I am a rural non-gun owner

[beevul]

104. Sadly, that isn't our dog, just an example. We would like to have a pair of them though.

These are our extended family:



Thats buddy, an american eskimo dog that some asshole dumped on a busy road. He had twigs worked into his fur down to the skin, and roughly 3-5 hundred ticks when we brought him home.



Thats our little taffy as a puppy, though shes all grown up now.


"

"Is that big kitty really going to sit on me?!?!?!"



This is my little girl, Foxy. Shes a very sweet, calm quiet little girl, and very attatched to papa.



The jack russel, magic, was another dog some asshole dumped, and we adopted. He took to the name within 3 days, and is very intelligent, and is the fastest running dog I have ever seen short of a greyhound. He was living on garbage and roadkill for several months, we found out from some locals, after we started looking for his owner.

The pom, is bearbear. He is one of the dogs we lost to coyotes. Thats as much as I'm able to say.



This is baby sugar. Shes a very sweet energetic outgoing little girl, all grown up now. Shes taken it upon herself to be the "cat police" of the house.

We also have an eskie/pom mix rescue, and a schipperke rescue.

I totally agree with you about the short lifespans. In general, thats one of the down sides of having a large "family", is that you spend alot of time, too much time, greiving for them when they pass.

We aren't totally decided on the boerboel, but we have been looking with some interest, at many of the different "guardian" breeds. The other issue we have, is that we already share our bed with 6 dogs, and even though they're little ones, they're bed hogs, and I don't know how we'd fit a pair of 125 plus pound behemoths into bed with us on top of it lol.

A jackass as another poster suggested, is something we may explore as well to keep the coyotes away, though the local farmers have lost adult cows to coyotes from time to time, so I'm not sure, but it is worth looking into. I cringe at the thought of losing another dog. Its bad enough to have to bury them intact when they pass, let alone pick up the..."pieces" after the coyotes get them. Thats horrible in a way that I can't put into words.

Most likely, the next addition to our family will be an alaskan klee kai, probably a rescue if and when one becomes available:



I grew up and spent a great portion of my life as a cat person, never really having been in a situation where I could become close to a dog. These icelandic breeds - the poms, and the eskies - have stolen my heart. They can be a handful to someone that is not prepared to live in a "pack environment", particularly the eskie - they are VERY strong willed creatures, though the pommie girls not so much. It probably could sound like nonsense to someone that doesn't own dogs, or someone that owns non communal dogs which do not exhibit pack behavior, but when you own icelandic breeds, it becomes very clear that you do indeed live in a pack environment, and that they view you as the leader of the pack - assuming you assert yourself and your SO as the alpha and beta.

They take care of each other, and us, in ways that you'll never see a non-pack type dog exhibit, and though I do love all dogs, these little descendents of the working dog and the wolf, are in a class all by themselves.

(sorry for the thread derail there, I do get to rambling about the family when someone gets me talking about them.)