Spiniffy

Jon was walking the dogs on Friday night when came suddenly around a corner and upon another woman with two dogs. Her two dogs have been behaving aggressively for awhile now and I guess the surprise must have made them very excited, and they are already very high energy dogs. They attacked little Miss KiKi, picked her up between the two of them, bit her, and started to shake her. Luckily Jon got her away before they could seriously hurt her. Mostly they just gave her a good scare. But I think the entire situation scared him way more than it did her. He brought her home and I looked her over. No broken skin, no broken bones. A small skinned place on her belly, but really she could have done that to herself. She was bouncing around the apartment, taking full advantage of the fact that she’d been attacked. She got away with eating the cat food, jumping on our bed, and being hyper. She even asked for, and got, a cookie. She’s a smart little thing and knows how to get things when it suits her.

It made me think of all the things we have had to deal with, having a small dog in downtown. Most people would think it would be harder to have the Professor, since he is part lab and rather large (80 lbs last we were at the vet, a couple weeks ago). But that is really not the case. The Professor is very easy to deal with. He’s a fairly calm dog most of the time, and if he is in a high energy state, he is easy to bring back to a low energy state. He walks very well on leash, does his business quickly, and is friendly with other people. If certain individuals act like they are drunk or on drugs, he makes a point of growling at them, to let them know they shouldn’t approach us. He has never, ever growled at anyone who did not act incapacitated. He’s great with people and he loves children and other animals. No one bothers him and other dogs don’t try to attack him.

KiKi is another story entirely. She’s a fairly high energy dog. We’ve worked with her extensively on her training, yet she still has some problem points. She can be aggressive with bigger dogs to get attention (though that wasn’t the case Friday night. She didn’t have time to get aggressive before they were on top of her.) But the biggest problem we have with KiKi is that she’s so small. A few examples:

-She can slip easily through the fence at the downtown dog park, and has.
-She gets stepped on regularly, always emitting a shrill shriek when that happens.
-Her little feet slide through the metal grates on the sidewalk, so she refuses to walk on them.
-Once a very aggressive pit bull tried to eat her (luckily the owners kept that particular dog away and it is no longer living in downtown, after it attacked and ripped open a man’s chest.)
-When people bend down to pet the Professor she always has to jump up so they will notice her.
-And once when I had her out, a very drunk man just reached down and scooped her right up. I was shocked and so was she. She just looked at me like “What on earth do I do now?” Thankfully he put her down again and there was no drama. (Probably because when he asked if I’d like it if picked me up, I said “No and neither would my husband.” I love being married.)
-If we walk through Fire Street Alley while it is raining, she practically has to swim to the back door.
-I feel like I have to be extra careful and on the lookout when I have her with me outside, in case some of the crazy drivers on our block speed through and don’t bother to look to see if I have a dog with me as I cross the OP Jenkins parking lot.
-And sometimes she will walk under the Professor while he is sniffing and then he pees on her.

The Professor never has those problems.

I just think it’s interesting, because when most people think of having a dog in a city, I think they think of a small or medium sized dog. Really, a city is way harder for KiKi to survive in than the Professor. But she loves it, despite all the difficulties she has, so I don’t think she will be leaving any time soon.