Taffy the Laffy Samoyed Stories
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49. Taff & The Ramblin Recall
Well this morning I was sitting on the porch having coffee, in my bare feet with Taff tied out with me.
Taff started barking at a chipmunk and ran down the steps, he can actually get all the way to the bottom but can't get near the street.
As he got to the bottom step a big squirrel ran practically over his paws, Taff reared up and gave the cable one yank and off he went like a rocket dragging 3 feet of broken cable.
I dashed back in the house and grabbed my shoes, his harness and the other cable, by the time I got down the steps he was a waving-tail-white-blur almost around the bend in the road about a quarter mile away.
It was 6:30am and I did not feel like yelling my head off, I coughed real loud, he stopped turned around and looked, I waved his harness and then started walking toward him dragging the snap on the ground, usually music to Taff's ears.
Low and behold he crossed the road and started running back to me, I just kept walking towards him, dragging that cable and it was bouncing on the pavement, a sound Taff loves, I threw in a couple more loud coughs.
Taff came up right beside me but out of reach, I shook his harness and cable and asked him if he wanted to go for a walk, he looked left and right, I could hear the gears turning, his ears were swiveling around all over his head while he decided what to do. hahaha
I said Ok then I will just go get Casey and take her for a walk and I left him in the road looking up and down and walked on away from him acting real calm and dragging that cable clip, ping ping ping...!!!
Taff went the other way then stopped and raced back and tried to grab his harness out of my hand, I pulled it away and started running away from him, he chased me and ran in front, then leapt up, grabbed his cable and harness in his mouth and took off for all he was worth...!!!
I turned and walked the other way yelling "here Casey here Casey, let's go for a walk", Taff raced back and spit his cable and harness out at my feet. I rigged him up and took him for a walk.
You know it is real hard to figure out how his mind works sometimes, he was loose but he was not for a minute going to let me walk another dog with his cable and harness, go figure?
So when the neighbor Lab and owner went by, I let them get a 1/2 mile head start, then I took Taff down the steps and turned him loose. He went straight as an arrow for the Lab belly down, I walked along behind carrying his harness and leash.
When he got up to the Lab (who walks without a leash on), his owner clipped her retractable leash on Taff and he walked like a little prince bounding around the lab. By the time I got to them she was commenting on how well he was walking, so I let her walk him all the way down to the river where we took them both for a swim, but by this time I had put Taff's cable back on his harness.
So Taff had two one mile belly down runs today, plus a 2 mile walk, plus a 1/2 hour swim in the river, and we topped this off with a visit to the border collie where he got to romp with her and bark at a c*t, all before 8 AM....!!!!!
Then I put him in the house while dad ran the bobcat grading a new parking space for my car, after dad was done I moved plants around and Taff came back out to dig some earth core samples hahaha.
What an interesting day, Taff off leash TWICE running straight as an arrow on the exact route we walk and never once veering off into the woods after game, then walking on a loose retractable leash and not pulling for the neighbor, (which may be because this is the second time she has taken him for a swim in the river down at her camp).
So maybe Taff has figured out which side of the cable the treats are on. hahaha
It was fun to see him decide do I run or come, it is a miracle he did not dislocate an ear, he was signaling so frantically as his mind whirled with decisions....hahaha.
So maybe at the crack of dawn ( no cars out) we will try this again, maybe this time I will use a cough and one of the fancy whistles I got, boy will he be surprised.
He hit the floor at 10pm sleeping like a log.
I am tellin ya, this boy is a Cracker Jack with a surprise in every package! hahaha
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50. Taff The Rabbit Ranger
Well it has been a while since Taff did his big recall and we now have a regular routine of walking very early on a weekend morning with the campground Lab off leash down the empty road and for a reward Taff gets to go swimming in the river with the Lab.
This morning Taff got up at 6AM and drug my sweater to the door, then proceeded to bounce up and down at the door followed by whining and pacing the house as he waited for the campground Lab to show up a couple hours later for our off leash jaunt.
The second he saw the Lab make the bend to head up our road he set up an ear splitting howling and raced through the house trying to get outside. When the Lab and his two escorts got to the bottom of our steps I opened the door and let him go, he raced down the steps, straight to the Lab and then took off up the road trying to get the Lab to run with him.
The Lab is very sedate and prefers to sniff around as he is no runner, so Taff contented himself with racing up and back as the lab paced along with us at a walk. Taff did about 100 feet up and back for every 10 feet we walked but it was good for him to burn off the energy.
