That other dog

Well today is Annie's birthday, otherwise known to all the people who know me as "that other dog". Annie is not MY dog, mind you, she's just a dog who lives here, terrorizes me here, and is owned by my mother. Annie was born from the intentional mix breeding by my parents who decided a maltese and a poodle bred together would have wonderful offspring!

Ech.

My mom was looking for the perfect hybrid puppy. (You can tell as to why I'm a little less than thrilled [or maybe not...]) around the time I obtained Shelby, and she decided to breed her own. More specifically she wanted a puppy that looked like a "little black maltese". I don't exactly approve of backyard breeding with little responsibility put into it, but there was not much I could do except complain, which I do anyway.

Well one day after my mother's own birthday, the maltese went into labor. This was a dog who had been bred several times before, and everytime before to a maltese, so it always produced WHITE puppies. So you can imagine the dog's reaction when she delievered a solid black puppy.

It was so priceless, even I thought so.

She looked at the crying puppy - completely and utterly puzzled - as the puppy screamed. She did that little cock-head thing and looked at it as if to say "What is this?!" She then licked the puppy for about a half hour (as if to lick the black off of it) and the whole time, looking at it, still pondering "what the heck?!"

She gave birth to 6 puppies, 5 of which were healthy (one little black girl was a runt who was destined not to make it). 5 were black, one little male was white.

As the puppies aged, two little black females stood out to my mother. One was a petitie little girl, calm, a tiny bit shy. One, which had white patches on her, was a hurricane. The puppy took favorably to me, and was possibly one of the craziest out of the litter. Even though I had a new puppy of my own (Shelby) and had hardly ever took interest in my mother's litters (produced by her dogs), I could hardly resist to play with the adorable bundles of black fur, remembering the whole time that the only puppy staying was the shy female puppy, because she was what my mother wanted; even though my favorite was the crazey one.

I made the terrible mistake of telling my mother that I liked that puppy. The crazey one.

That was then the one she kept.

She kept her and named her "Annie".

Once the rest of the litter was sold for a profit, Annie lived in our house. Let me rephrase that. Annie peed in, chewed things in, and ran back and forth in a speed so as to trip me constantly, in our house. Wait, wait - our NEW house!

Even worse the little dog must have knew I was less than thrilled with her antics, because she began to drive me even more crazey when she was around 6 months old. She would stand and stare at me, growling and barking. As soon as I would move (most of the time not even towards her) she would get up and run away from the room to my mother, barking and screaming her head off. She also had a fascination with my room and my stuff which lead to the rule, as it sounds, "ANNIE IS NOT ALLOWED PAST HERE - ALIVE". She would also growl at me and only me in the middle of the night, while everyone else was trying to sleep, if I would make any noise at all. And she had a million more annoying antics... like barking randomly for no reason, tearing up the house, and jumping wildly (while barking) on anyone who came into the house.

She also made it impossible for me to catch her. Granted, I didn't want to, but my mom often needed help, and often asked me to put her dog away for her. It would start with me slowly creeping towards the dog, saying in a cuesty voice "Come here Annie, Annie, Annie". The dog would stand dead still until I was within 3 inches of her, then bolt; tearing through the house barking and growling as I ran around the same furniture in circles trying to catch her for 10 minutes until she would then eventually dead STOP and I would trip over her, slaming face first into the floor. I'm sure she found it very amusing.

I ALWAYS identified as a dog lover. I mean, I love dogs. At the time, I had two younger puppies - a 9 month old Shelby and a 2 month old named Penny. My Dachshunds. I spent hours with those two just bonding with them. I LOVE DOGS. But that Annie - DROVE ME INSANE!!! I tried making peace with the dog, tried showing the dog I was ok, tried catching the dog. (Tried shooting the dog...)

Nothing worked.

My mother always would say that it was "just a game and the dog just wanted to play with me." That would explain why she always wagged her tail. I was sure that the little creature was out to kill me or something.

And my mother loved the dog and insisted on bringing her everywhere I took my dogs. Trip to the park. All 3 dogs. Trip to the pet store. All 3 dogs. Arrrrrrrgh.

Shelby developed an unusual hate for Annie, though, soon. Annie loved Shelby; and showed it by jumping in her face, grabbing her ears, growling at her, not ever leaving her alone, etc. Annie is far bigger then Shelby. Always was. But that didn't stop Shelby from trying to kill Annie everytime Annie got near her or me. She still tries that to this day. Last night I wa slaying on the chair, exhausted from coming home from spending days in the hospital after emergency surgery, and as Annie was trying to jump up to us, Shelby sat faithfully protecting me by trying to kill Annie.

And it was no other dog Shelby ever showed that aggression towrds. Just Annie.

Good Shelby.

Although I can't say that Annie is still the same now as she was. No, it's gotten somewhat worse. But better in a way. She now is slightly calmer, and will actually approach me at sometimes and let me pet her. I guess she calmed down with age. Or she realized that no matter what she did, I was still going to be here. Either way, we still have that healthy revenge relationship between us. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

So happy 2nd birthday, dummy. Here's to another year of you terrorizing me in my own home.

And to me, moving out soon.

(Sorry if any of this is hard to read, confusing, etc. I just got out of the hospital and I am on so many pain meds that I can't think straight. Or up and down.)