Blucifer

This is a picture of Blue, our beloved blue heeler, in his kennel ready to move. I'll post a better picture later, one in which you can actually see him. Blue has come a long way in his short life. In order for you to completely understand that statement, you must have a little background info:

At the old house Blue had an area of about an acre that was all his. Nothing valuable or meaningful was allowed in this area. Blue ended up in that area of his own because of his terribly destructive behavior.

When Blue was less than a year old, he ripped a spigot off a pipe in the backyard by pulling on the hose attachd to the spigot until the whole spigot came off. Oh, and when the water started coming out of the top of the broken pipe? Blue decided to pull that pipe up out of the ground, too. So, we woke up that morning and we didn't have water in the house because it was all running out into our pasture. Yeah, so I couldn't even brush my teeth. Brad and our neighbor, Joe, dug about three feet into the ground before they even found pipe. And how did Blue live through that experience? Don't ask me. I'm still not sure why he's alive after that.

Fast forward a little. We moved to our most recent "old house" when Blue was right around a year old. The backyard was fenced, so we thought it would be a grand idea for Blue to be in the fenced backyard instead of in a smaller pen somewhere. DUH. Yes, we're stupid.

Very. VERY. Stupid.

Not long after we moved, our darling doggie decided to remove the outside air conditioning unit from its concrete pad. So, he turned it over on its side. And all those wires that were attached to the unit? He pulled them from the house. ALL OF THEM. This time, we were wiser. We took him straight to the humane shelter. We handed him over with all the proper praise - "Oh, he's a GREAT dog! He just needs some cows to herd." Well, as we were looking for his replacement, Blue proceeded to snap at the shelter employees that were trying to give him his shots. So, being the wonderful people that they are, they came to us and said, "Blue snapped at us, so we will have to euthanize him. We will, however, give you the option to take him back." I was already crying about leaving him (WHY?!?!?!) so we decided to take him home. Well, not exactly home. We left the shelter and took him to the vet. We had him neutered.

And when he got home from that demeaning experience, he went into his new pen - a completely fenced off area that included the remains of a burned down barn, and Blue's cute little doghouse. The doghouse that he refused to sleep in. In fact, Blue's favorite thing to do with a doghouse is to pull it apart and turn over the top and bottom so that they can catch plenty of rainwater. He prefers rainwater over tapwater, you see, and this is the best way to catch enough rainwater for an active heeler. Blue filled his days with chasing whatever came in his pen. We found opossums, raccoons and birds in his pen all the time. One time he climbed out of his pen to wrestle an armadillo. Blue won. We weren't surprised. Whatever job he does, he does it well. (Just so you know, he woke us up at 3:00 AM, after he killed the armadillo, so we could put him back in his pen. Guess he can only climb the fence in one direction.)

So, I say all of that to help you understand that the wild animal that lived in a fenced off area in my backyard is now a quite charming dog. He goes to the kennel when we tell him to. And he SLEEPS IN IT. Of course, his kennel is in the garage and he wouldn't catch rainwater even if he turned it upside down. And given his past behavior, we are a little leary of releasing him in the garage to have a field day with all our stuff. He is as leash-trained as a heeler can be. He sits, he lets us pet him. He even plays keep away with his bone. Without biting us. In fact, the only person he has ever tried to bite (besides the humane shelter people) was the vet we used to use. We recently switched vets, and Blue does very well. The new vet gives us these pills that make Blue a little drunk, so he doesn't care as much about people messing with him. (And it's really very funny when the meds really kick in - he staggers and sways and gets REALLY sleepy.) He gets along fine with the male vet, but I think he prefers the female vet. They get along quite well, I must say. Especially since the old vet wouldn't even check Blue's ears while he was muzzled for fear of having his arm bitten off. I look back now and wonder if Blue smelled the fear coming from that vet and said to himself, "Let's see how far we can go with this!" That's just the type thing Blue would do, you see.

We don't call him Blucifer for nothing.