Gone but not forgotten, this dog warrants a blog solely due to how she managed to make sure she made an impact during her 11 year presence in my life. And not to undermine any of my other canine companions as they were all wonderful (aren't all dogs?) and every one of them had their own unique character and brought me lots of joy. I almost wish social media was around in the Jurassic period so that I could have documented all my dogs lives as thoroughly. But dammit, Gracie was definitely one of a kind, like a snowflake. Or dog turd. So here is her story...
Pups
Like I'm sure Conan would have if he had originated from New Zealand, Gracie came from South Auckland. She was as tough and determined as Arnie's character, and had the colourful character of the place she was born. After losing my previous girl, a beautiful bull terrier cross rescue dog called Lu, I was keen on replacing her with something similar. Unfortunately I couldn't rule out that bull terrier crosses these (those) days were likely to have pitbull in them, so I started looking at Staffies instead.
My ex had other ideas and wanted a pure bull terrier, so we compromised - I got a staffy and he a BT (compromise? hmmm).
This had it's complications - firstly - two bitches - they can fight meaner than two wet panthers in a phone booth. And it's far worse than having two males. It's also worse than having two male dogs. Secondly as both breeds were bred for dog fighting, any scraps would get very nasty. Thirdly - they were the same age meaning there would be problems trying to establish who was alpha female.
Actually no - that was me, of course, but there did needed to be a top dog between the two of them.
The line was quite blurred at times, but we established that Bo seemed to be the top dog, so tried to promote that as much as possible, but sometimes it came unstuck. Normally something was the trigger for a fight, like a dug up old bone or a toy, And looking back it was mainly Gracie that would start it. They did not have too many fights in 11 years, but as predicted, they were doozies when they happened.
Dogged
Anyway, Gracie turned out to be quite a clingy girl with me where as Bo was a don't-give-a-rats-arse character. Later I realized Gracie was quite an anxious dog, and this got worse as she got older, but in the early years I misinterpreted it as devotion and didn't click that anxiety was the reason for her determination. Now I know where the word 'doggedness' came from.
The girls had a large dog run and kennel outside where they stayed when we weren't home. It was fenced with welded square mesh & concreted into the ground to prevent them digging out. Another wire above that gave it extra height.
I soon realised that this wire had to be electrified. Once Gracie found she couldn't dig or jump her way out, she proceed to eat the wooden frame of the gate until she was able to squeeze through a gap. So the gate was reinforced with corrugated iron paneling. She still managed to put holes in and bend the iron, but once I fitted bolts to the bottom of the gate, she was unable to bend it back enough to get through.
Score Linda 1 - Gracie 0.
Hunter
Gracie also had an instinct for hunting - or maybe it was just her obsession with food - I had even see her 'point' like a gun dog when she'd smelt a pheasant or something of interest in the long grass way out in the paddock. We had 12 acres, but that wasn't enough for her. She would disappear for at least a couple of hours on a hunt - normally when you were about to head out somewhere and needed to lock them up in the pen. If you were lucky you could spot her miles in the distance on some neighbours farm, nose down hunting out something edible. She never showed any interest in stock, but other farmers did not know this so I was always worried she'd end up with a bullet. She would turn up absolutely knackered, sometimes with a full belly, and often covered in mud. And inevitably I was late to wherever I was planning to go.
Score Linda 1 - Gracie 1
Farm Life
The reason I was confident that she wasn't interested in chasing stock was that we had sheep, pigs, cattle and horses, along with chickens, turkeys and ducks which the dogs ignored most of the time. That is unless it appeared to Gracie that something was going to have a go at me, then she would jump in all protective between me and the 'supposed' attacker. I always felt confident that she would protect me from anything. Yes she was anxious but not fearful of physical things, just thunder and fireworks - and being without me.
The other reason I knew she was not a sheep killer was Mary. Mary was a day old lamb I rescued in the paddock. She was nearly dead, but with a bit of TLC, a dog bed by the fire and some nightly feeds, she thrived. The girls were well behaved and accepted Mary, who grew up thinking she was a dog and didn't want to associate with her own kind. She went wherever the dogs went and ran after the ball with them when we played fetch in the paddock.
Having lots of chickens meant there were also rats. This meant baiting now and then, and no matter how well I hid and protected the bait, Gracie managed to get into the poison a couple of times. Luckily for her, both times I picked up pretty quickly that she had eaten some from the tell tale bright green bits around her mouth, so off to the vet we went. I found out the treatment, if you got it early enough, was to feed her several lumps of washing soda to make her vomit. So washing soda went on the shopping list for the inevitable 'next time' and was a damn site cheaper than another vet bill.
Score Linda 2 - Gracie 1
The Big Move
When they were 7yrs old, I changed my status to 'single' and moved to Stillwater with the two girls. I had to sort out some very secure fencing pretty quickly, and I wasn't sure how any of us would adapt to the confinements and close neighbourly proximity of suburbia. Before the fence was complete, Bo managed to bite a passing dog and Gracie managed to get herself locked up in doggy jail at the pound after she took herself off for a wander and found herself caught in a baited dog trap (yes, dog trap! What the hell sort of neighbourhood was this!). I eventually found out that it was an asshole up the road who disliked dogs and had managed to dispose of a few around the hood over the years by shooting or poisoning them (he told me this himself!), so I guess Gracie was one of the lucky ones. Needless to say that's one neighbour I don't associate with.
