Happy Birthday Merci

Today we celebrate Merci's gotcha day as her birthday.  We don't know when she was born but we like to celebrate the day she came to live here.  No, actually she didn't arrive till tomorrow or Wednesday.  Today was the day she was sprung from the shelter and sent to the vet to be spayed.

We have to tell a tale on her.  She used to be so good-natured and gentle that even strange cats were attracted to her and followed her when she walked Jan.

Every so often a big dog will advance slowly to meet the pack.  They generally sniff and then Buddy, Merci and Sam bark to send him on his way.  But small dogs don't have any sense!  They advance at a dead run, barking and carrying on like they're going to tear our three to pieces.  What do they expect when they act aggressively - tea and biscuits?

What they do get is Buddy and or Sam rushing at him barking furiously and the aggressive-acting dog always does a back flip, scrambles to his feet and races around threatening to tear our three limb from limb.

Well, Friday a Jack Russell Terrier that always barks fiercely from across the road, raced across the yard, reached the end of his tether ... and kept on coming dragging his tie-down with him.  Before he crossed the road, his owner was racing after him.  Jan stopped and braced herself.  Sam went around behind Jan to stand on her other side, which meant if he had lunged at the dog, Jan would have landed on the pavement.

The JRT stopped, sniffed noses with Buddy and Merci, and before he could start barking again, little Merci lunged at him snarling and yelling at him to go away and leave them alone.  Jan was in shock.  The guys were supposed to be protecting little defenseless getting-on-in-years Merci. The JRT was so startled, he flipped on his back, jumped to his feet and as he started to yell not so nice words at Merci, his owner scooped him up.  He'd lost his shoes in the road and was sweating profusely..Huffing, puffing and looking a bit pale, he apologized.

Perhaps it's the practice she's had telling off Luke the barking, leaping, pain-in-the-butt pup.  Or a combination of Luke and the unrelenting heat and humidity.  But 10 or 11 year old Merci isn't so shy any more.  Buddy and Sam will never live that down, being protected by a senior lady sibling.