Doggie Dating

So, if you love dogs more than humans, you may not want to read this blog.  It's not that we don't love dogs.  We do.  But we think they are dogs.  So the story goes, that we just recently got a 2nd dog, Dixie.  She is a red heeler and showed up in our backyard when we moved in.  She looks super skinny and a little mangy so we think someone abandoned her (it happens a lot in the country they say).  We don't know much about her other than guessing that she is pretty young and pretty wild.  

We also have two neighbor dogs that are allowed to wander (they come over ALOT).  They chase cars every morning, thus causing all dogs on our street to bark.  So around 6:45 every morning we wake to a dog symphony.  Now, these are two of the sweetest dogs (I thought) but we recently noticed that one of them took a liking to Dixie.  At first, I thought it was cute.  Aww, they are dating - cute little dogs.  

Then, Cody noticed that Dixie was in heat.  Suddenly, a whole new set of issues rose up and we were not liking the possible outcomes.  We don't let Dixie wander, so we hoped it wouldn't be a problem.  But, suddenly, this dog would not go away.  Friday morning, around 9am, I saw the dog had wormed his way into our backyard (through the closed gate).  It took me an hour, in the pouring rain, to chase him out of our backyard (I'm sure I looked crazy).   And the whole time, Dixie is just having fun, enjoying some quality time with her new BF.  

 I got the dog out, put a board against the fence to close any gaps and went back inside, ticked as heck. An hour later, I glance outside, the board is gone and there they are...doing it...stuck together...OMG.  I have never seen anything like it.  I went out there to, who knows what, and realized that they were actually stuck (which I didn't know happened).  So I got Dixie and both dogs, ashamed, sulked off to their respective yards.  Oh my.  Dixie, you are in trouble.  

Suffice to say, we took Dixie to the vet a few days later.  They were able to get her fixed before any problems arose.  They told us she is almost all red heeler (maybe not a mutt after all!) and about 2 1/2 years old.  They also said to let her eat her fill because she is too skinny!  The bill was a little more astronomical than I thought.  $350 is a lot to shell out for a doggie one night stand.  But they ask you so pointedly, "Did you want the pain pills, she'll REALLY need them?" And "The neck cone will help TONS to keep it from getting infected." And "It's INFECTED, she needs meds."   When we got her home, she was all calm and drugged, we really liked her then.  And once we finally got the cone on her, she laid there, upside down, without moving at all for over 30 minutes.  Crazy dog.  

The other dog still kept coming by.  Cody, annoyed and tired of it, sat outside keeping watch and shooting it (with his bb gun) to keep it away.  After about 3 days, it finally gave up.  Oddly enough, I truly think Dixie misses her BF.  She barks like crazy when he runs up and down the street, hoping she can convince him her owner won't shoot him again.  But I will say, I had a glimpse into our future with Harper girl in about 15 years.  And I will say, I'm a little scared.  But I'm also a completely ok with Cody sitting out with his bb gun on date nights.