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| Jake and Jack relax at home |
Jake and Jack are my big dogs. We believe they were born about March 1, 1999. My brother and his wife found them in Cass County. On the Friday before Memorial Day, 1999, they were biking with a friend and these little (now big) guys emerged from a culvert by the highway.
They took them home with them, but really could not keep them as they already had six dogs. Instead, my brother called me to see if I would take them, leaving a message on my answering machine. Well, I had earlier decided that I had had enough dogs for a while, and did not return his call and did not go look at them. Both Blondie and Tootsie were beginning to show end-of-life signs and I did not want the additional responsibility. In fact, Tootsie got worse and died on July 17, 1999, and then Blondie died on April 4, 2000.
My brother made a second call to me and threatened to take them to an animal shelter. After much convincing and after he agreed to cover their initial medical fees, I agreed to take them. I do love them very much; and, at this point, I do not regret taking them in and am very happy to have them. The idea that they might have ended up smashed on the highway makes it worth the trouble. I WOULD like to get my hands on the person that would leave these sweet guys beside a highway, though!!!!
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| Here are Jake and Jack as puppies shortly after they were rescued from the highway. Jake is the one crawling over the tarp or whatever. Doesn’t he look like a little bear cub crawling over a rock!!!! |
Jack got his name from his blue eye and was named by my brother and his wife. That is right, his left eye is blue. So, instead of being One-Eyed Jack, he is Blue-Eyed Jack. I guess the name Jake just came along from there. Jack and Jake just goes together. I am not sure that they really know their individual names and it really does not matter as they are always together. Actually, they mind fairly well if I just call them “Boys”.
As with all puppies, they chewed, so I got out my old sheets, ones that had been chewed by another generation of puppies and have not worried much about the sheets. They have chewed a few other things though that were more serious and I really do not want to think about it, so I will not write about it.
I think the whole thing has been hardest on Zeppelin. He had moved up to king of the hill pretty much. Jack and Jake have gotten so big, however, that he is not much competition. At first, they got along, but after a couple of very serious fights, I have to keep them completely separated. Since the girls have died, I have to leave Zeppelin alone a lot, though, and I can really tell a lot of sadness and anger in him.
On the flip side, however, is that these two guys are just about the sweetest, most playful dogs I have seen. They are so big – once up to about 100 pounds, I now have them closer to 80 pounds – and seem so clumsy at times. I just love to see them chase after and tackle each other. In the summer, I have a small stock tank filled with water and they just love to jump in and out of that.
I just hope they never get so competitive with each other that they get into a serious fight. Several of Brownie’s puppies were half brothers and the ones from different litters would fight. Junior and Boog-A-Loo were from the same litter and I could always leave them together. I hope the same remains true with Jake and Jack.