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Blaze is a very quiet dog. When left to himself he rarely makes a noise. He will whine at me when he needs to go outside or when he is trying to convince me that he should eat earlier. He has yet to learn, as the other family members know so well, that I’ll get around to making dinner eventually, but don’t expect it to be soon. When I visited the breeder, I was amazed at how quiet her dogs were. A kennel of quiet dogs is a bit odd. I was thrilled that Blaze carried on the genetics. However, we have discovered throughout the last month that there is one individual who greatly enjoys pestering him into barking. When Blaze can’t be watched, he is in his crate, to prevent sock swallowing. Patches has the run of the house and she makes him aware of it every day. Sometimes she’ll sit right next to his crate and look at him, sometimes she’ll turn her back as if he doesn’t exist, but what she loves most is to partially hide inside or under something as if she is stalking him. It drives him nuts and I will hear him make a high pitched whiny bark. I am often sending the kids to catch and relocate her, but she always comes back to play her favorite game. When I take him outside into the back yard to play fetch, she waits patiently at the sliding glass door. I often go in and leave him outside a little longer, but he doesn’t like to be alone so he will soon be on the top step looking in the door. Patches loves this moment and will touch her paw to the glass. Blaze, who moments prior had been patiently waiting, then goes nuts jumping on the door. She’s a piece of work.

Josiah is watching the neighbor’s dog this week, so we attempted to go together on a walk. Blaze was so nuts trying to get the other dog to play, that I thought it would be best to have them run around the backyard a bit. Josiah forgot to shut the back gate, so they decided to run around the neighborhood instead. Thankfully, no cars were driving by, Josiah was able to catch Blaze, and the neighbor dog just ran home. As I ran out after the dogs, a feeling of familiarity overtook me. The feeling of familiarity ended as soon as we caught the dogs, however, for Czar and Sasha would have been long gone and I would have gotten in the car to continue the pursuit. We tried to get the dogs playing in the back yard again, gate closed this time when suddenly we heard this terrified yelp. Blaze came dashing for us with his tail between his legs. The neighbor’s dog did not want to play. So, Blaze is far down the pack order. Well behind the cat and the neighbor dog.

Patches and Blaze at Door

Blaze

Patches Stretching

Blaze Walking the Dog

Blaze’s current favorite game is “fetch the rope-run away-pass by-let you grab the rope-tug of war.”  Josiah was out playing this game with Blaze when Josiah decided to liven it up with one of Dale’s favorite tricks.  Josiah pretended to throw the rope and then hid it behind his back.  Blaze initially took off, then stopped when he couldn’t see the rope.  Josiah continued to tell Blaze to get it.  Blaze put his nose to the ground, sniffed, walked behind Josiah and sat down.  I laughed.  He’s a clever dog when he wants to be.

One of Zeke’s favorite shows to watch is Fetch with Ruff Ruffman.  It’s a cartoon dog talking to real kids.  The kids learn things through competitions and at the end of the show, someone wins a prize.  Zeke calls it Ruff Roman for reasons known only to him.  My favorite show, however, is Fetch with Blaze Manry.  I get to experience it live action every morning.  Blaze takes the retriever part of his name very seriously.  He fetches balls, ropes, sticks, dead birds, toys, crayons, and laundry items.  One of his favorite retrieving activities occurs whenever he comes in from outside.  He will dash over to the drying rack in the sunroom, grab a pair of my underwear, and bring them to me.

Yesterday, Gabe ran in frantically from outside. “Blaze caught a mouse and he won’t let it go and it’s squeaking and I can’t catch him!” By the time I arrived outside plastic bag in hand, the mouse was dead. I scooped it up and threw it away before Blaze could eat it. Gabe was very upset and I calmly explained to him that dogs didn’t always have dog food, they had to hunt for their food. Blaze is born with the hunting instinct and if he can catch a small mammal or bird, he will kill it. Abby piped up with a lament for the “poor mouse”, and I informed her that the kitten she is getting tomorrow will hunt and kill mice as well. Being a Manry kitten, she may be called upon to kill a snake also. Years ago, in a tale that can only be true in Dale’s family, someone found a water moccasin (I believe) in the dresser. Not knowing what to do, they shut the door to the room and waited until Dale’s Daddy came home. Unknown to them, their small kitten was locked in the room with the snake. When Dale’s Daddy came home, he opened the door and the kitten walked proudly out. She had killed the snake. She was a true Manry pet. After years of living with Fruhliche, Czar and Sasha, I had become a bit numb to all the small animals they killed. However, there was one day when I was truly mortified. On a walk, Czar and Sasha had observed a fluffy white pet bunny that neighbors down the street allowed to hop around their yard inside a 3 foot high fence. They both lunged for it, but I was able to drag them off. I put them in the back yard, behind a 6 foot high wooden fence and then went to the store. As usual, I had greatly underestimated them. Sasha, being the brains of the operation, had Czar tear the fence boards off the posts so that they could get out. I returned to find them gone and the fence in tatters. I was standing in the driveway trying to calculate in which direction I should go look for them when they came trotting down the sidewalk with the dead fluffy white pet bunny dangling from Sasha’s mouth. I stared in horror. In my dog training classes, they had never taught the subject: “What to do when your dog kills a neighbor’s bunny.” This morning, as Blaze and I were periodically walking and not walking, a lazy fat wild rabbit bigger than Blaze hopped across our path. Blaze looked at it and I knew what he was thinking…”Just wait until I get bigger. When she’s not watching, you’re dinner.”