Category: dogs

Yesterday, Jack commented that our elderly Collie, Lody, no longer seemed to hear him call when he was ready to leave the horse field after feeding horses in the morning.  While we feed, we allow Lody to wander around the horse field.  Trust me, you don’t want to know why she likes to accompany us.

I responded that she still seems to hear me, though I have to pitch my voice a little higher than my normal speaking tone.  I suggested he try pitching his voice higher when he wanted Lody’s attention. 

So this morning, I heard Jack coo in a squeaky falsetto:  “Lody wanna go feed horses?”  It must have worked, because then I heard Jack coo “Good girl, good girl!” in the same high tone. I don’t think I had ever heard Jack’s falsetto before, though in theory I guess I knew he had one.

It was scary.

The Furry Golden Horde, the fond nickname I gave to Jack’s sister’s Golden Retriever and Sheltie years ago, are visiting again.  At least when Lily and Lightning are here I have dogs who wag their tails and prance toward the door when I ask if they want to go outside.  Lody, our elderly Collie, cringes as though she expects to be hit or kicked when I asked this question.  And no, I have never kicked or struck her since I have known her, though I have fallen over her a few times.  Lody just hates to go outside, unless I announce that we are going to go feed horses.

But today I agree about not wanting to go outside.  It is a cold rainy day, and even the horses spent part of the time under cover. The weather doesn’t seem to bother Lily and Lightning, though. 

According to this graphical representation of dog ages, Lody’s twelve calendar years is equivalent to a human age of eighty-four.

Full Size 1200×798
Our Storm Early Warning System (SEWS) was telling me that there was a storm nearby for a while, but she seems to have settled down now.

In June, I wrote about Lody and Mowers. Yesterday, that post received a comment from a woman named Julie who suspects she has one of Lody’s puppies.  The dates are right, since Lody had one litter shortly before she came to live here around six years ago.  Lody went back to her breeder when her elderly owner could no longer care for her.  Her breeder started looking for a home for Lody since Lody didn’t care for being one of a large number of dogs.  I found out about Ch Wild Winds Lody through a friend of the breeder’s, and took her on a week’s trial to make sure she would get along with our other dog, Dudley.  Lody marched in, looked around, and decided she was home, even though Dudley needed a little work.

I knew Lody, our elderly Smooth Collie, hates lawn mowers, but she still surprised me this afternoon. I was cutting the weeds in the dog run. I leave the dogs inside the house when I do this, but forgot and left open the door to the mudroom which has a dog door leading to the dog run. I saw this tri-color streak and I had barely stopped the lawn mower when Lody attacked it, biting one of the tires. She stopped attacking when I cut off the motor. Lody is usually such a laid-back dog that it made her behavior even more surprising. After I put her back in the house she kept barking until I finished.

I am amazed that two elderly dogs, who are apparently unable to hear their names when I call, are nonetheless able to hear the sound of me using the (manual) can opener.