My dog’s not spoiled, I’m just well trained!”

I have a young friend who has been pet sitting for many years. She loves all dogs and doesn’t mind if there is a cat or two in residence where she is sitting. It’s estimated that over 40% of the households in the United States have a dog and she figures she has sat for half of them! But she met her match the other day.

She had been a little concerned when she booked the job. You see, the family had a cat, a small dog and a Great Dane. It would be her first experience with that breed. She was given instructions to give Jack, the Dane with an attitude,  his meds every day for his arthritis. “All you have to do is put the pill in a piece of cheese and he gobbles it right up” the owners assured her as they headed for the door.

Well, Jack had other plans. He was not having any part of anything she tried to give him, including even a doggie treat. She wasn’t about to argue with a dog that stood taller then her. She called the vet, goggled the problem for suggestions and finally called the owner. It was agreed that he would be all right without meds until they got back.  She was laughing though because Jack came and stood right over when she gave the small dog his pill.

My grandson says that when he cuts his dog’s toenails, his other dog comes real close to watch. I don’t know much about dogs but I think that that is probably a loyalty thing. We all know how  loyal dogs are, don’t we? We also know that their sense of smell 40 times better than ours. Which reminds me of a favorite dog story of mine.

My Uncle Joe had a hunting hound named Fanny. She was the best hunting dog around and was stolen more then once. I remember hearing the grown ups saying, “Fanny is missing and we’re going after her.” A car load of my uncles with their hunting rifles would take off and they seemed to know which farms to look for her, because they always came home with Fanny. She sure got an extra share of loving from all us kids that day.

But here’s the best Fanny story about loyalty. When Uncle Joe went into the Navy during WWll he was sent directly from boot camp to duty on the Great Lakes with no leave between. Before he reported, He took a chance and hitched a ride with a beer truck going thru West Virginia . The state highway ran past my grandma’s house and that beer truck sped past and stopped two blocks away. By the time the trucker stopped Fanny was there in Uncle Joe’s arms. Talk about loyalty!