He stayed right with us more or less and twice came back when I called him, as we got near the end of the road he decided to take a flight to visit the female down at the end of the road and took off, I waved his cable over my head and called him to come and go for a walk, Taff stopped and looked at me and I waved his cable again, like a trained obedience dog he turned and raced down the embankment towards me, my heart swelled with pride.
Suddenly out of the tall grass, with no warning, a huge rabbit decided to make a run for his life, just as Taff crouched to slide down the bank the rabbit hit the air to sail over the big white fuzzy dog and both collided in mid air, the rabbit literally bounced off Taff's head right between his eyes, well folks it was all over but the shouting!
The rabbit let out a squeal, Taff let out a yip, the rabbit hit the ground and somersaulted, Taff reared up on his back legs and both were off like a rocket! Up the ridge zigzagging the rabbit went, Taff tore after him like his tail was on fire, we could only see flashes of white as Taff raced through the brush like a streak of lightening along the ridge, the poor Lab was beside himself as he could obviously hear Taff running silent as a killer submarine, but we had no clue if he was close or in another county.
I said well girls time to go, so we strolled up the road, halting to listen and yell "Taff come" to no avail, the Lab's mom said you are certainly taking this very stoically, I said well for two years me and Taff have been breathing the same air and I know this dog knows we care for him ,so it is his choice now if he wants to be with us or take off to parts unknown, if I can't win his heart, I won't chain his body, he needs to make a free choice, he's a big boy now.
I am telling you it was a slow quiet plod, pretty soon the Lab stopped and barked, behind us tearing up the pavement full speed was Taff, trying to catch up to us and running flat out and belly down.
Apparently he had done EXACTLY what I always told him to do, go back to where you went into the woods to untangle your cable, the poor boy had raced across the almost mile long ridge after the rabbit and then raced the whole way back to come out EXACTLY where he went in, then dropped down to the road only to find out we were 3/4's of a mile ahead of him back up the road, he probably assumed we would understand he had to run this uppity bunny to ground that had thumped him on the head right between the eyes and would wait for him, and no real hunter makes a sound in the woods when chasing game, so of course he would not bark or answer my call.
Well actually that does sound "Samoyed logical" what were We thinking??? hahaha.
Well he was one winded boy, so we walked on down to the river (now with Taff on his cable )took him for a swim, stopped off at the Lab's campsite for a hearty breakfast of waffles and sausage, then Taff played with the Lab in his fenced yard and learned how to go through a dog door, so it was a pretty busy morning for Taff, he was ready to come home and nap in his dirt hole a happy contented boy.
So I would say we're making progress, in Taff's mind he did not run away, he just ran off a dangerous bunny who tried to attack him, it just a took a bit longer than he anticipated. I know exactly what he was thinking when he came out of the woods, what part of "stay" does mom not understand, do I need to get a cable for her, it is way past time for her to grow up and start acting like a real dog! hahaha. mfb see pics here
51. Taff & The Sassy Southern Belle
Last week Taff had a visit from a true Samoyed Princess. Her family calls her Sassy, but we thought she was actually just exceptionally communicable, hahaha.
Sassy is a beautiful cultured southern belle and very athletic, she can jump straight up in the air. She also has manners, style, and class.
Taff has....well.....stamina..!
Taff was ecstatic, he could hardly believe his eyes, here was a stunningly gorgeous girl, a Sammi just like him, who liked to run and play, whooo hooo!
Well it turned out "Northern Redneck Roughneck Taff" and the "Southern Belle Classy Sassy" had a couple communication problems of their own, first off the Taff communicates with ear signals but the Southern Belle actually talks, he was frantically swiveling his ears every which way he could and she was arroooing and cooing and yodeling and softly woff-woff-ing, Taff moved his ears around some more, Sassy stared at him like he was an alien mute. I thought before the introductions were over I would have to wrap Taff's ears in an elastic bandage after smearing them with muscle rub, if he was ever to use them again hahaha.!
Next we found out the Princess usually takes an afternoon beauty nap, Taff thought she was hit by a car, the only thing laying down here before 11pm is a road kill, he badgered and nudged and tugged and bumped and barked and even pawed her right between the eyes with his filthy muddy paw on her beautiful sparkling silky fur....oh boy.....did she "communicate" with him over that....GO AWAY....oooooppps!!!!
Then, Taff in his "wild boy" joy, raced out the door and down the steps with the Princess right on his heels, leapt into his hokie play tub and frantically splashed fifty gallons of water ten feet in every direction to show her his great water trick. This resulted in the Princess howling her head off ,racing back into the house, howling some more, barking and carrying on ,which Taff took as Sammi Girl applause so he splashed even more water and that set off another round of the poor Princess trying her best to make him stoppppp!!!!!.
