Jed and Rufus

In addition to my sons, our family also has two other boys that keep us hopping. Jed, our yellow lab, came to us from a friend of Krista's in Houston. He has never missed a beat in his relocation to our home. By all accounts, he is a perfect dog....and has been since we got him. He has always been a great house dog, even when he topped out at 90 pounds or so. When he needs to go outside, he walks to the door and patiently (and very quietly) waits for someone to open the door for him. He then goes out (unsupervised), does what he needs to do, and then comes back to the door. If its left cracked open he gently pushes through it. The only thing that he doesnt do is close the door behind him. He has been great with the kids from the time that they were little. He was very happy in his life as our only dog.....then Rufus arrived.

My wife called me one day to tell me that one of her coworkers had been driving down the Interstate when she noticed cars swerving in front of her. She then saw a tiny black lab prancing down the middle of the interstate. She quickly pulled off the interstate, ran out into traffic (not kidding), and rescued the pup. She brought it to work where everyone ooh'd and ahh'd. As my wife was describing this to me and how cute and adorable he was, I was saying to myself...."Crap....we are about to get another dog". My fears were confirmed when she called to say that they were having trouble finding the puppy a home. She asked the question, "If we cant find anyone to take him, do we want him?" Hearing a sense of longing and a bit of desperation in her voice, I said, "If there are no other options, we can take him." Since then, we have considered taking him back to the interstate several times.

Since he arrived at the house, Jed has aged at least twice his normal rate. He nips, bites, and generally annoys the crap out of him all the time. I am sure that in his own doggy way, he said, "What the heck is this?....Why are you doing this???" when we brought him home. Now, whenever Rufus does what Rufus does, Jed looks at us with this expression, "See.....I told you not to keep him...". Rufus is about 8 months old now, and is taller than Jed, who is 10 years old. He is a puppy in every sense of the word. He chews, pees, craps, and generally wears us out on a daily basis. In direct opposition to Jed, when we let Rufus out, he just wanders around sniffing and digging wherever he chooses. After about 20 minutes, we are ready for him to come inside. Then the fun begins from his perspective. We tell him to come inside, and use every enticement that we can think of. He just stares back at us with a look that screams, "Huh?" Then when we reach the point were we have exhausted our patience, we go out into the yard to "coax" him back inside. That's where he begins to dodge, dip, dart, and generally make fools out of us. I can only imagine what our neighbors are saying...."Honey, that guy is running around in his boxers chasing that dog again...."

They have given us some funny stories though....well....they are funny now. Krista called me on the phone one afternoon. We had just returned from a trip, and she was picking up the dogs from the boarder. She had them in the minivan and was on her way back to the house. That's when she looked into the rear view mirror and saw Rufus in that familiar "hunch" to dog owners, and began to smell another familiar odor. She screamed..."Nooooooooo! ......" to no avail....although he did have a very distressed expression during the act, according to Krista. I couldnt help laughing while she was describing what had happened, but she didnt find it as funny. Another time, I woke up around 11pm when I felt Rufus jump on the bed. As I tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes, I heard a familiar sound. It sounded like a fountain.... As my eyes came into focus, I heard Krista ask....."Is he peeing on me??....." Sure enough, he was standing at the foot of the bed relieving himself and "marking" his mommy. Yep, there are times that I hear that Interstate calling...... and I catch Jed looking at me with an expression that couldnt say "I told you so" any more clearly than if he could speak.