© irene waters 2014

Continuing Trog and other Animals – a petmoir.

Due to our time constraints working long hours in the shop Jerry did not undergo the socialization that Mungo had and being a dog with a more sensitive disposition, this created a few problems. The car he saw as his. No-one could approach it without Jerry poking his head through the window and giving a terrifying rendition of the savage beast. It didn’t matter whether it be a person walking past or a truck he attacked either with gusto. It became such a problem whilst driving that we had to keep the window closed on the drivers side as he would fly at the passing cars attempting to ward them off. Once he could only get his head out the passenger side it was only the poor unsuspecting push bike riders that he managed to frighten.
It was the same in the house. As we were so tired of a night we did little entertaining and during the daytime hours few people entered the house apart from our cleaner and us. The kiddie gate that we had separating the shop from the house was a sufficient barrier to the dogs from entering the shop and Jerry would lie at the other end of the room watching for any sight of us.

One day as he was in his place on his bed and Roger was in the house, one of our regular customers requested Roger’s presence. He opened the gate and stood up on the step. Jerry was now alert.
“Shut your eyes and put out your hands” he said to Roger and he did as he was bid. When Roger had complied the fellow lifted his hands which were holding a bunch of rhubarb above his head and proceeded to bring them down rapidly to connect the rhubarb to his outstretched palms.
Jerry sprang. Luckily Roger had been watching as had I and we both yelled sit simultaneously. Jerry fortunately obeyed and the situation was averted but we knew that we would have to be extremely careful in the future of people coming near the house. It also made me feel very safe as I knew he would come to my aid should I ever have need.
Although he was ready to act when he felt he was protecting us or his property (the car) he was really a soft gentle (I would normally say pussy cat but given that our cat was feisty) dog. Lavinia our cleaner had a blue heeler cattle dog. It had fallen out of her son’s car and dragged along by its lead for a while, resulting in severe injuries to its front leg making it misshapen and unusable. Bundy used to hop around on three legs and our two dogs were petrified of him.
He didn’t often come with Lavinia to work but they often dropped by the shop for a coffee or some other small purchase and he was always with her on these occasions. They had a few spats when they encountered each other on the lead but otherwise hadn’t had much to do with each other.
One Xmas Bundy came with Lavinia to give us Christmas presents and they came into the lounge room. Jerry was so frightened that he climbed on the lounge and tried to hide behind Roger and I as we sat on it. We laughed about it but we should have realised that Bundy was an alpha male and could cause problems. Eventually Lavinia had him desexed which helped his aggressive streak a little but he still lorded it over Mungo and Jerry who were submissive and did what they were told. Surprisingly Bundy and Trog got on really well together.

© irene waters 2014