Lincoln’s behavior was out of control.

He flunked obedience school.

He was an escape artist and runner with every chance he got.

Only certain groomers would take him on because if they dared touch his face or his feet, it was war!

We could usually find one brave groomer who’d welcomed the challenge.

But, sometimes his first visit was also his last.

Once a groomer was sent home because…..well, we warned her to be careful around his face and feet, we even suggested she might muzzle him…..I guess she didn’t take us serious.  

He bit her and the bite mark drew blood.

It wasn’t a deep bite, it was superficial but she got sent home just the same, and that bite cost us a rather large tip!

All that being said…..honest, he wasn’t a mean dog or a dangerous dog he was just a dog with a mind of his own, that’s all.

And, he was a very funny dog.

Another time he’d grumble and bite is when he’d get locked out of the house (on purpose.)

Big family gatherings were his favorite when there were plates of food everywhere.

Chips, dips, meats, cheeses whatever he could reach or quickly snatch out of someone’s hands and eat on the run, oh he loved family gatherings.

Sometimes he just got too aggressive, he’d jump up on the sofa and bulldoze over and on top of people to get to someone’s plate so, sometimes we’d lock him out of the house.  

He KNEW when that was about to happen and he’d put on the skids and refuse to move. 

We’d drag him through the house, through the laundry room and into the garage but, there was a trick here that every family member knew.

The trick was to get him into the garage and shut the laundry room door BEFORE he could grab your foot and try to pull YOU into the garage so he could again run into the house.

Along with this tug-of-war, he grumbled loudly.

I mean loud and long grumbling as he tugged.

Sometimes I swear I could make out some crabby words in that grumbling.

The fridge that held all the liquid refreshments was in the garage so it was a constant sound of the door opening and someone yelling “LINCOLNNNNNN” and then slamming the door.

He kept us on our feet, so the day he crawled under the coffee table and seemed to just be sleeping under there all day, we just enjoyed the quiet.  

The next morning, he was still there.

Something was wrong.

I coaxed him out.

He was lethargic, NOT like Lincoln at all.

I began to examine him, touch him and try to figure out, “what the heck?”

And then I found it…..two fang marks under his neck with dried blood.  Linkie had been bit by a rattlesnake!

The Vet agreed, it was a rattlesnake bite.  

He explained the difference between being bit by an adult v/s a baby rattler and was pretty sure this was an adult, not hungry or threatened just a warning bite to leave it alone.

You can guess how horrible we felt.  Poor Linkie.  

The Vet called him a tank.  Said he could eat pebbles and be fine.

It took him a few more days to recover and return to his energy-filled self.

A few mornings later, as Lobo was walking out the door for work, there it was…..the culprit.  

Curled up sleeping in the corner by our front door.

You may not like or agree with this part but I hate and fear snakes.  We’ve found that hornet spray stuns them long enough to do whatever you’re gonna do with them before they regain their sight and get ready to attack.

So, with the hornet spray and a sharp shovel, that snake was never gonna bite another curious furry friend.

Owners of Terriers promised that 3 years was the magic number but, sometimes we wondered if we could hang on that long.

He was still a puppy with lots of energy.

We decided he was probably bored and lonely and needed a pal.

We were advised by our Vet NOT to get another Terrier and NOT to get a male.

We found LooLoo in the next city over.  

Actually just like Lincoln, we had chosen a cute little girl Labradoodle but at the final moment just before it was a deal, we decided maybe we should take the little one that was trying so hard to get our attention.

LooLoo turned out to be such a sweet love that often over the years I wished we’d brought both her and her sister home with us.

LooLoo was named before we ever knew her because of a story Michelle a friend of ours, told us about her very funny friend named LuLu.  

Lincoln was happy to have this little fur-ball to play with but he was rough.  

It worried us.  

She was smaller than him.  

I was afraid to leave them alone all day while we worked so we made her a “fort” in the garage with fencing where he couldn’t get to her.

It was only a matter of weeks before LooLoo became bigger than Lincoln and it was obvious to us she’d figured him out and she could handle herself.

LooLoo allowed Lincoln to be the boss but in truth, she could take him down real easy.

She put up with his antics, played his games but if he pushed her too far, she let him know and oh did that challenge light his fire!

LooLoo was exactly who we were looking for and from their beginning, the two of them were inseparable.

He DID influence her from time to time to get into some trouble.  Once while living up on a hill in San Diego, the two of them hopped the brick fence in the backyard and ran down the hill to the house below us.  

LooLoo realized this was NOT the thing to do and hurried back up the hill. 

She couldn’t jump back into the yard but she stood up and looked over the fence til we noticed her back there.

Lincoln?

He had conned the people into letting him in their house.

AND…he was looking for food, I’m sure!

The little lady who lived there was standing in her yard, looking our way waving a towel.

“He’s here, he’s here.”

We had a little talk with them.

LooLoo never left the yard again.

Lincoln?

EVERY chance he got!

There was a big dog park not too far from our home.

We thought it might be fun for them to run and roam free.

LooLoo would go just a bit and then run back to us.

Lincoln?

The moment we got inside the park, took his leash off…..he was gone.

We walked the perimeter of the park which took maybe 10 minutes and in that time, we’d see flashes of Lincoln going from one spot to another, like lightning bolts, creating havoc with as many of the dogs as he could.  

He was never interested in the smaller dogs but the ones twice his size?  

He antagonized them…jumped on them, pushed them til they finally looked at the little twerp and chased him for a bit.  

THAT’S what he was after…..a good chase!

We always held our breath when we saw a circle of big dogs because we KNEW that right smack in the middle of that circle was gonna be Lincoln and there he always was.

Leaving the dog park was another story.

Lincoln would play his catch-me-if-you-can game.

Never once in all the times we visited that park were just the two of us able to leash him to get out of there.  

It always took a little posse of other dog owners to grab him when he wasn’t looking.

That was Lincoln!