Logan

That’s Logan up there at the top of the page. He is a breed that is relatively rare, an Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog. The description and characteristics of that particular breed made him, in my opinion, the perfect pet. Logan was extremely good natured and playful – he thought he was a puppy for the entire 3 years that I had him. Having said that, he was no joke. You would not want to be the one coming in the house in the middle of the night, uninvited. He was a big, strong, 95 lb dog that would have your full and undivided attention the moment he asked for it.

He cost quite a bit to purchase and also needed airfare to get here, as he lived on the other side of the country. If I thought his purchase price and airfare were expensive, I was about to learn that it was just a down payment on him.  When Logan got here for the first time, we already had a cat, which towered over our toy poodle and the toy poodle towered over Logan. That all quickly changed as I suppose it would if you are a puppy eating 5 cups of food per day. He had a voracious appetite growing up, and among other things, was known to eat rocks. Among other things? Yes, other things. Over the three years that I had the pleasure of owning him, in addition to the dog food and snacks he ate, he also ate my couch. He ate my other couch and then he ate my other couch. About a month before he left, he was working on my/his fourth couch. He ate my rug and my other rug. He ate all the trim in the hallway where we kept him when he was a pup. He ate an ottoman and a sofa chair and 2 leather chairs and part of a coffee table. He ate 7 remote controls, 3 pairs of slippers, 2 pairs of flip flops, 2 pairs of sneakers and 1 pair of dress shoes and a Blackberry. And a wallet with everything in it. He also ate 5 bushes in the back yard. He ate socks, pants, shirts, jackets and loved eating rolls of toilet paper. He ate the cuff off of a leather jacket. Dish towels and wash clothes were another favorite snack of his. Over the years, I would estimate that he ate about $4.50 worth of change that I know of.

Out of curiosity I just did the math. If I break down the amount of time he was here into hours and divide that into his cost plus the loss he created, it turns out that he cost me 41 cents an hour, every hour, day and night, for the 24,192 hours he was here.

Oh yeah, he also ate a skunk.  Well, he didn’t actually eat it, probably because I intervened before he had the chance, but he killed it and I’m pretty sure that's what made it rain.  I heard a lot of barking out back in early May of last year and went out to see what the commotion was about.

  It was Logan telling a skunk that he was in the wrong yard. As soon as I got out the back door, Logan went into protective mode much to the skunks misfortune. A couple lunges and violent shakes of the critter and it was lights out. The last toss of the skunk from the dog had it land directly under my open bedroom window ……. Fbomb. Thoughts started racing through my head about the stench, I had to do something quick. I couldn’t go get the skunk because Logan might run into the house through the dog door, and boy did he stink. I couldn’t head for the house to shut the windows because Logan would head for the skunk again. I didn’t have to think about it for more than a second or two, because that is when it started raining. It started raining that evening, in early May, and did not stop for about six to eight weeks. I also know that it started raining around 8:30 PM because after I had locked Logan outside and bagged up the skunk, I raced to the local Pet Smart to get some skunk odor remedy for the dog. I got there at 9:02 PM, on a night that they closed at 9 PM sharp. Fbomb again. It would be several weeks before the smell issue was completely resolved at my house.

Well, due to a separation with my wife, coupled with my 11+ hour work days, I couldn’t keep Logan. He ended up going to a ‘no kill’ dog shelter to start a new life. The shelter is located in a residential area, in a raised ranch style house. The front hallway only had a knee wall, so was open to the living room as you came up a short flight of stairs. There was a couch against that wall, and to keep the animals from jumping on the couch and then into the hallway, there was an electrically charged mat on the back of the couch. I was warned several times not to touch it because it would really give me a jolt. I spent about 45 minutes there while they evaluated Logan for placement and at the end of that time, I just turned and left. I didn’t want them to see me get all emotional so I just headed down the stairs, with Logan on the couch, legs up over the back of it, leaning on the electrical mat, looking at me and wagging his tail. It reminded me of the time that I accidentally hit him in the head with a hammer (didn’t know he was standing next to me) and he just looked up at me and wagged his tail.

Take care Logan.

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