BAD BAD BUDDY BEHAVIOR

Although Buddy tries hard not to be bad, he sometimes can't help himself.  It's like a devil resides deep inside him, and evilness takes over spontaneously.  Despite this character flaw, he's the most loving dog to us that we could ever want.  From his crooked leg to his humongous ears, it's evident that he loves us unconditionally.  We're suckers for love.

We recently visited Richard's son, Ben, and his family, who live in a beautiful rural area near Winston-Salem.  Our visit was during the last week of March when the spectacular colors of spring were spread abundantly on the rolling hills.  The family lives on a nice spread in the middle of those lovely North Carolina hills.  Pot-bellied pigs, guinea hens, chickens, ducks, dogs, and cats all co-exist in neatly built pens on the property and close to their house.  Each and every one of them is treasured as pets.  Roaming freely was a gorgeous diminutive red but partly lame Bantam rooster.  Unfortunately, his lameness prevented him from flying high enough to escape predators who might try to capture him.

Before our arrival, Buddy might enjoy the freedom of roaming around unleashed in the country.  We must have been delusional, as he discovered the rooster within two seconds of being out of the car door.

Our pleas for him to stop were ignored.  He was focused on catching that rooster.  Richard's sweet 8-year-old granddaughter was screaming and crying while I was screaming loudly at Buddy.  Richard joined the group that chased after Buddy and the rooster.

Buddy caught the rooster.  I don't know how, nor do I ever want to know how they got the rooster from Buddy's mouth, but they did.  Shortly, out of the corner of my eye was a heart-stopping vision of Buddy coming around the corner of the house with a mouth full of feathers.  I thought it was the rooster, but it was just feathers.  It didn't matter to Buddy.  He had his prize; he was a happy dog.  

We immediately scolded him and jailed him in the car.  I was so upset that I couldn't look at him for the rest of the day.  The rooster was alive, but barely.  I told Richard that if the rooster dies from this point forward, it wouldn't be because of Buddy.  He finds my logic suspect, but I'm sticking to it.

We were almost over the rooster incident until this week when Buddy took great interest in one of Richard's charming neighbors.  His focus on her was unusually intense.  Buddy kept circling her and smelling her jean-clad leg.  Richard thought his behavior was unusual because his attention span was very short.  He's unable to get too close for too long.  When the person pets him, he lunges and barks at them as they walk away.  I cannot begin to explain his behavior any more than I can solve complex mathematical problems.  They are one and the same to me.  Unsolvable.

After more than ten minutes of smelling her leg, he lifted his leg to pee on her.  Once again, he managed to embarrass us and horrify us at the same time.  I had sworn to keep him on a short leash after the almost fatal incident with the rooster, but I suppose Richard thought he'd give him a chance.

We don't harbor any illusions anymore that Buddy will exhibit normal behavior.

4/23/10


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