Log, One Of My Heart Dogs

This is Log

He is one of the most loved dogs in my life.  He was born in 1984 I think, maybe 83, which would have made my girls 7 and 8.  His mother was a cross breed some friends from Kansas City had found and decided she needed a country home (with us?), she was a German Shepherd and Irish Setter mix.  More on her in another post but she wasn't a heart dog till she was older.  Logs father was the Saint Bernard next door.

I wish I could find some younger pictures of Log but he was a cute cute puppy.  Why Log?  Because he looked like a stump when he was sitting down when he was a puppy, solid and squat and sturdy, just a block sitting there waiting to get back up and follow you somewhere.

This picture was of a fairly young Log I think.  You are probably thinking what a horrible horrible looking dog.   He was beautiful inside.  He would do anything for the girls and I, anything.  All he wanted to do was be with us and follow us.  He never had any true understanding that he was the biggest dog and would try to crawl on our laps all his life though.  He reminded me of a giant stinky Dispatch.

He did bite some people.  Some had chased him on 4 wheelers, some he THOUGHT had chased him, Log was big and a bit freaky and people liked to tease him.  My father had a business though and the dogs were used to people coming and going.  One man was teasing the kids when Log was still growing (teasing in good fun he was a friend of the family and was surrounded by relatives and other men) and the girls were squealing.  Log decided enough was enough and went after the man.  He let the girl go and all was well in the world after that except Log didn't like that man either ever again.  That's the first time we knew Log was a little different than the other dogs.  He wasn't vicious @ all, a baby could have done anything he wanted to Log just as long as it didn't involve hurting me or the girls.

My brother probably wouldn't like me telling this story but my brother is big, over 6 ft.  Log adored my father too but he drew the line there as far as men, other relatives weren't included.  So my brother would sometimes bark @ Log.  Log would run, brother would pretend he was getting Daddy and the game was on.  Back and forth they would go and then brother would eventually feed Log a candy bar and all was forgiven (our dogs ate chocolate daily,  my dad sold it in his shop and we didn't know it was really supposed to be poison, our dogs ate chocolate ALL The time).  Like I said my brother is big and Log wasn't 100 lb I don't think but we didn't weigh him, he was WAY over 60 I know.  But here were these three, two big men and a big dog playing and playing....

One day a salesman came to my parents house.  Log wasn't particularly fond of my mother but she was part of his pack and we all lived on the same farm, I happened to be outside helping mom with the flowerbed or something @ her house.  The salesman was selling cemetery plots or burial plans, I can't remember.  Younger big and cocky man.  Well cocky for awhile.  Mom got tired of listening to the guy and told him to leave, he kept talking and mom started getting mad.  Mom was a schoolteacher and had her faults but lack of words was never one.  She started getting that tone and then was yelling @ the salesman to get back in his car.  Log had been laying under something in the shade.  The big cocky saleman became a big FAST salesman when he saw Log coming after him but the moment I told Log to stop he stopped. I admit I didn't say stop to till he was fairly close behind the salesman but the he had been told repeatedly to get back in his car and was making me a bit nervous too.

Log was afraid of storms, not badly terrified but leery.  One spring day a tornado formed close by Log usually obeyed but he decided that day he was a house dog and he was going to be an under the FURNITURE house dog.  We didn't get a direct hit but it was close.  After that we watched the dogs when there was a tornado warning, they were better than the radio and tv.

Log was a faithful companion for 12 years which is actually pretty long for a dog of his size.  One hot hot summer day we left for a wedding and there was no Log to greet us when we got home.  He was chasing us up the driveway and had a heart attack and died.

OH, I forgot to mention that.  Log chased cars.  We had several dogs and a long driveway and they chased cars.  Never could break them so we just didn't hit them and they stayed out of the way, it's a gravel driveway and most of the dogs were huge so it wasn't any great effort on the human or the dogs part not to get in each others way.  Log had another habit.  He bit car tires as he was chasing them, his teeth weren't very pretty either.  Log was a bit rough around the edges but he was a dog with a heart as big as he was.

We still talk about him often which is as big a tribute as any dog gets I suppose.

Four Dog Stories

Since my dogs are doing nothing extraordinary other than lay around in the air conditioning and we have had no animal visits other than the raccoon in the cats food lately (he was huge and I was like 5 feet away, I'd like to think he was more scared than I was?) I have four interesting dog stories for you. The picture to the side is my dog saying leave me alone, get that camera out of here, can't you tell I was sleeping? No reason I just like to show him off.


The first story is about a 70 year old man in Boston, he was always seen with his Saint Bernard, Wednesday the dog showed up wet without the man, when he was led into the nearby woods he headed straight to the water. Police haven't found the man in the water or anywhere else, they don't know the mans name and are still hoping for clues.
Boston Saint Bernard Link Here

Did you ever hear the story of the Akita in Japan that was so faithful to his master he went to the train station to meet him ten years after his master died, every day he'd go to meet him. There was a statue erected in his honor. NOW there's an Americanized version of the story in a movie, A Dogs Story, with Richard Gere no less!!
Link to A Dogs Story here.

The next story is about five puppies who were cloned from the rescue dog Trakr who pulled the last survivor out of ground zero on 9/11. The retired Canadian police officer won a contest and says the puppies are identical to his beloved dog.
Trakr's link here.

Roo is a pit bull, before you get all anti pit bull on me rescuers think Roo may have been used for bait to train fighting dogs, it's not a good story but it has a happy ending. After looking @ Roo I'm wondering how much pit bull my grandma's dog had in him and he was never aggressive.
I'll let you read the story here, it deserves to be read.

Ok, you thought you could get away without a Dispatch story? Nope, the other night we had bad thunderstorms about 1 am. Normally this dog sleeps through most thunderstorms, he might stir or he might jump if it shakes the house. He woke me up worried for this one, wanted me to DO something. So I got my purse and my cell phone and laid it by the steps down to the basement, seemed logical to me? Then I watched it on radar as much as I could. It was bad here but just a few miles to the south it was horrible, one out of every 10-20 trees uprooted, huge oak trees laying across power lines and houses. Here the patio table blew over and some of our lawn furniture was out by the highway but nothing major. Dispatch did sense that there was bad wind close by though. Mugsey the labrador was much more worried but he's afraid of gunfire, fireworks, lawnmowers......... The only other time Dispatch has been really worried about a storm we lost our garden shed outside, up up and away, found it twisted out by the highway so when he's worried I guess I will listen.