LIFE WITH DEYCON

Deycon and Bear have been living together and play together and often sleep in the same doggie bed. Each of them has their own but both are rarely used.

These two guys are my solace in a complicated world. I work in a stressful environment and on the third shift. Coming home from an evening full of chaos, their smiling faces and wagging tails is the best part of the day. They always seem to know when I’m not at my best. Bear lays right by the bed. Deycon flips my hand onto him to make me pay attention and when that doesn’t work, he brings toys to me, one at a time. Dogs are better than some people. Their love is totally unconditional and they love you completely. How can you not smile with a couple of wet noses poking at you?

Thanksgiving was great with the two fur guys. The table top is eye level for Deycon and he just sat staring. Watching him was like seeing someone watch a tennis match. With the pass of every platter, bowl or cup he stared like a hawk. The family loves him too and he was well spoiled that day and took the mandatory nap with my sons.

Christmas was another story! We found that having any 3 year old in the house dictates how to decorate the tree. First we discovered Deycon likes to eat the garland, so that was removed from mouth level. Then there were no lights or decorations from tail level down since he would regularly knock the decorations off with a wag. The poor tree looked half finished. Then we finally decided to put the tree in an old play pen like when the kids were small. That worked well and made the house feel like children were there.

Deycon’s grandmother told Santa to send a few gifts to the puppies which included some toys with the squeakers. In short time, the stuffing was out of them and the boys were playing tug of war with the deflated animals. After cleaning the fluff off the floors I kept hearing a squeaking. I checked the mountain of cotton batting and found none. Then I checked to see if one of the noise makers was stuck in the pile they were still playing with. Nope. I searched all over and still every now and then heard a muffled squeak. I felt like some bizarre detective waiting for the next squeak to trace where it was. Finally I realized that Deycon was actually laughing at me and teasing me. He had the squeaker in his mouth and every now and then pressed on it. He leapt into the air and took off running when I caught him.

SNOW

As I’ve said Deycon is a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, a working breed. His mom said that he’d never been in the snow since they had lived in the southern states most of his life. This year, he certainly got his fill.

We’ve had three major storms so far and he has made full use of them. He leaps through the drifts, runs and jumps through the snow. After one of the storms, there was a fine layer of ice across the snow top. The two guys were running in the yard so much that one of Deycon’s paws got irritated. The vet said that I could either keep him from running in the snow for a few days or put a boot on that paw. He’s an active and young boy so I opted for the boot.

WRONG!! His hooves, I mean paws, are the size of a child’s hands. After chasing him around the house because he thought it was a game, I finally got hold of him and put the boot on. He took it off. I put it on and he took it off. I put it on and got them into the yard and he just stood there with that one paw in the air staring at me. He had enough and went back up the stairs to the deck and sat there, paw in the air. I took the boot off and we went in. We repeated this ritual 3 times that day with him making a new “catch me if you can” game out of it. I kept putting it on and he would take it off and run away with it. Finally I gave up when I couldn’t find the thing anymore. His paw got better and I found the boot with other toys stuffed under the futon in the living room. Coincidence? I think not.

We hadn’t been able to get to the dog park to run because of the storms for about 2 weeks, but we finally made it to the park nearby. There is a depression in one of the fields that is the bane of the existence of every baseball team that plays there: it’s an area about 15 feet long and 10 feet wide that has a perennial puddle in it. Of course with the cold weather, that’s now a sheet of ice.

Deycon took off running through the snow, leaping and dancing all the way. He was in heaven until he hit that patch. He did a cartoon character run in place for a few steps then fell with paws in all four directions and spun on his stomach for a few circles and then just lay there. Those big eyes and huge face looked up at me wondering what just happened. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t get to him. He finally half crawled half walked off the patch and sat next to me nudging my hand for some petting. I know he was saying….. Snow good… Ice bad.

– Written by Eileen, Foster Mom in New York.