Meet Momma

[bill_schubert]

I was just walking out of the Dog Ranch building when the proprietor, Rhonda, called over and asked if I'd ever walked Momma.  I said I'd not met her but did she want me to.  And she said yes.  I said soon as I get done with Roscoe.

It is a little strange to be asked to do anything at the Ranch.  No one directs the volunteers.  When I'm there on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons there are two other volunteers, one woman and a young guy.  We don't converse.  When we are in the rooms with the dogs there are usually half a dozen or more who are barking so it is too loud to talk.  When we're out walking we don't get the dogs near each other as many of them are dog aggressive.  So I mostly just go there, sign in, grab a series of dogs and walk them.  Over the course of two hours I usually walk five dogs and then sign out and leave.  This is not a high people interaction job.  We're there for the dogs.  So to be asked to do something is a little strange.

Momma, it turns out, is really dog aggressive.  She is in the building with all the small dogs (I do not have any idea how they decide that... again, no communication) so they moved all the small dogs to a section of the building where they were separated.  Then she brought Momma out:

Got treats?

Very active tongue

She's just a sweet old girl.  We walked around a while.  Then I sat down with her and we talked some and had some treats and she decided my sun glasses were not clean and proceeded to lick them until she was satisfied.

When I returned her they very carefully made sure none of the other dogs were loose in the area and I was told to grab her by the vest and be sure I had a good grip as I took her back to her living cubical.   Clearly some history there.

The walkway over the small stream is progressing nicely now:

When they first put up the strings to start this I tried to think my way through how I would do it and couldn't really figure it out.  So I've been talking to the guy who is working it and following his progress.  And helping him a bit moving some of the heavy lumber when he needed it.  

Having a walkway into the next field will be really nice.  Another way to get to an area to walk. 

Comments

[egg-shell.livejournal.com]

you certainly can't tell that momma would be aggressive from her looks. she definitely looks like an old sweetie.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It is interesting to see how many dog aggressive dogs there are who are just as sweet as they can be.

[gracegiver]

I think Momma has that pink gun holder for a reason. :)

Such a sweet thing you're doing. Thank you.

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

Momma does look like a sweet girl, especially in that picture with her tongue out. I wonder what happened in her past to make her so aggressive with other dogs?

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

That is a question I wonder about too. Most of the dogs have to be kept away from all the other dogs. There are a few that get along but not many. Some of that is because they are in a cubicle, some of it is their previous life I'm sure, some is just maybe they are old and cranky. I don't know much at all about large groupings of dogs. We've had many dogs here in our house and everyone has gotten along. But maybe they just know I'm alpha and intuit the rules. No idea.