In recent weeks I have been asked, “How is Leo?”
I’m impressed. I mentioned Leo a couple of weeks ago in my first column. He is my Jack Russell terrier, age 9. I brought him with me from Arkansas. Having resided in that state and Oklahoma, he is a well-traveled dog. I now consider him mostly retired.
I purchased him on a cold night in January in Little Rock, Ark. There were four or five JRTs from which to choose — tailless little cotton balls on their way to good homes. I chose Leo because of the brown patch near one of his ears and the black patch over one of his eyes. He was the only one out of the litter with such markings. On the drive home, he rested in the palm of my hand.
Experienced JRT owners warned me that the breed has no off switch. At first, I found this not to be the case. Leo, as a puppy, was slow to come around. After the first month, I began to worry about his personality. Did he have one? That spring, he exhibited little signs of the JRT I expected.
I had always wanted a JRT or at least a dog similar to one. I did not want a large breed, nor did I want anything high-maintenance. Leo seemed to fit the criteria. But as a JRP (Jack Russell puppy), he was hardly a firebrand.
One morning I awoke to find the guts of my favorite easy chair strewn about the living room. Somebody — not naming names — had taken it upon himself to climb inside the seat cushion and shred all the cotton batting. It looked like snow on the carpet.
From that moment on, I had a JRT on my hands.
He immediately became an outside dog, meaning I could leave him in the backyard for hours, if not entire days, without trouble. He'd eat anything but seemed happy with the driest, cheapest stuff I could afford. He seemed born housebroken. I never put him through any puppy-pad training. He came knowing what to do and where to go.
The furniture shredding reasserted itself on another occasion. One night I returned home after a date. I’d been gone several hours. In the interim, Leo climbed up on my writing desk and picked out my favorite pair of Oakley sunglasses. (Retail price: $150.) I found my Oakleys scattered in a million pieces. He even gnawed the lenses out of the frame. It was the only time I thought I'd made the wrong choice in dogs.
His JRT wiring is evident in everything he does, but it shows up most in his dealings with other animals. Despite his size, Leo is a bully, an Alpha male who does not tolerate other animals. This is not a character flaw, nor do I accuse him of bad behavior. It’s just that he's the boss and knows it.
For example, he will not put up with large barnyard animals loafing. I have seen him go crazy at the sight of bulls resting on the ground. He will bark at them until they get up and move. (I have video.)
Nor will he tolerate animals on television. He can be dead asleep only to wake up at the first sign of a cat food commercial. (He learns their jingles.) The barking is intense. I imagine he thinks of television as a magic window in which any animal may appear.
We use caution on our walks around Greenwood. Several residents in the neighborhood have dogs, many of them larger than Leo. I cannot afford for them to mingle.
A couple of years ago, my grandchildren and I took Leo for a walk in a public park. A man walking his dog approached from the opposite direction, and all heck broke out. Leo and the dog tangled. The other dog latched onto Leo’s eye and shook him. As the other dog owner seemed helpless, I had to get between them and break it up. My grandchildren were traumatized, but Leo came away uninjured — and unfazed.
I recently read about a woman attacked by a brown bear. Her pet JRT started barking at the bear — and chased it away. Imagine the scene in “The Revenant’ where another famous Leo gets mauled by a Grizzly. Well, her JRT prevented that from happening. Would my Leo do the same?
Of course he would! All in a day’s work.
- Contact Dan Marsh at 662-581-7235 or dmarsh@gwcommonwealth.com.
