My Shaddow Lane

We decided to bring Cooper inside. We'd talked about it before, but wanted to wait til we had warmer nights, just in case we had to put him back out. So today, My Jerry clipped him and bathed him and we brought him in.

Cooper is a ... med~sized mutt who is blind in one eye...about 8 years old. A few years back, My Jerry and his first wife had been up in Tupelo and stopped by the pound. On Cooper's cage there was a destroy notice, they were planning to put him down the next day. So My Jerry and his then wife had brought him home, where he's been in a somewhat large pen outside, attached to the barn.

My Jerry would usually let Cooper out to run around while he mowed. Harley would be Cooper's guide~dog, and we worried how he'd do without Harley. He seems to be ok, sometimes wanders blindly about, his depth perception is way off.

But it breaks my heart to hear him whine and I know he's got to be super~lonely in the pen, so we discussed bringing him in. He seemed to do ok this evening, and the girls liked him just fine. In fact, I think it's gonna be ok, to keep him as an indoor doggie, and let him out to do his business.

I do have another outdoor dog, Beider. Beider was badly abused before he came into my life. So he is very shy around others now. He's ok around me, and he loves My Jerry, but he's not wonderful around groups of people, or other dogs he doesn't know. Last year, we tried to put Beider and Cooper together a few times, to get them acquainted, but that didn't work too well.

Beider is in a safe~area that My Jerry had built just for him last year. It is on the side of the house. With coaxing, Beider will put one paw inside the house, then have second thoughts and back down the steps.

The pictures above are of My Shaddow Lane, the first dog I ever had. She's almost nine and is the sweetest most gentle pup ever. In her older age, tho, she does get easily startled and sometimes will snap or snarl. If we do have a crowd of folks visiting, I usually take her into the master's suite, cuz she gets disoriented and a bit frightened. That way she can have some space without lots of confusion. She is beginning to go blind and sometimes she seems unbelievably old, slow and pained in her movements. Other times, she is like a big overgrown pup that has extra white on her face.