Size doesn’t matter

I knew I’d catch your attention with that title! Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m writing about the pooch!

I’ve always known that Cathy, the pooch, had a temperament and could be quite stubborn. That’s fine. Now that she’s older well, let’s just say that it hasn’t got any better!

I don’t know if it’s size related, but I’ve noticed that even in men; the smaller they are the cockier they are. My dad was a very good example of that. He wasn’t a big man, only 5’7” and about 135-140lbs, but the nerves he had. Like a rooster, always ready to fight.

I see the same feistiness in the pooch. She’s very small, but she will show you that she’s not easily intimidated. When we got her, as a puppy, she was minuscule. At the time we also had a German Sheppard. She would just walk up to him and bark until he would leave. The size of the other dog did not matter. She was bold and saucy. That's her in 1992.

For the last two days, she’s been scaring me in the morning when I take her out for her first pee. Yesterday, she had been out for a while, sniffing around, doing her thing when this lady came down the street with a black Labrador and a Spaniel. They were both curious of her; they were on a leash (unlike the pooch*) and their owner was controlling them. Cathy is on her way to be blind soon; her vision seems to be very blurry (from her actions, like she daily walks into the French door’s glass), so she didn’t see them until they were fairly close. She then bolted, barking her little ass off, like she was this big "mother Tucker" or something. The other two dogs looked so surprised. I ran to her, picked her up, apologized to the lady and tried to get the pooch to calm down. The hair on her back was all spiked, and the growling wasn’t stopping. It was funny (in a way!) to see how upset she was. She went to her bed and kept on growling a little. Even Tobi (the cat) stayed away from her and out of her path for a while.

This morning, at 6am, Missy goes out and a few minutes later I can hear some chains rattling or something. I look on the side street (we live on a corner), coming down the hill, this guy with not one, but three Pit bulls! My heart started racing and I thanked whomever that her hearing is also going. She looked up at them and kept on sniffing the grass. As they turned the street corner, she started to bark and ran in their direction. I REALLY didn’t want her to get close to those dogs – they had this mean look about them (and I’m not being prejudiced here, I love those type of dogs, had one myself), so I barely had time to pick her up before she got in the street and we went in. I can only see her being snapped in half by one of those boys… EWH!!!

She's not very big, but she has a lot of character.

* can’t really put a leash on her she has bumps (cancer) and she doesn’t tolerate anything touching her neck area…