A Quick Visit with Dad and Gabby!!!

It was a terrific weekend! I got in a short with visit my Dad and my sister, Gabby! Gabby and I are planning on going to see our brother, Vader, before Gabs heads up to Alaska. Boy, I'm going to miss ole Gabs!



This final picture is of my sister (Gabby) and I.

Day NINE of Confinement...examining my roots--MEMORIES OF MY DAD

The days of my confinement drag on...and on and on and on...

Lately, I have been thinking about Dad. Actually, I've only run into him a couple of times in my life. He's a career dog...not the fatherly type at all. He fell hard for my Mom, but it was a doomed romance. Too much of his heart was already occupied by his job and too much of Mom's heart could never be tamed.

Dad has lived a colorful life. He started out in undercover work. Now he is semi-retired, working as a rent-a-cop. Back in his hey-day, he helped take down a major drug king-pin. He stayed DEEP undercover for years working as the drug lord's body-guard. My dad was the best in the business. He made Kujo look friendly! And Dad is TALL. Though he has amazingly handsome lines, he's too tall to have ever qualified in the conformation portion any dog show. But that's okay because he wouldn't have had the patience for life on a pageant runway, anyway. He was born the edgy sort...has always needed to be in the midst of danger to really feel alive. He's all about taking down the enemy and extra height is a real bonus when you are leaping onto an enemy to rip them to shreds. Dad's work was always his life.

Dad went undercover very early in his career and stayed there so long that he almost never found his way out. Dad didn't leave until long after the drug lord he had shadowed (as "body-guard") for so many years had been arrested and buried in prison. Unfortunately for Dad, it turned out that getting out afterwards wasn't as easy as he had planned. Some of the drug lord's relatives suspected he had had a hand in ratting out the drug lord and they took it out on him. They kept him under lock and key and systematically starved him from his fit and trim 90 pounds clear down to a bone protruding 60 pounds before someone sent by the Greater Kansas City German Shepherd Rescue Society was able to bring him out of there.

It was while he was recovering from that near death experience that he met my mom...an iron-willed Latino beauty sporting a shiny new Green card. Her fiery temperament intrigued him. Her exotic beauty haunted his dreams. Her seductive accent lingered in his ears. She mesmerized him and made him feel alive once more. Their passion burned fierce and deep... They both genuinely believed in their hearts that they would be inseparable for life...but as Dad regained his strength, life without daily danger became tedious...even with the exotic Hispanic beauty by his side. For Mom's part, she was always such a free spirit, herself, that I suspect it was probably a relief to her when Dad left one day and never came back home again. They left friends. They will always love only each other. But, neither of them ever had a strong pack drive. They were both lone wolves, from beginning to end...




......................(our last picture of Dad just before he left Mom)....................
Dad is hard as flint, more relentless than Kujo when on the attack, yet, underneath it all, so deep down that few ever see it, he really does have a tender heart. And my dad is truly the most HANDSOME German Shepherd I have ever known.

Disclaimer:
The following post was not written by me, Ransom.
I lifted this post directly off my Spokesperson's personal blog, "Dumplings, Three".

Here are Gram and Gus! This was only my second time meeting Gus, but what a profound difference! Saturday evening his response to my arrival made Kujo look like a kitten! Last night, he sat at regal attention as my car pulled into Gram's drive, but he never so much as growled or even rose to a standing position. I was expecting a repeat performance of the previous evening, when he had repeatedly lept to the top of the six foot fence snarling savagely at me, furious at my audacity to approach 'his' territory. I miscalculated. Having been introduced to me once, he no longer regarded me an intruder and sat calmly (though attentively) as he watched me approach the fence and let myself in.

I think Gus is a gorgeous animal. I was even more impressed by his quickness to learn and eagerness to be obedient. Gram only acquired Gus recently. Believe it or not, she had located him through the German Shepherd Rescue group in KC. He looked awful when she first brought him home...just skin and bones...you could count his ribs. (When Gram brought him to the vet right after acquiring him, he weighed only SIXTY pounds. At his previous visit to the vet (before his long siege of neglect after his original owner was sent to prison) he had weighed NINETY pounds and had been fit and trim at THAT weight.) He looked just awful when Gram first brought him home, but, look at him now! That's what a month or so of tender loving care from a Grandma will do for a critter! He is five years old but has not apparently had any previous training, apart from attack training. No obedience training...didn't even know how to walk on a leash. In spite of his lack of training,I noticed right off how obedient and attentive he is to Gram, and I was REALLY impressed with how quickly he learned new rules. I noticed that he tended to come from behind Gram and push his way in front of her each time she went in or out of the house. That didn't seem safe. So, Gram and I worked all of about five minutes with Gus and we were able to teach him to SIT and wait for Gram to go through the door first and not to come through the open doorway himself UNTIL Gram gives him verbal permission to do so. Putting him on a leash, I saw again just how POWERFUL this dog is. He could drag me like a straw doll around the yard. However, after just the briefest of instruction regarding proper leash etiquette, he was heeling beside me, able to walk nicely with the leash slack.

I really had my heart set on one of Violet's puppies...but, quite truthfully, I'd take Gus over one of the puppies. Of course GRAM would never part with him! Boy, I like that dog a LOT!


Here are Gus and Violet, together! Lisa and I were originally planning on trying to acclimate them to each other tonight, but, on the spur of the moment, we decided to get together yesterday evening instead. Lisa brought Violet down from KC and we met up in Osceola at Gram's. We were expecting fireworks...based on Violet's reaction to Gus a week or so earlier. Wrong. Violet came up to the gate with her tail wagging and her body language relaxed! And, Gus, for his part, remained the gentleman he has always been towards Her Highness, Miss Violet.


Have to finish out with a few more pictures of Gus!...
(Lisa took the last five photos in this post! I am wearing Grant's oversized fleece jacket...but I wore it on purpose thinking that if Gus reverted to Kujo, at least I would have baggy clothing on to make me look bigger and to maybe save me from catching as much of his teeth! You laugh, but I am a very practical person and I wasn't ruling out getting bit along the way!)