Jake1

In Loving Memory Of Jake

I remember the first time I saw you Jake, a sweet little ball of fur, sitting back, watching your brothers and sisters greet me. When you saw that their interest was waining and they were wandering off then you knew it was your turn to get the attention, all for yourself. I thought that was pretty brilliant of you, it struck me then that you were pretty darned intelligent. You liked my smell and I liked you, right from the start with your big, bright little eyes. Your eyes were full of eagerness and open trust and you were a calm pup, not over exuberant, but friendly and open and honest. Next morning, as I stood there to pick my pup to take home, I didn�t even hesitate, you came right to me that time and we each knew we belonged to one another. It was that simple. No hesitation or second thoughts for either of us.

At home, though we had another dog, Felecia, you attached yourself to me immediately. You were my dog and you intended to keep it that way. I spent a lot of time at the computer, so you made your place under the computer desk by my feet and through the years, you let every dog in this house know that this was your place alone and they dare not go there. If I pulled my chair in too soon, you would patiently stand there beside me, with your head lowered, gazing longingly at your place under the desk until I became aware and would roll my chair back to let you in.

How you hated to let me out of your sight. You had seperation anxiety terribly. You had to go everywhere with me.

I loved taking you places with me, when I was able, and after you were a year old, I felt so protected having you by my side. I knew you would lay down your life to protect mine, if needed. You would protect any human or critter on our farm for that matter from any perceived threat and you didn�t hesitate when you saw a threat�..you barreled right into it with all you had. Protecting was your favorite job, it seems. All I had to do was point at a puppy, human infant, baby chick, etc. and say �guard it and protect it, Jake� and your eyes would light up and you would proudly lie down next to it and stay there till I came back. I remember the first night I had our 3 month old grandbaby, Christian, on our bed, and had to go brush my teeth. I knew the baby couldn�t roll over at that time and I thought I�d give you a job to do, so I said �you guard that baby Jake, I�ll be right back�. You got onto the bed and lay beside him. Jerry came down the hall to go to bed and heard a growl and saw the cat hesitate at the threshold of the room then dart off back down the hall. Jerry walked into the bedroom and saw you on the bed with the baby. He came into the bathroom and asked me if I had told you to guard the baby, I said yes. Jerry said �well, he�s doing his job, he wouldn�t let the cat into the room�. LOL

You loved your puppies so much and were very proud and protective of them. You liked nothing better than to have a basket of puppies to watch over. You would clean each little bottom with your big, warm tongue; then you would lie down beside the basket. A big growl would emit from your throat if any dog or cat dared to venture forth into that room. Even mother dog, Felecia, wasn�t allowed near that basket while you were on duty. If the dog or cat didn�t leave immediately, you�d charge at it. That was enough for them, off they�d run, except Felecia; she never backed down for you when it came to her puppies, and we usually had to pull you two apart, even though we knew you weren�t hurting one another, it was all show for the both of you. As the puppies grew older in weeks, you would gently play with them, even holding their little head in you big mouth with the utmost in gentleness. I never heard a puppy squeel in pain from your play. There would come a time, though, after they turned 8 weeks or so, when you would start to discipline them if they dared to break any house rules. You were a patient and wonderful teacher and you trained them so well, I often had an easy job of keeping the rules in this house. If a pup was out of your sight, and I caught it breaking a rule and scolded it, in you would come, quickly, to put your two cents in to that pup. You would usually bark sharply at it and roll it over on it�s back. Your bossiness over the rules extended to the cat also. If the cat, Melissa, would jump onto the kitchen counter to get closer to the birds, you would run in and pull her off the counter by her tail and then with your paw, hold her down on her back on the floor as you barked sharply at her. If she was able to get on top of the refridgerator, above the birds, and you couldn�t reach her, you would come and find me, bark at me to come ge the cat. I knew that particular bark you gave me, it said �that cat is causing trouble again! ��..LOL

For all your fierce protectiveness, you had an extremely gentle side to you too. You may have come across as being fierce and intimidating to strangers who would come by, but you never once bit anyone. You made it clear that they were to stand still while you inspected them, every inch. Then, when they were invited in and sat down, would become �Jake, the big Ham�, and get a toy to drop in their lap to play with you. I remember the first time I observed your extreme gentleness. You were just a pup of 6 months old approx. and we just put a handful of hours old baby chicks and ducklings in a box on the floor in the family room. Felecia loved to lick them and watch over them. You ventured to the box also and I quickly came up to monitor your first time with the chicks. You watched Felecia then put your head in the box and did the same thing. Gently licking each one! Not one chick or duckling was harmed by you, but boy, were they pretty clean!

You had a bark for every situation. All I had to do was listen carefully and I knew what was happening at that moment. There was a bark for a stranger in our yard. A happy bark for some guest that you were familiar with and couldn�t wait to greet and play with. There was the bark for � the pig has wandered out of the yard and I want to go collect it�. A low growl for some noise you weren�t quite sure of and wanted to investigate. A deep, low bark for someone hanging around outside on our property at night. Then there was a special bark that told me there was some dog or other creature in our yard, you wanted out, to go �kill that thing that dared to come onto your property�. The really helpful bark that you had was the one for �the phone is ringing, can�t you hear it?�. Often I could not hear it, so that was very helpful to me. The only other bark I can recall is your playful bark, when you were excited and playing with one of the other dogs, and they were getting the best of you, for you loved a good challenge.

More stories of Jake will be added late 2004: