Andy and I are dog-centric. We love doggies. But we gave up 2 dogs in the past couple of years. Dewey had to go. We lived in the old folks home and he terrorized some of the old ladies. The final straw was my fault, as was the continuation of his bad behavior. We thought it was sort of funny that he nipped Blake's leg when he came over, that he nipped Dad's arm in the car on the way to Maine, that he grabbed a poor girls butt in Maine. He only weighed 11 pounds.
It wasn't funny. The last old lady he attacked was, I knew, was mortally afraid of dogs. I had had him pegged into the ground on a chain. I was taking him back inside and dropped the stake, chain and all. So not only was this beast charging her, he was dragging a clattering mess of metal. I knew instantly he had to go. And we did it. Our hearts broke because at home he was the snuggliest pal in the world. We loved his borrowing under the covies to snuggle.
That left Addy.
But we decided to live in Costa Rica for half of each year. George took her the first winter we did. Worked out perfectly. We had all our doggie love with Byron Foster (see earlier posts) for 6 months and Addy for the other months.
We thought we had found the perfect balance. But then life at the old folks home became intolerable with the dictator manager. We decided to try a combo of Cape Cod and Costa Rica. Found The Belmont condo sublet for 5 years, the perfect place, the only drawback being, no dogs. Blake and Anna adopted Addy. They also had Tessa, so Addy got new parents, a new sister and grandparents, all in one fell swoop.
And we got the grandparents' visiting rights and our rescue mutts in Costa Rica.
But we had to give up Costa Rica (see earlier posts).
Not having a dog, ever, became intolerable, so we decided to get a cat.
It only took a year or two to convince Andy that was a perfectly logical leap to take. The Belmont doesn't allow dogs. Tessa and Addy never crossed our doorstep. It does allow cats. I never checked our lease to see what our landlord allowed. I figured I would just apologize, not ask permission.
Andy is allergic to cats, so he had to have an hypo-allergenic cat. Pixiebobs are close. Very oily skin and a double layer of fur to keep the dander down.
They are also called "dogs in a cat suit".
Dexter does have some very dog-like behavior. But the most important one to us is only just beginning to develop. We love cuddling under the blankie.
The breeder said we had to wait until Dexter was 14 weeks old, as demanded by her contract, to pick him up. But I wanted him to bond with us and regard us as his parents and wanted him earlier. I found that communicating with Marilyn Trenk at Colorado Pixiebobs was much more efficient by e-mail than over the phone. She is a talker. I drafted an amendment to the contract, suggesting a letter from a vet, giving her a guarantee to provide all she demanded and recommending us as good parents. But she needed to talk to our vet and therefore I needed someone who knew us. I asked Weston Veterinary's Dr. Neil Storey, our beloved Scotsman, to give her a call. He knew and cared for Wendell, Beau, Addy, Dewey. We love him. He agreed to talk to Marilyn. I didn't warn him about her propensity for conversing.
She did agree, with great trepidation. The original pick-up was supposed to be in December, in Chicago, where another buyer was receiving her kitten, hand delivered by Marilyn. I did look into shipping him, which Marilyn really didn't want to do. Nor did I. It was cheaper for me to fly to get him anyway.
Turns out Colorada Pixiebobs had moved to Oklahoma. So off I went. No way to get there non-stop. The photo in the title above is of Dexter in my lap on the leg from Tulsa to Chicago. I am wearing camouflage pants and scarf and a leopard sweatshirt. No one even noticed him the whole trip. I thought for sure that he would never leave my side and would sleep with us from day 1.
No. He is a cat. Quite independent.
His dog like characteristics include walking on a leash; no care about dogs, even befriending many; playing fetch sometimes; willingly going in his carrier; loving car rides, when he does sit in one of our laps or drapes around our shoulders, when he's not leaping out windows. He does attract a lot of attention wherever we take him. He is very confident and quite regal looking, rather like a bobcat, stubbed tail, tufted ears and all.
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