Living on the farm they had not had much social interaction with other dogs as they received plenty of exercise just being around home. After a few attempts at walking them around the streets of Stilly and putting up with their anti-social behaviour towards other canine friends, I resorted to taking them out at 5.30 am each morning. That lasted for a while but then my shift changed and I was not getting home until 1 am, so the walks were cancelled. They never really started up again, as I found they were quite contented mooching around the property as I was quite happy not dragging myself out of bed at 5:15
I think I won that one, so it's
Score: Linda 2 - Gracie 2
Quirkiness
She loved empty toilet rolls. I would have to put up with her popping into the bathroom while I was doing my stuff to check to see if I'd finished a roll. She also knew the sound when I changed to a new one so she would charge in to grab the empty. She'd rip the cardboard up into little pieces, then Bo would eat it all so I'd have no cleaning up to do!
She would often lay down staffy style - legs wide open, nipples to the dirt.
And licking! Ohmygosh that tongue - any hint of bare skin and she be into you like you were a melting ice cream. Her nick name was actually Likiliki (after an ex NZ Warrior player)
And she talked to me, especially at dinner time.
She also liked an occasional tipple, although this didn't last because Bo thought she'd do the same but couldn't handle her booze like Gracie, and ended up in detox. So that was it, no more beersies for them
Tails of Destruction
Gracie's determination turned to demolition in this little place. She did not like being shut in, shut out or left behind. I had a dog door installed in the garage leading to a kennel area outside where they could be when I wasn't home. The dog door had a flap that you could lock to stop them coming into the garage. My they make things flimsy these days don't they? It took less than a day for Gracie to wreck the flap and proceed to eat part of the wall lining so that she could get back in the garage. After experimenting with quite a few other block-hole-in-wall techniques, to the delight of Gracie who loved a challenge, I finally found that using 3 concrete cinder blocks stacked on top of each other worked most of the time.
Being inside in the garage was not 'inside enough' for Gracie though. She had to be in the house. So she learnt to open the door from the garage into the house. So I moved the drawers away from the door so that she couldn't get up and open it any more, but she found with the lever handle, she could just jump and flick it down, and open it anyway. So I had to resort to locking the door.
Ha! That fixed her, you say... oh but did I mention that that door had a cat door installed by previous owners? The cat door survived until Guy Fawkes night (now I'd been in the house since August, so that makes it 2 months!). On getting home from a display down the road, I found Gracie had ripped out the cat door and then made the hole bigger so that she could squeeze through, Now inside the house, she had proceeded to try and get outside to find me, so had been all over the tables & kitchen benches, chewed a window frame and deeply scratched my lovely front door. I was not a happy mother! Luckily I too had the determination of a Gracie-dog, so I used my building skills to fix a plywood plate over the holes. That lasted until the next thunderstorm...
So on went a steel plate covering the bottom half of the door. This finally did stop her breaking her way in, but if there was thunder or fireworks she would keep trying to open the door so I had to relent and let her in if I wanted some sleep that night.
Score Linda 2 - Gracie 4 (me thinks she deserves 2 points for the ongoing door re-modelling she put me through)
Garden
On to the garden. I planted fruit trees, vegetables, flowers and shrubs over the first two years. The third year I gave up wasting my money as everything got eaten, broken or trampled by the dogs. There was nothing they didn't like to eat - tomatoes, feijoas (I know right?), peaches, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, mandarins. Netting and cages were no barrier which would be no surprise to you by now. In the end I gave up wasting my money and just damage-controlled as much as I could be arsed.
Score Linda 2 - Gracie 5
Not all Bad
I have painted a pretty horrendous picture of her so far, but the reason she never got a bullet was that she was so lovable as well. Everyone adored her, she was great with the kids and extremely devoted and protective of me. Most of the time her & Bo got on really well and they were great company for each other. She gave us all a lot of laughs and wonderful memories.
Yes, I'm talking in the past tense. I did mentioned at the start that she's gone. Little Gracie did push me too far in the end and sadly I made the tough decision to get her put down. She started fighting with Bo for unknown reasons so it made it impossible for me to mitigate it, and the stress of the fights and vet bills finally wore me down. Her ashes are now in the garden under a new camellia bush which she can never wreck (yuss!).
I miss her dearly, as does Bo, and writing this brings a tear to my eye, but it has been great documenting her life and knowing I can come back and read this from time to time to laugh and shake my head as to how the fuck I could I have been so tolerant for all those years.
Score Linda 3 - Gracie 5
Yes, even though I did literally have the final say, and should be claiming victory, I concede to Gracie. She managed to scar me (and Bo and the house and the garden) for life and leave a lasting impression on others as well, but in a good way most of the time. Below are some fun shots of her, and the very last photo is the final one I took of her, a few days before she left us. A gracious old lady. RIP Gracie xxx
brb
Footnote - writing this I found a lot of funny Bo bits, so she will eventually get a little blog as well.