Dogumentry

That Lady Is No Lady

I received a telephone call from someone who had a Great Dane that needed a home. The couple was splitting up and the Dane couldn’t go with either of them. I agreed to adopt the less than one year old Mantle Dane and proceeded to go to the country to pick her up late one night. When I got to the house, through the pot holes and mud, “Baby” was in the house and delighted to have visitors. She had no idea that she was getting ready to make a trip into the unknown. After much crying and saying goodbye, I left with Baby to make the trek home.

It was very late when we got home so I put her a pallet down next to my bed and turned in. I was dead on my feet, but Baby was nervous and wide awake. She talked all night long in her own way and kept me awake so I comforted her and spent time consoling her in the new surroundings. By morning I realized that Baby had the wrong name. A Great Dane does not need a name like Baby, on the other hand, she talked all night long so I named her Lady Chatterly. Baby and Lady sounded very close so I changed her name because she earned it.

One week after bringing Lady home I integrated her successfully in with our other Dane and German Shepard. They would run and play, but unlike Lady, the other two dogs are older and just didn’t have the energy that Lady did. When Lady wore them out they were ready to lay down and rest; on the other hand Lady looked for things to keep her occupied and out of trouble.

Did I say out of trouble? Wrong!! She started on the blueberry bushes in my backyard. I guess she didn’t like the way they looked or where they were planted. Lady ripped every one of them out of the ground and chewed them up. There was nothing left to replant. She proceeded to find my telephone line which is buried 18 inches under ground and dig a hole to uncover it. Lady did not eat through the line, she just wanted to dig enough to find it. No matter how many times I filled that hole up she was determined “it is my hole and I want to keep it.” I finally filled in the hole and put large concrete blocks over it until she forgot about it.

I realized the problem was that she was bored and needed extra curricular activities besides playing with the older dogs. We started a bicycling routine and spent quality time together. This increased the bonding effort I was making and generated an outlet for her excessive puppy energy. She loved running next to the bike.

She no longer dug up any fruit trees or bushes, but she did do a really nice job of eating every limb on my fig tree down to a nub. The tree was only about 5 foot high and I had just planted it a year before. Lady was definitely a challenge. I put a fence up around the fig tree, replanted blueberry bushes with fences around them and kept the concrete blocks in place. It looked like everything was incarcerated. My backyard looked like a prison block. The fruit trees were in prison and the prisoner, Lady, was running free.

The blueberries were doing great because I planted new bushes. The fig tree was still an unknown. I knew it was still alive, but it looked like a five foot stick with no branches or leaves. I would just have to wait until spring to see what would happen.

The fig tree continued to be protected and in the spring a wondrous thing happened. Little buds came out and grew into limbs that sprouted and became a full beautiful tree. The pruning job that Lady did on the fig tree actually helped it. The tree was much fuller, greener and took off like a rocket. It is now 7 foot tall and is loaded with figs. Wonderful!!

Lady Chatterly was no lady but she made a great gardener. Let’s not tell her about what a great job she did. No need to have a repeat performance!!