We later determined that the Princess, who has a REAL fish sanctuary at her home, must have thought Taff was in a forbidden "Fishie Pond" because when Taff would leap out the Princess would rush over and peek in the water in absolute horror, setting off heart rendering howls, which of course she would if she thought Taff had eaten the "fishies" or swept them up over the fence in his city wide tidal wave hahaha. Taff never did come near to getting it and she never did understand why us humans stood by and did not tie him up to a hunk of 500 pound rail, hello!!!!
Then there was the walking, Taff of course thinks everyone should walk as fast as they can, actually he prefers running, but will settle for hunker-down-back paw digging in-power pulls, however he paid no mind at all to the Princess who was rightfully trying to pass him up to her anointed place in front, where all true Southern Ladies are supposed to walk, well that set her to leaping straight up in the air in frustration, Taff took this as a Sammi girl cheerleading jump for "YEA" Taff not "GET OUT OF THE WAY" Taff and powered on ahead even faster....DA!
Taff was almost breaking his own leg, patting himself on the back with his paw, at how he was impressing this pretty little girl, poor deluded boy hahaha.
Then of course there was the eatin contest, Taff the disposal unit ,can wolf down about 50 treats and/or broken glass and just be gettin warmed up, the Princess has a restricted diet of reasonable portions and selective truly healthy edibles, Taff was droppin dog food, dog treats, cookie parts, paper hunks, fur, plastic and chocking hazard chicken bones like a trail of love notes all down the hallway to lure her to him. He thought her gagging was flirty....heaven help him.
Moving on was the game of tag, which the Princess plays by bounding around like a graceful dancer on her tip-toes, pirouetting like a ballerina and lightly tapping Taff with her nose, Taff's version was to mouth her like a tug toy slathering slobber all over her head, back, shoulders, butt and legs, and then pull out her tail hair which he spit in her face with a big fuzzy tongue grin. Of course this set her off on another "discussion" with Taff, which he took to mean she wanted her ears pulled, more slobber and toss in some dirty paws prints from the wild wrestling champ of the wilderness!
Whooooeee girls is FUN!
It will probably take 10 baths to get the Taff goo off her hahaha.
When all else failed to get her attention he jumped back in the pond again and shook dirty water all over her, while she pert' near fainted!
We took them for a motorcar ride and Taff surprised her once again by vomiting 35 lbs of dog food, slimy half chewed chicken, a couple rocks and a hunk of plastic on her feet, then burped in her face, this boy will go to any lengths to leave an impression. In Taff's mind vomit is a pre-engagement present. He was truly a love sick boy!
Taff was having the absolute time of his life, the Southern Belle, who by the way trains fosters, was exhausted from one single day with rough and ready-redneck-rude-boy. She repeatedly tried to flip him over by grabbing a paw but he is lightening fast himself, having practiced dodging Officer Donut's handcuffs for two years hahaha.
We tried tying him outside but she set up such a clamor we had to let him back in, I now suspect she was afraid he would stow away in her family's van hahaha.
He also showed her his newest diggin hole and she did stick her paw in with awe, we were afraid he was teaching her to dig, but I think she was just being kind or maybe figuring she could use it as a tripping hazard on him.
Thankfully she was able to get a good nights rest in the rolling guest house and the next day we took her and her family on an excursion while Taff guarded the AC back here. The Princess's mom made Taff Frosty Paws which he took and run off with, then actually did eat, I think he was suspicious of the smell of the healthy ingredients, so he took them outside for the ants to check out first.
On the second day they both charmed us by whispering tenderly in each others ears, then Sassy pried the bedroom door open just a crack with her cute little nose and slowly strolled away waving her beautiful plumy tail. The door swung open on it's own and as it hit the wall Taff zoomed around the corner about 50 MPH from hiding, grabbed a shoe and took off full speed with Sassy hot on his heels, now if that was not a conspiracy I never saw one hahaha.
All in all a good time was had by everyone, short as their stay was, and I think in the end Taff was able to make the now "Speechless" Southern Belle admire him, if for nothing else his sheer stupendous stamina hahaha.
Most amazing of all the very next day after she left, Taff clearly and emphatically "sassed" the Campground Lab for running away while off leash, we all broke into hysterics over that one! Taff can talk!
We sure hope her and her family come back again cause we all fell for her charms in a big big way. I am now picking all her tail hair out of Taff's teeth to weave into a pillow for him hahaha. mfb