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Next Monday, Mosaic Dawg Leah will be 9 dog years old. We decided to try to find 13 good things to say about her.The Feline's Digest Condensed Version of how we got her is:
In October of 1998, Mosaic Lady told a friend that she kept thinking of getting a dog to take on her daily Colorado mountain walks, which was very strange because ML is so not a dawg person, really.
On November 5 of 1998 , Leah was born two houses up the street from us.
It was a sad situation and the puppies were living with their mom in a tent in the freezing cold front yard.
When ML would walk by every day, the tiny puppies would get out of the yard and run into the street on the blind curve.
ML did her usual obsessing about their welfare, and early morning, Sunday, January 7, 1999, she dreamed a disturbing dream of the litter.
A few hours later, that same Sunday, January 7, she went to the market and found the puppies being given away for free outside the store.UH OH, said ML.
She was NOT going to take a puppy, but well...maybe if there was a girl she might just look real fast.
Leah was the only girl dawg in the litter of 8, and she was one of 3 puppies still left.
UH OH.
Leah came home that day.
ML googled "Australian Cattle Dog/Blue Heeler" that night and said UH OH.
What the h e double hockey sticks have I done?
The next year found ML and Leah in puppy school and then practicing practicing at home. A lot.
Leah is not a perfect dog, but she is so much better than ML had any right to hope for, given the dominant personalities and very annoying (potential) behaviors of this breed.
13 Good Things About Mosaic Dawg
1) She does not eat our poop.
2) She 3) We can eat her food. She is not allowed to be food aggressive with us, ever.
4) She does not bite us. She is not allowed to dominate us. If she forgets, Mosaic Lady reminds her who the aggressive and dominant bitch in the house is.5) She does not chase us. Much. Anymore.
6) She will chase away any intruder cat or dog that comes into our yard.7) She knows how to break up a cat fight. If ML tells her to go get the fighting cats and bring back the Mosaic one, she knows what that means.
8) She walks every day with Mosaic Lady, off leash. She knows the meaning of: "get out of the street", "wait for me", "stay with me", "cross" and "Leah, NO chasing cats!" when walking.
9) She is not allowed on ML's bed. That is ours.10) She is not allowed on the couches. Those are ours.
11) We are allowed to sleep on her bed whenever we want. That is ours, too.Bianca likes to remind her of this occasionally, so she pees on Leah's bed.
Even though Mosaic Lady then uses the "f" adjective in front of Bianca's name, she does not get thrown in the trash.
12) She barks VERY loud at anything or anyone that comes to our house. This is bad because it annoys ML. This is good because ML can sleep feeling protected. She can shower with the doors unlocked. And she can run errands and tell Leah "watch the cats for me" and know that it will get done.
13) We never worry about her running away. Where would she go?? She is pathologically attached to ML. There is a reason Heelers are called Velcro Dawgs. We don't need a fence and she doesn't need a leash. It's nice to have a dog you can trust...even if she is a super freak.
Thanks to Zoolatry for taking our oldest accessible digi-photo of a young Leah (the first one up top), cleaning it up, and customizing it for us! We'll post the rest next Monday when she's NINE. All of her baby photos are packed away under tons of boxes in a storage room. We'll post a photo of that one day when ML is not here to prevent it.
