Muggins
From James Donahue’s Journal
One day Doris and Jennifer got word of a woman in Caro who bred and sold thoroughbred Shih Tzu dogs and that she had a new batch of pups ready. They asked me to take them to town to look at the dogs. I was not excited about keeping a dog in our little house but took them anyway. I knew that I was not going to have any choice in the matter.
The puppies were all extremely cute, as puppies always are. As I remember they were colored as traditional Shih Tzu dogs usually appear, in black, white and grey. But there was this one “runt” of the litter. He was smaller than the others and his fur was a bright gold. Jennifer was immediately attracted to this particular dog. The decision was made. We bought it. Before we got him home he was given the name Muggins. I just called him “Dog.”
That dog turned out to be one of the most beloved pets we ever had. I think he became more my dog although he certainly belonged to the family. His attraction to me probably resulted from the fact that I was rarely if ever involved in the grooming and disciplining him. And this dog required a lot of discipline, at least at first. He literally destroyed the carpeting we had in our little house before he was finally house broken. That was why we changed to Parquet flooring. (I cut and placed all of the blocks, never thinking I should have used knee pads. My knees never fully recovered from that.)
Not long after we got this dog, thieves came in the night and robbed us of the large satellite disk that was located in our front yard. We had to put it there because there were too many trees everywhere else on the property. I got up one morning to go to work. When I started to put the dog out on a running wire attached to the pole to the dish, the wire was lying loose on the ground. Peering into the darkness I couldn’t believe my eyes. The entire dish was missing. Someone had backed a truck up to the yard, dismantled the dish in the night and drove off with it. Muggins, who was still in his puppy phase, never barked. There had been a light snow and the tracks of the robbers were clearly visible. There had been at least two men involved. After that, Muggins turned out to be a great watch dog. He barked at everything. For some odd reason he slept through that entire robbery, as did everybody else in the house.
As Muggins grew into adulthood something strange occurred. A stray female cat began to hang around and Muggins decided that he was in love with it. We caught him trying to mount this cat more than once. It became a joke but at the same time was something so weird it was difficult to decide what to do about it. I was having coffee at the Harvest Haus one morning and the local veterinarian came in and sat down at the table with me. He was an outspoken character and I really liked the guy. I told him what was happening with our dog and he just laughed. “Any old port in a storm,” he said. He suggested that I bring the dog to his office and get him neutered. He said it would be a quick procedure. He would keep Muggins overnight and that would be it. So that is what I did.
When I picked up the dog he was still hurting from his surgery. The minute he got in the house he hid under our bed and didn’t come out for about two days. He made it very clear that he did not like what we had done to him. I guess I didn’t blame him. After that Muggins still had some strange affection for cats, but he couldn’t remember why.
From James Donahue’s Journal
One day Doris and Jennifer got word of a woman in Caro who bred and sold thoroughbred Shih Tzu dogs and that she had a new batch of pups ready. They asked me to take them to town to look at the dogs. I was not excited about keeping a dog in our little house but took them anyway. I knew that I was not going to have any choice in the matter.
The puppies were all extremely cute, as puppies always are. As I remember they were colored as traditional Shih Tzu dogs usually appear, in black, white and grey. But there was this one “runt” of the litter. He was smaller than the others and his fur was a bright gold. Jennifer was immediately attracted to this particular dog. The decision was made. We bought it. Before we got him home he was given the name Muggins. I just called him “Dog.”
That dog turned out to be one of the most beloved pets we ever had. I think he became more my dog although he certainly belonged to the family. His attraction to me probably resulted from the fact that I was rarely if ever involved in the grooming and disciplining him. And this dog required a lot of discipline, at least at first. He literally destroyed the carpeting we had in our little house before he was finally house broken. That was why we changed to Parquet flooring. (I cut and placed all of the blocks, never thinking I should have used knee pads. My knees never fully recovered from that.)
Not long after we got this dog, thieves came in the night and robbed us of the large satellite disk that was located in our front yard. We had to put it there because there were too many trees everywhere else on the property. I got up one morning to go to work. When I started to put the dog out on a running wire attached to the pole to the dish, the wire was lying loose on the ground. Peering into the darkness I couldn’t believe my eyes. The entire dish was missing. Someone had backed a truck up to the yard, dismantled the dish in the night and drove off with it. Muggins, who was still in his puppy phase, never barked. There had been a light snow and the tracks of the robbers were clearly visible. There had been at least two men involved. After that, Muggins turned out to be a great watch dog. He barked at everything. For some odd reason he slept through that entire robbery, as did everybody else in the house.
As Muggins grew into adulthood something strange occurred. A stray female cat began to hang around and Muggins decided that he was in love with it. We caught him trying to mount this cat more than once. It became a joke but at the same time was something so weird it was difficult to decide what to do about it. I was having coffee at the Harvest Haus one morning and the local veterinarian came in and sat down at the table with me. He was an outspoken character and I really liked the guy. I told him what was happening with our dog and he just laughed. “Any old port in a storm,” he said. He suggested that I bring the dog to his office and get him neutered. He said it would be a quick procedure. He would keep Muggins overnight and that would be it. So that is what I did.
When I picked up the dog he was still hurting from his surgery. The minute he got in the house he hid under our bed and didn’t come out for about two days. He made it very clear that he did not like what we had done to him. I guess I didn’t blame him. After that Muggins still had some strange affection for cats, but he couldn’t remember why.