The thing that Linkie loved more than anything else in the world was FOOD!

Linkie loved to eat.

He was never full, never EVER had enough to eat.

And we never understood.

There was no way he could actually enjoy his food.  

He didn’t chew, he just swallowed.  

In his mouth…..down his throat…..no in between!

But that poor buggar was always hungry.

So bad we wanted to just let him go at it and eat til he passed out on the floor. 

But over-eating didn’t help.  

He was still hungry plus he began to weigh too much.

He had a thing going on with LooLoo who didn’t really care about eating.

They ate together on different kitchen rugs every day at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Within two minutes after he started eating…..he was done.

LooLoo would still be goin’ at it real slow.

Linkie would then stand on LooLoo’s eatin’ rug, lower his head almost into her food bowl, send subliminal messages and just wait.

She never cleaned her plate and when she walked away, within seconds, her bowl was empty and looked like it had been through the dishwasher.

He also loved going for family visits.  

He knew right where the dog food bowls were and in seconds anything that had food in it, didn’t anymore.

Poor Linkie, always hungry.

We were religious about his eating times because we KNEW how hungry he always was and he seemed to exist for for 8 A.M. and 4 P.M.  

No matter where we went, we made sure we were home to feed him by 4.

Often it made a problem but, for Linkie…..we were always home on time to feed him and he was always waiting nervously, anxiously at the door, maybe worried we weren’t gonna show but, we always did!

Besides his two times a day meals, he had timed treats.  

He could only go so long without a treat.  

He’d find us and do butt slams.  

When he wanted treats, he’d come up against the side of our legs and begin body slamming us with his back side.  

If we happened to be watching TV and didn’t respond, he’d butt slam the footstool til our legs almost fell off.

If that didn’t work, he’d butt slam LooLoo.

He knew we didn’t like him to do that to her.

Eventually he got his treat.

He knew the last treat of the night was gonna be right about 7 p.m.

He butt slammed til we got up, enjoyed his treat and then went to bed.

Something else he ate was two Hummingbirds!

I had Hummingbird feeders on our patio.  

They were hanging eye level so we could enjoy them as we sat outside.

Twice Lincoln came out of nowhere like a bullet, high-jumped and ate my sweet, TRUSTING Hummingbirds.

I screamed, I grabbed him, I TRIED to pry his mouth open but even  The Jaws Of Life wouldn’t have worked.  

I pounded on him…..nothing.

The feathers disappeared as he kept swallowing.  

For a moment…..I hated him!

He was banned from the patio.

Never to step foot on it again…..NEVER! 

He may have flunked Obedience School but he KNEW what I was saying when I took him to the edge of the patio and warned him if he ever stepped foot on that patio again…..he would never get his breakfast or dinner ever again…..EVER!!

So, for the rest of the time we lived in the condo with the outside patio-porch, Lincoln would let his long toenails extend past the living room carpet but they never touched the patio floor.

He wasn’t only a bird killer…..he killed the squeakers in toys and he was a game killer.

I’m guessing this isn’t anything unique to Lincoln but it still bears mentioning.

He could remove a dog-toy squeaker with his sharp teeth as if a surgical instrument had been used.  

The moment the toy was in his mouth, he found the squeaker and in mere seconds, he’d make a tiny incision and remove the squeaker.  

He’d lay the toy and the squeaker side by side on the floor and move on to something else.

We’re sure he was a Guinness World Book record breaker when it came to removing squeakers.

Lincoln never learned how to play with a ball.  

He didn’t understand what a ball was for other than to steal from LooLoo at his first opportunity and then chew it until it wasn’t a ball anymore.

LooLoo is part Lab and that part loved playing ball.  

She adored all her tennis balls and often slept with them in her mouth.

Lincoln would watch her run after a ball when we threw it, he’d run alongside of her but he never mastered the fact that he was suppose to catch it.

Instead, he’d wait for the one time she’d miss the ball then he was there in a flash and grabbed the ball…..game over!

But his most favorite game was the find-LooLoo’s-tennis-balls game.  

Lincoln loved looking for things.  

LooLoo has a good two dozen tennis balls all over the house.

She likes some better than others.

They all look the same to me but she has favorites.

Every now and then she’d paw at one of us while we were sitting on the sofa and we knew she was asking us to help her find a particular tennis ball.

We’d get the flashlight and soon as Linkie saw that, he knew we were going on our knees to look under the sofa.

For some goofy reason, he loved looking under the sofa with us.  

He’d squiggle in between us, head down and shoved under the sofa and butt up high with that little nub of a tail wagging insanely fast. 

Linkie loved looking under the sofa.

Beginning when he was just a puppy, he had allergies, horrible, horrible allergies.

 It wasn’t just sniffling, sneezing allergies…..it was horrible raw, red oozing between his little toes allergies.

He’d lick his toes and then in no time it would develop into a nasty yeast infection.

He took two pills every day for the allergies.

The cost varied between $100 to $200 a month.  

Do the math….$200 a month for 12 months a year for over 13 years.  

I don’t want to know!!!

That wasn’t the end of it, there was much more including antibiotics and steroids.

There was always something going on medically with Linkie, so many weird things.  

I’m fairly certain we paid enough to all the vets over the years that they drove luxury cars thanks to Linkie.

Often I felt like standing outside the Vets office with a cardboard sign that said….WILL WORK FOR VET BILLS!

Bobfone dubbed him THE MOST EXPENSIVE DOG IN THE WORLD!

But…..we’d do it all again!

(more to come)