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Tara 'kisses' my arm- 2005. I cheated by scratching her 'lick spot'. It took
me a long time to find it, it's usually on the backbone somewhere near the
tail, but hers is on her hipbone. |
 Tootsie Pup- March 4, 1994- July 23, 2005 Tootsie is on the front step of our house here (she was terrified of grass at first, because her first month was spent on cement- she'd cry when she touched grass and refused to pee or poop on it for days, preferring lovely soft carpet.). She was born to a Dobermann Pinscher guard dog (the neighboring business had a male German Shepherd guard dog) at Candid Cement products- a small business that mainly sold cement and tile outdoor furniture. For my mother's birthday that year (April 2) we were having a family get-together, and I wanted to replace 2 broken cement benches with new ones so people could sit and chat in the yard comfortably. My father went into the store and paid for the benches we picked out and loaded them in a borrowed truck. He didn't say that there was a mother dog with pups inside. If I hadn't seen a ridiculous pair of cement frogs sitting on a cement bench, with a cement umbrella... well, I wouldn't have bought it if it hadn't been cracked, and so marked down to a price I could afford. I went to pay for the frogs, and saw the dogs... there were 13! pups. Tootsie was the only female and the only black and tan. The others were all twice her size and looked like German Shepherds. I asked the man to hold her for me- he said he was going to get the pups wormed & shots, etc, and she was only 3 weeks old- too young to take from her mother. I went home and discussed it with my mother & aunts, etc. and we decided to get her, because my other dog, Candy, was getting old. Mom named her after her mother's nickname 'Tootsie' I added the 'Pup' because I like sweet dogs. My first was Honey (because she had honey-colored patches on her face & legs), the second was Candy (because she was a Valentine's Day present), and Tootsie Pop is a candy. I got the pup a week later- she hadn't been wormed. The man hadn't been supplemental feeding (as he said he would). She was being eaten alive by ants, and the other puppies had chewed on her poor little peeper, looking for nipples, so she had an infection there, in addition to the ant-bites. I know pups should stay with their mother for 6 weeks, but she would not have survived another 2 weeks like that. |
Here Tootsie is being a little nervous to be sitting on all this green stuff. |
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I nursed her back to health. Here she is with me, wishing she could be a
lap-dog. Alas, she wound up over 80 pounds and was forever denied that. |
 Shortly after I got Tootsie, my vet called and asked if I wanted a kitten that had been dumped on him. She was very nearly the same age as Tootsie as far as I could tell. Mom & dad were going somewhere (I don't recall where) in a few days, so I was alone in the house with the pets. I didn't want the little ones getting in trouble with the others and I had a quilt I needed to finish hand-quilting (I'd promised it to a friend for his mother's birthday IIRC) so the pup stayed by my feet under the quilting frame, with quilt all around her, and the kitten stayed in my t-shirt (flipped up to make a pocket) when I was quilting for several weeks. Tootsie was always gentle and sweet. Dayna was a little hellion. Here she is, trying to rip Tootsie's eye out. |
 And here Dayna is head wrestling. If the pup dared to try to get away, Dayna would snarl and growl viciously at her, until Tootsie lay down again and let herself get beat up. |
 Here Dayna is trying to bite out Tootsie's eye... honestly, maybe it was a mistake naming her after a blood-thirsty character in a science-fiction show. |
 And the fool dog laughed and thought it was great fun to be mauled by this furry devil. |
 Until they were both exhausted and fell asleep. |
 Here they were in the kitchen on a carpet I made from solid-color scraps, cut up and pieced as if I was making a quilt. If I'd had something better than double-back tape to hold it together it would have lasted longer. |
 Tootsie loved Candy and enjoyed teasing the old lady into playing with her. Once she was healthy, her engine was on high-rev at all times- the first couple months I don't think she slept more than 4 hours at a time. Her nickname was 'Buzzsaw'. She'd greet me by leaping up and clawing my legs. ouch |
 Dayna liked to attack both dogs at once. Candy had the patience of a saint with them. |
 Tootsie had a gorgeous coat. Wasn't she a lovely dog? Her nose overshot her jaw so much it took her weeks to learn how to drink without drowning. And her tail was a lethal weapon when wagged- guys look out, it was just at crotch height. She was a good dog. |
 | Here's Baby up the loquat tree, practising for a part in a horror movi |