Dr. Jones

The hippy dog staying with us is named Dr. Indiana Jones.  BZ and Sutton nicknamed him Jonesy.  He has a tendency to respond better to Jonesy than his given name.  I prefer to refer to him as Dr. Jones.

Ruth and I first met the newest member of the BZ – Sutton clan on a trip to Palm Springs.  They came to our VRBO to stay for a few days.

We have had several dogs over the years, but none since  David, Elizabeth and Michael were young.  When we knew “the kids” were coming with “the dog”, Ruth prepared for his stay by covering the couch with a sheet.  She expected that he may climb on the furniture and she wanted to make sure that she kept it as free of dog hair as possible.

The day before their arrival, Jonesy had a late night run-in with a skunk at home in San Diego.  When I heard that, dog hair seemed like the least of our potential problems.

He came, and the only time that he smelled like a skunk was when he got wet.  We kept him dry at all costs even if it meant having him sit on a sheet covered couch.

Elizabeth and Sutton have been on the road for the past year.  Jonesy has traveled every mile with them.  He’s  proven to be a traveling trooper.  He never says anything even if he must sit quietly when Sutton sings for three or four hours at a dog friendly venue.

Elizabeth describes Jonesy as “a hunter”.   All animals are on his “chase list”.  Squirrels, rabbits, deer, ducks, geese, swans, and a zillion song birds, we’ve got it all.   He’s like a winey kid in a candy store as he watches from our windows.  (We’ve got a zillion of those too.)  He paces from window to window, upstairs and down, so he gains the greatest view.   It must be frustrating though because we never let him loose on his own.

Well almost never.

Last summer, the three amigos stayed with us from time to time during their Michigan tour.  During one of those stays Jonesy spotted some ducks and bolted off  in hot pursuit.  The ducks swam off thinking they would discourage Jonesy.  Wrong.

Jonesy swam after them.   The ducks were slow and steady swimmers but Jonesy was determined to catch them.  I didn’t say he was a smart dog, just determined.   Every fifty yards, or so, the ducks turned around, offered up a duck version of “nana, nana, nana -can’t  catch me” and swam off again.  Jonesy kept going.

Sutton called his name, and tried to get him to return home.  No success.  The farther the ducks swam, the more determined the dog became.  Sutton joined the aqua spectacle. (He’s a great swimmer too.)

After swimming about six-hundred yards north the ducks were nearing shore, so they turned west towards deep water again.  Jonesy turned too.  Sutton brought up the rear.  Eventually they swam around a bend in the shore line and out of sight.  Elizabeth knew the local terrain so she followed on land.  After a while, the trio returned.

As for the ducks, they were long gone.

Jonesy and Sutton slept well that night.

This spring/summer the kids and Dr. Jones are staying with us for three years months.  Elizabeth is helping me recruit students for iChallengeU,  Sutton is singing and working his job for Heartland, and Jonesy is being Jonesy.  Ruth and I have a lot of “dog rules”, but most of the time they are laid aside and “the dog rules”.

• No table scraps – gone.
• No access to the new post flood carpet downstairs – gone
• No petting the dog so he thinks we like him – gone
• No sitting on the furniture – gone (we’ve got a lot of sheets)
• No jumping up with front paws on the window sill to gain better access to wildlife – a work in progress

On the bright side food crumbs are never on the floor more than a few seconds.  If we could train him to run the vacuum, he’d be a perfect guest.  (Almost)