THE GRUMPY OLD MAN TURNS ELEVEN

Today Blue turned ELEVEN!
I took this photo just before leaving the house this morning.
I used a couple of apps to make it more like a painting-

Yep, He's eleven and he is a grumpy old man.

The grumpiness has been building.
The occasional ROAR of irritation when someone is in his way
or laying his spot.

He's just low on patience.
He'll do that bark growl that sends the other dogs into a tizzy.
They jump up and bark at him
and he storms through the herd of them like an angry bull.

If anyone really gets in his face,
he'll grab ahold of them and slam them to the floor and hold them there
until they stop fighting and are totally submissive.

Years ago when Jimmy Chew was very young, he challenged Blue
and Blue body slammed him to the ground and held him by the throat.
Jimmy was so terrified that his anal glands expressed themselves.
Jimmy was fine, just wet with saliva but he never challenged him again.

Sometimes when Blue is really in a mood and is stomping around roaring
I can tell that Jimmy thinks he needs to protect me.
He doesn't, I'm the Alpha dog
but Jimmy will stand in front of me and face-off with Blue.
He will  bark with all his might as his whole body trembles in fear.
Yep, Jimmy can push my buttons and sometimes really frustrate the Hell out of me
but I know he's got my back.

Lately though, Blue's fuse has been super short.
The other day as the little ones ran through the kitchen for the laundry room to get their dinner,
Blue decided to walk out of the kitchen and into the living room.
I always feed Blue first, so it wasn't like he was hungry but
all the little dogs rushing past him, must have annoyed him
because I heard that ROAR
and then a horrible little scream.

It was my little Poppy.

She doesn't even weigh a full 5 pounds
and he had her down.
Now if it was one of the bigger dogs it would have just been a moment
of catch and release
but in this case, he caught her head and left a little small cut above her eye from his tooth.
I was there in a second
and of course I couldn't yell at him to STOP!
because he's deaf.
But I grabbed ahold of his head and neck and pulled him away
and he instantly ran and hid up the kitchen table.
He always hides there when he gets into trouble
because no one can see him there....

or so he thinks.

I realize that he's just being a cranky ass because if
he really meant business, she'd be dead.
But... it has me on hyper alert now.

I talked with Doc and because we just ran all sorts of blood-work tests
and did x-rays and everything on Blue when he was so ill,
we know there's nothing physically wrong with him except as Doc says -
He's a grumpy old man. That's what happens to us, we get grumpy."
I told him about Poppy and Doc said, "She's just a mouthful!"
and then he just shook his head and said "that's what can happen with a pack".

Without going into extreme detail about pack mentality,
I'll just say that I'm aware of that and that wasn't it.
It wasn't the group of them in some sort of frenzy
or them trying to weed out the weak
or one or more trying to take over the group.
They know I'm the leader.
There's no doubt of that.
Even Blue knows, that's why he hightails it to under the kitchen table.

Nope, it's just Blue doesn't really care about the other dogs.
They just mostly annoy him.
He's a people dog.
And if he sees Lily or my sister he jumps up and down in excitement.

Yep, I think I'm living with a "Lion" (who I love with all my heart)
and a houseful of "Lemurs" who like to run around and play
and get in the way of the Lion who just wants to sleep.

So I'm making sure to keep the lines of visual communication open with Blue and me.
That's always worked before.
He has always watched me to see what to do and not to do.
I just have to stay very attentive to him when he gets up and moves about.

As I type out this post, he's at my feet.
Not on the dog bed
or my BIG chair that he loves but on the wood floor.
I do adore this grumpy dog.
I brought birthday cupcakes in his honor to work

and wrote on the medical board for all to see that today was his Eleventh birthday
and I thanked everyone who made that possible!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRUMPY OLD MAN!
I love you with all my heart
and I hope all the little ones just stay out of your way.