Rez Dog Redemption

I woke up this morning to find a big hole in the grass on our front lawn. Our dog, Winston, had busied himself in the wee hours of the morning by digging up an imaginary bone that he had placed there in one of his earlier days imagining himself to be a groundhog.

'Here we go,' I thought. I chalked it up onto the list of dubious, perhaps malicious, things he has done in the past: Eating four soccer balls, two volleyballs, and countless toys; destroying half of the living plants in our (and our neighbours) yard; eating all of one of our neighbours Christmas baking (which she had left on her porch in a sealed bucket? I still don't know how he did that one); eating the thanksgiving turkey of another one of our neighbour's (which she had left unattended on her deck, I still don't know why she did that?); the list goes on. To put it mildly, he's a menace. He makes the dog Marley from 'Marley and Me' look like an obedience school master and he keep us on the bottom of the Neighbour of the Year award for eternity.

We have a rez dog.

Like any rez dog, he's part Huskie, part Black Lab ... apparently. With a real rez dog you can never be sure. We speculate, and "someone once told us" that this is his geneeology. Other times, depending on the audience, he's part wolf (seems to keep people on their toes around him, which is wise). He was found as a pup, mere weeks old wandering the streets of town in early winter. We took him in.

He lives outside, like any real dog in Canada should. Yes, even in mid February for those of you that think a dog living outside is abnormal. Oh, and by the way, I've always thought it was funny that some people allow their pets in their beds, but not their kids (they put them in another room, even babies!); while others sleep with their babies in one bed and pets stay outside. Chalk that one up to culture perhaps. But I digress.

Beyond his habit of detroying plants and other people's baking, he brings assorted things home any and very time we let him off his leash, which we do rarely ... you'll see why in a sec. So far the list of things he has brought home are as follows: One very large trout (frozen); two ducks; one 5' X 7' camoflauge net; one muskrat; a bag of white skinning overals; a moose leg (font); a deer leg (rear); assorted balls and toys; and a rabbit. That's off the top of my head. There has been more.

In spite of all of his character flaws however, Winston is my running mate. He diligently trots beside me as I run and he is loyal to a fault. With the amount of bears we have in our area, it is reassuring to have him around the house 24/7. We've learned he has a nuisance bark, an alert bark and a 'take me for a run or I will destroy everything in sight' bark. He also loves pulling the kids on the dog sled.

In so many words, Winston is not unlike most people. He has some serious character flaws, or at least what most humans would call character flaws, but he is what he is and does what he does. We have found our common ground; without it no two people can get along - nevermind species.

Some days we love him, some days we hate him, but he's always there. Unless we let him off his leash anyway, then the Husky in him takes over and he's gone.

Sometimes you just gotta accept that.