Creek Running North

Storm trooper.

One of those unfortunate linguistic lapses. A friend meant to tell a female colleague once that she looked pleased with herself and said she looked like the cat’s pajamas (he meant to say cat that caught the canary). She thought he was sexually harrassing her.

I could watch Zeke all day, even if he’s just standing in the water.

Aw.  Zeke has a delightfully floppy tail.

I’m sorry to hear about this. You have my sympathies and best wishes.

I like Zeke’s twirly-tail addition to the standard canter.  I could watch that all day.

aww, zekie.  [skritch, skritch.]

i agree that “storm trooper” was probably a linguistic lapse.  “trouper” is closer.  “good dog, a helluva dog” is always correct.

declines happen slowly, and then relatively fast—at least for a lot of us, humans and other species as well.  i wasn’t aware of my dad’s physical abilities losing very much between, say, 40 and 70—oh, sure, he lost speed and strength, and didn’t pull as many all-nighters, but most of that happened slowly.  70-73 were a different story.

all any of us can hope for is to share love and perhaps leave a few nuggets of wisdom.  zeke has done that over and over.  i am sad he is not doing well, but a dog could not have lived a better life than the one he has spent with you, chris.

“Storm trooper” is definitely a miscue.  I’m sure she meant “starship trooper.” A really cute one, too.

Such a good boy.  Please give him a hug from me.

More and more I believe they are god’s true angels, in the best and loveliest sense of the word.

Aw, what a good boy. 

Hugs and pets all around, as appropriate (and even if they’re not appropriate).

Thinking of you guys. 

(o)

“Good old boy,” he said. “He sure is a storm trooper.”

Godwin!

RP, he simply couldn’t run at less than all-out speed without doing that twirly tail thing. At maximum, his tail would just sorta stay out of the way. (At extreme maximum, it was tucked between his legs.)

I really miss that twirl. Used to see it every day, and I don’t remember the last time I saw it.

It’s not just the ears; Zeke’s tail also seems to have once belonged to a larger, fluffier dog.  You’ve probably mentioned, sometime, somewhere, what you think his bloodlines are.  Is he a wolf hybrid?  Some Aussie cattle-dog in there, maybe?

Ah, so the tail is sort of a propeller?

Now you have me thinking about our old gray cat.  I can’t think of the last time I saw her hunt down a bug.  I miss that.

I’ve often wondered about Zeke’s “pedigree” also… today, watching that video, I thought the suggestion of Australian cattle dog was interesting and wondered too about Siberian Husky.

Our pound pup has a mysterious pedigree. He’s white with black spots (undercoat spots, not solid black) and since pretty much every human on the planet has seen a dalmation onscreen, that’s usually what is suggested. Personally I think he’s a terrier / Australian shepherd mix.

I come here very day to check on Zeke, worrying every time I click on the link what news awaits. There’s just something about Zeke… I know as clearly as I know anything that Zeke has had the most wonderful life possible and it’s not that that helps my sadness at his struggles, but it doesn’t hurt…

Sending him a loving stroke across the forehead and our best wishes.

Well, the tag on his jail cell when we sprung him 15 years ago said “lab-shepherd.” If he’s part lab, it’s got to be the bottom part, because that’s the only part of him he ever got in the water.

I can’t see any lab in him at all, nor really any other kind of retriever. Besides, he’s never retrieved a thing. The “bring the thrown object back to Chris” subroutine never got programmed into him. “Why should I give it to him?” I used to imagine him asking. “He’ll only make me chase it again.”

Everyone asks about wolf or coyote, to the point where it’s an inside joke among die-hard Internet Zekeophiles. I suspect that the Berkeley Humane Society would not knowingly adopt out a wolf hybrid, but maybe they didn’t know. In any event, he does have certain wolfy traits. He’s never been aggressive or particularly destructive as a housepet the way some wolf hybrids are, but I pretty much had to teach him to bark, and he’s always been healthy as hell — Aside from an attack of pancreatitis six years ago. Which was my fault. — and that kinda says hybrid to me as well.

And there’s his personality. Hard to describe that. Scared of unpredictable things: shopping carts for a while, balloons (also my fault), an aluminum flying toy my brother had ten years ago. Surprisingly capable at certain survival skills: he’s eaten a couple whole chickens in his time (without permission), bones and all, and carefully ground the bones to meal before swallowing. Non-hyper. Really smart. Okay, maybe not cowdog smart, but at one point ten years ago Becky and I tallied his vocabulary and got to about forty distinct words or phrases he knew well. Some of them involved complex concepts, such as “other.”

But he might have gotten all that just from being an individual dog with no more than the usual amount of wolf.

I will say this: when we’d get up into the high Sierra, up past the dry foothills and into the tall conifers, something awoke in him that was almost a luminescence. It made my hair stand up on the back of my neck the last couple times I saw it. Old dog complaining about a hot truck ride, and then all of a sudden five years younger. Or a hundred thousand years.

Tearing up, now. I’m gonna go deliver those hugs and cetera.

Zeke has been having a good life with you, Chris. I doubt dog has ever had a better one. Of course, no dog has ever so richly deserved it, I’m sure.

=v= Look on the bright side.  Perhaps “storm trooper” was just an reference to those cloned guys in Star Wars with the big sad puppy eyes.

“Cat’s pajamas” is about as sexual as “bees’ knees.” Now, if your friend had mentioned the cat’s sheer see-through nightie with garters and lace, his cow-orker might have a case.

A great dog, give him another hug.

cow-orker

Well, she was obviously oversensitive, but this is a bit harsh. I doubt she’s ever orked a cow, although she is a manager so you can never be sure.

I’ll be thinking of you and Zeke. It’s good you’re with him.

Just adding another sympathetic voice to the crowd here.  I walk beside an old dog, too.

Much love to you and Zeke and Becky.  The chins send nuzzles.