Alternate title for this post “Kylie Hates Golden Retrievers”…

On one of our first big road trips after moving to the mainland, all three of us went on a trip to Boston! It was the first time any of us had been there so it was very exciting. Especially for Kylie with all the new sights and smells and all the Golden Retrievers!

It was presumably the first time Kylie had ever seen a Golden Retriever, or as we call them, the Toyota Camry of dogs, and for some reason she developed an instant dislike of the breed.

We were in a nice little artsy shop called Industry, where there was a big friendly retriever lounging, minding her own business. (She was literally “minding her own business,” in fact but we’ll get back to that.) The next thing we knew Kylie was like a badger on a leash trying to kick her golden ass! We called her off and scolded her and apologized profusely to the shopkeeper, who checked the victim of the attack out and saw that there wasn’t a scratch on her.

Then they explained to us that “Industry” was the Golden’s name and it was HER store – their tag line was “She’s a bitch to work for!”  Yikes! Good job, Kylie! So we made a nice sized purchase before leaving the store including the fancy ceramic treat jar that was prominently located on her cookie bar for years to come.

cookiejar

Later that afternoon we were walking down the sidewalk approaching our car and a guy came around the corner with a big Golden Retriever walking beside him – not on a leash. We had opened the car door for Kylie to hop in, but just about then the retriever decided to say hello to her. Instead of returning the friendly greeting she lunged at him like a snarling psycho! We yelled again and scolded her again, and apologized again. The guy said don’t worry about it and continued on his way. Then when we got in the car, he approached to inform us that his dog was actually bleeding. We got out and took a look at the dog, who upon closer inspection we realized was a little on the elderly side and had one of his front legs all bandaged up. The blood was coming from a tiny little hole Kylie, aka Jaws, had made in the very soft part of his big nose. Yikes! Good job, Kylie!

So we felt pretty bad, but we did point out to the guy once we verified his dog was not seriously injured, that if he had been on a leash the altercation would have been avoided. And that was pretty much the end of that, and it was pretty much the end of Kylie’s visit to Boston. In fact we told her she was 86’d from the whole city – that’s right she was banned from Bean Town!

Over the next few years the two girls made a few trips to Boston for hockey games and/or shopping but Miss Kylie stayed home with a sitter.

Eventually the ban was lifted and Kylie did make a triumphant return to Boston – and she managed to behave herself. She never, however, got over her issues with Golden Retrievers.

Because she had been the victim of a drive by back in the day, Kylie had a pretty serious aversion to loud noises like thunder and of course fireworks. So our plans for pretty much every Fourth of July were to hang out with Kylie and turn up the tv to drown out the amateur pryrotechnics.

But a couple of years ago we went up to visit friends at the mountain home of Ferdinand (great dane) and Fiona (chihuahua) – quite a pair.

ferdinand fiona

Then the human folk decided to go into the tiny mountain town for dinner and to catch the professional fireworks display. We figured the dogs wouldn’t hear a thing several miles away, but that they definitely needed to be separated. Ferdinand was a fifty pound puppy, who was a little too friendly and excited about absolutely everything, while Kylie and Fiona were both.. well, let’s face it.. just plain bitchy and often didn’t play well with others. So Fiona was in the back bedroom, Kylie was in the sunporch, and Ferdinand had run of the rest of the house.

The two girls and friends were out for several hours and returned to find three dogs of various sizes, standing there, tails wagging, waiting to greet us.. TOGETHER!!

We were all wide eyed with dropped jaws and momentarily panicked. But nobody had so much as a scratch and the house had not so much as a misplaced throw pillow. The best we could figure is either they could hear the fireworks and thought there was safety in numbers so they got together to duck & cover. Or more likely, friendly Ferdinand was lonely. We figured it wouldn’t be too difficult for him to use his big nose or giant head to open the sliding door and let Kylie in from the porch; but we have no idea who or how they managed to turn the doorknob to liberate little Fiona from the bedroom. We asked them, but they weren’t talkin’!

They were just celebrating their independence!

July 4th 07

July 4th 07