My Bogie Bear

Today was all about my dog, Bogie. He is the light of my life and my best friend. This is only funny because I was afraid of dogs for quite a while. You see, I was attacked by a dog when I was 3 1/2 and the same dog got me again just before 4 years old. My parents kept nice dogs around when I was little. Partly because they love dogs and partly to keep me used to them. Family dogs were fine, but strange dogs terrified me until I met my husband.
He taught me how to read dogs. There are many things that make good and bad dogs. Genetics in the breeding are the start for personality. I have learned however that nurturing can win out over nature. I have had the pleasure to meet 3 of the sweetest pit bulls ever as well as many not so good ones. This is the case with my sweet beast.
Bogie is a Catahoula mix of the mountain variety. We didn't quite know what we were getting into when the 7 week old was given to us. Luckily, we did some research and found out his genetic temperament. Catahoula's are not recognized by the American AKC because they don't breed true. They can come out grey with spots, brindled, or the mountain ones are brown with a white butterfly on chest and white feet. That's my little Bogie bear. He weighs 89 pounds and is the great at snuggling. The Catahoula's have a reputation for fierceness and a used in packs of three to bring down wild boar, bulls, and alligators.
I never wanted to be afraid of my own dog, so we learned and trained for specific things. Socializing him was a huge goal and we succeeded. He is friendly with other dogs, people, and children. Just don't bring food into the picture. As he ages, Bo is getting more aggressive over food issues. A good old codger we knew looked at me once and said, "You ruined that dog." To which I happily took responsibility for taming a beast into a sweet, snuggle dog.
Don't get me wrong, Bo can be quite a handful. As a puppy, we trained him the property boundaries by having tied to a rock climbing rope that was tied to the house. He could go anywhere on the property and we checked on him often. During one of those check ons, I found my dog looking up at me innocently with his teeth in the knot. He was halfway through untying the knot! Well, right then I knew I had thinking dog. He knew he wasn't allowed to chew the rope, we'd gone over that one. But to untie it... it was funny. I have thousands of Bo stories if people like them, I'll continue to share. The story of how he made me see a bear so he could eat the cake is good one, maybe tomorrow.
I'm writing about my buddy today because he is at me feet trying to shake some heavy anesthesia. Very fast metabolisms are another Catahoula trait, so the Doc has to give a rhinoceros size doping when my dog gets surgery. Yep, Bogie went under the knife today to get some lumps removed. We weren't too sure if it was a hernia, fatty lumps, or worse. Luckily, it was the fatty sort which can be dangerous as well. One of the lumps had tentacle-like things that were thinking of strangling an important blood vessel. He is going to be fine though and continue to enrich our lives. We are moving him to the back rooms now so I'll say goodbye for today. Thanks for letting me talk about my best friend while waiting for his recovery.
Dogs are the best. Bo's the first I've ever truly loved. Now I understand just like everybody else. If you have one, go hug your dog right now.