I've written about Savannah and how wonderful she is. She's doing really well, actually, she's doing too well! After today I was ready to kill her and Jackson, or as we jokingly like to call him, Jackass. It's hard to tell who the instigator is sometimes, but it's usually Jackson. The two of them have always gotten themselves into sticky situations. LITERALLY. There have been many times, where we have had to give them baths to clean an unknown sticky substance off their fur. We should have known the day we brought Jackson home, he was going to be Trouble. One of my friends just told me that he puts "Marly" (from Marly and Me) to shame. He really does, I should write a book about him. As a wedding gift to Brent, I bought him a tiny little Alabama dog collar and told him to pick out his puppy (since I already had Savannah). He always wanted a chocolate lab, but we heard from many people that chocolate labs tend to be more "hyper". hmph..... So he decided to get a more gentle, calm, trainable, BLACK LAB. Riiiiight...... So enter Jackson. Luckily, we were living in an apartment at the time.....
When we were trying to housebreak him, we would take him between the apartment buildings and teach him to go there, only one night he ran into a neighbors apartment and pooped behind their couch. We had been searching for him for a pretty long time, because he was so little and black, he was hard to find in the dark. Then we heard someone scream. Brent and I looked at each other, like "oh no...." This girl, whom we had never met, came running out of her apartment screaming, "there's a puppy behind my couch pooping!!" This was only the start. Within the first month, he pooped in the bathtub, pooped on the wall, swam in the toilet, pulled a thick packing blanket through a tiny whole in his crate and climbed (YES CLIMBED) over a baby gate and tore up the the apartment. I have no idea how he did it. We used to have to put our garbage can on the counter, so he couldn't get to it, but that didn't always work, he's like Houdini! I'm telling you the dog is CRAZY! He had probably done all this and he wasn't even 3 months old yet. We finally moved into our house in Atlanta and he would sled down the hill in a baby pool, eat through the wiring in the wall of the unfinished basement so we wouldn't have air conditioning upstairs, and could somehow move Brent's extra-heavy pull out couch across the basement floor and block off the doggie door so Savannah was stuck outside in the rain all day. (See why we call him Jackass?) He doesn't do any of this to be mean, he's really a sweet dog, he's just, well..... Jackson. He had to have surgery twice on his shoulders and both times, the surgeon called us early and asked us to pick him up. Guess he didn't like being there in a kennel? My mom and sister had to pick him up once, still sedated! Brent and I planted beautiful azaleas in our backyard, and Jackson ate them, we were pretty ticked, but it was kind of funny, because he lost all the hair around his eyes after he did it. He looked like he was wearing goggles, but was just bald. I guess he was allergic to them.
He has a way of "introducing us to new neighbors". Like when we moved into our current house in West Palm. After our first night here, I woke up early, because I couldn't sleep well (being in a new place). I went downstairs and heard a loud SPLASH! I didn't think much of it, until I heard the neighbor (whisper yelling??). I guess she was trying to be quiet, because it was around 6:00 in the morning, but was trying to be loud enough for her husband to hear her, who was inside her house. I hear, "come outside.... come outside!" Then I hear another SPLASH! Then I hear Savannah barking. She has a specific bark when she's tattling on Jackson. OH NO!!! I ran to my window and what did I see??? Jackson in the neighbor's pool swimming with the NEIGHBOR! She swims laps in the morning and Jackson, being a lab, can not stand for anyone to swim without him. He decided to climb through our fence and jump right in and make himself at home. I started screaming upstairs to Brent, "Brent!! Jackson's in the neighbors' pool! come help me!" So I immediately run over to the neighbor's house, IN MY PAJAMAS, and grab him. I apologize a million times and drag him out of the pool. Then! He has the nerve to POOP in their front yard! I swear, I'm not making this up. Again, see why we call him Jackass? He did it one more time after that, so Brent built something to block off the gap between our houses.
Jackson and Savannah truly are escape artists. They have gotten out of the backyard several times. And they always go somewhere exciting. Publix, the Italian Restaurant, the nice Resort down the street. I guess they swam up the intracoastal got out on the resort beach, swam in their pool and walked through the lobby, that's when the manager called me. UGH. Well, today, the guy who cleans our pool let them out again. We live close to a busy road, so I always get really nervous. I was especially nervous, because this is the first time Savannah's gotten out without me since her surgery. We haven't introduced her to the water yet, because the water's been too cold for us to get in, so I was scared to death. I stopped everyone I saw while I was out looking for them. Even the mail lady. After about an hour and a half of searching for them, I drove back to my house, just as the mail lady was pulling in. She flagged me down. I jumped out of my car, and have you ever been around a horse in his trailer? You know the sound they make when the kick the metal door? Well, that's what I was hearing. I thought, what in the world is that? Then I realized... Jackson..... (Savannah was fine, she was on someone's front porch drinking water and the mail lady didn't see her) So, the mail lady backed into my driveway, and raised the huge heavy door to her truck, and who did I see?, Jackson. He's just standing there smiling and wagging his tail as he's crammed between crates (that used to be organized, until Jackass decided to go for a ride... See? Understand the name now?) Can you imagine getting your mail today with hair, salt water and slobber all over it? Ick.. She showed me where she found him, which wasn't far at all. Savannah doesn't move that fast and they always stick together. I guess she didn't see Savannah because she was on someone's front porch and Jackson was in the yard. But they are both home safe. Sleeping, but safe.
Just wanted to share some Jackson stories. As crazy as he makes us, he really is a great dog. Everyone kept telling us he would calm down when he got neutered, or when he turned 5 or when he turned 8, well, he's nine and still hasn't slowed down one bit. The only time and I mean the ONLY time he's calm and gentle is when Ashley's around. I don't know what it is, but he is like a different dog with her.
I am thankful I got my dogs back, even though one of them had to embarrass me by coming home in the back of a mail truck.....
