Homebody Betty

Homebody Betty

For eleven years we had Cecil and he followed the nature of his Bichon breed and could never be left alone, even for a few hours, since his high anxiety nature would cause him to do strange retaliatory things. For instance, once when he left alone for a few hours, he jumped up onto the kitchen table and peed all over it. That sort of action can only be designed to pass a message. He was distressed and wanted us to know that he did not want to be left alone. Other dog owners who heard of our issue were amazed and convinced that we had done something to this poor dog and had spoiled him to the point of this anxiety. We tried leaving him in a more confined space like the bathroom, and that worked for only very short periods of time. Otherwise, our solution was to hire dog-sitters to keep him company. It became a habit with us, but it was, no doubt, a costly and inconvenient habit.

When we got Betty we were determined to get away from this old habit, especially since our little hilltop is not a NYC apartment where dog-sitters are easily available and the consequences of a few barks is not so severe. But it was considerably easier than that. In NYC, most of our places had terraces for outdoor space, but even then we had visions of Cecil being so distraught by his solitary condition that he might throw himself off the terrace. Some people who live in the country either just let their dogs run free and assume they can deal with whatever other wildlife might be in the vicinity, or they tether them in some dog run fashion and feel that is the right constraint/freedom formula. Our little hilltop, as bucolic as it is for us has coyotes, bobcat, rattlesnakes and scorpions that make the concept of letting a little white dog run free, a scary proposition. Tethering it brings to mind the scene from Jurassic Park where the goat is staked in the T-Rex enclosure. Outdoors is not a friendly place for pets on this hilltop.

As a vivid example of this, down in our games area, I have now had to replace all four of the embedded red astroturf tees for my mini-golf course. Something, most likely a bobcat, has decided that they are offensive and has ripped them out from their nailed position and tossed them casually aside. Who knows what motivates wild animals, they’re wild after all. I have seen that bobcat and he does not look like the sort that scares easily, but maybe the “red flag to a bull” phenomenon carries over into the bobcat species.

Despite regular bobcat, coyote (just spotted one on the downslope yesterday) and rattlesnakes, I am unwilling to harbor a firearm or even a pellet gun to keep their population at bay. Kim is always a bit skittish about varmints for when she walks Betty, particularly at night. She keeps an array of throwing rocks at hand for protection, but when I envision an encounter, I’m afraid I do not see her throwing arm prevailing in any altercation. That’s why I bought her a Taser to have a better chance of success in battle. I’m still not sure she could actually have the self awareness to get the Taser weaponry working right in an emergency, but at least it should improve her odds of success.

There is also the unfriendly nature of our cactus garden. We had more cause for concern when Betty was Blind Betty. We watched her run or walk right into a face-full of cactus a few times. Even now, we hold our breath when she wanders among the prickly beasts because we know from personal experience how nasty those prickers can feel.

Betty is a bit of a ditz, and while she can now “see”, we know her eyesight is weak at best. Despite being an Angelino Street Dog, who growls at every other dog, we would not lay down too big of a bet of how she would fare in a fight with almost any critter. So Betty is happy and we are happy to have her stay in the house. To us, the house includes the spacious new deck. But one look at the soaring predator raptors over our nearby ravines and we realize that letting Betty have free and unsupervised run of the deck is not such a good idea. We know these hawks are not so smart about limiting the size of their prey and have seen them take on something where their eyes are bigger than their stomachs and talons. So, we try to keep Betty in the house proper and she seems to be just fine with that.

Betty has three specific hangouts. She likes the rugs in the Living Room, She likes our bed, preferably with us not in it or at most just Kim napping. And she likes the rug in the office. These are her spots and whenever we don’t see Betty underfoot, she is usually on one of those three spots. She is a world class napper. By my estimate, she starts napping about two hours after waking up in the morning, particularly after her breakfast and walk. She will nap away the morning and arise around lunchtime, not so much expecting a meal, but thinking she might well snag a treat or two. She seems to have learned that feeding time for us makes us more likely to load her up with sympathy treats. She then naps away much of the afternoon, usually culminating with a deep nap with Kim in bed later in the day. After her dinner and walk she will stay up for a bit, but be back for her evening nap at our feet (literally) while we watch the news and/or a movie. We literally have to wake her up when its time for bed so she can fall asleep in the bedroom with us. By my calculus, she sleeps about 18-20 hours per day. People say that’s a dog’s life, but Betty defines the outer limits of that wakeful life.

This tendency to be such a good sleeper is one of the things that makes Betty a good travel dog. She has accustomed herself to her car bed very nicely even though she more of less ignores her beds at home (she has one in the kitchen, one in the living room and one in the bedroom). But in the car, she is content for hundreds of miles just curled up in her snug back seat raised bed where she can occasionally look out the window and check in on us in the front seat in case we feel like giving her another treat.

We are curious about how Betty will react to our summertime travel plans. She did Mendocino with ease, so we expect her to equally like our week-long Southern Utah run in a few weeks. The big challenge will be the East Coast trek in June. She will have a week of car travel each way and three weeks in Ithaca at our house there. That is the sort of place she could run free in the yard, but we suspect that Homebody Betty will prefer finding her few rug and bed spots at Homeward Bound. She will do what a lifelong street dog probably always has to do, she will adjust and deal with it. Nevertheless, I think she is attached enough to this hilltop that she will be as glad as we will likely be to get back home.