Bloggishness

The Dog and Me

Someone suggested I write a blog entry about the photo of my dog and me. His name is Bozley. He is a Bouvier des Flandras or Belgium Cattle Dog. In this photo, he is probably 4 years old (six now). He is the third dog of this breed that I have owned. My grandfather had one about 35 years ago. He followed that up with another of the same breed. I got my first one 20 years ago. His name was Bear and lived to be nearly 13 which is old for such big dogs (125 lbs). I had a female Bovier named Sadie. Boz is number three.

All of them have the same personality. The are large, calm, smart and very strong. I was laying on top of one once when the doorbell rang. He tossed me off like I was a rag doll. These dogs would rather sleep than fight so long as you socialize them early. Bear got in a dog fight when he was about a year old. He spent the rest of his life looking at other dogs with a "You talkin to me" attitude. Boz, my current dog, is like Gandhi. He has been attacked several times, usually by little scared dogs. He simply sits down and waits it out. It's like "If you need to feel big and strong, go ahead. I can wait until you are done." At the same time, he does draw the line when he needs to. One time, a stranger came to the house while my wife was visiting from Hungary. Boz has this spooky deep growl and bark that freezes you when you hear it. He used that on this stranger and then moved to sit in front of my wife, clearly saying, "I will not allow you to get closer to my mom than this."

Boz has a great sense of humor. He loves to hike and run but can just as easily sleep all day. Like all Bouviers, his idea of a perfect day is laying on the floor in the same room as me. If I move to another room, a couple of minutes later he will stroll in and flop down somewhere near.

In the photo of us in my port, Boz and I, along with my 16 year old son, are geocaching. If you have never heard of this, go to www.geocaching.com. It is a lot of fun.

Today I am sitting in the Denver airport. I have just gotten off of my 110th plane of the year and miles to go before I sleep.

jim