From commentor Cindi:
People might think I’m nuts for rescueing a Jack Russell Terrier but once you’ve had a super smart dog it’s hard to go back to average, mine is more like a toddler than a pet, always one step ahead of me, lol.
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Jack (he came with that not so creative name) was rescued 9 years ago this November. I had lost my first Jack Russell to heart failure when she was only 8 years old and just had to have another. The rescue association waiting list in Phoenix was long…but if I was willing to drive to Tucson they had an 8 month old male nicknamed “the Heathen”. Well my impatienced trumped the fear of his nickname and Hubby and I drove down to have a look. We walked around to the back yard and this little dog comes tearing around the corner and leaps into Hubbys arms. Love at first sight and he was ours.
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He curled up and slept in my lap the entire 2 hour drive home and was an angel for the first 3 weeks….than he woke up and revealed his true crazy JRT personality but we kept him anyway ;) Now the reason he was called “the heathen” and given up (Ok, taken away) is because he, at the ripe old age of 6 months old killed a chicken in his owners backyard. Well duh. Jacks are hunting dogs and my Jack is an expert at it. So anyway, the owners tied the chicken around his little neck as punishment (some old stupid southern solution I’m told) and the neighbors saw this and took the dog away…funny the owners didn’t complain, I guess they liked chickens better. So “The Heathen” is now ours…..we don’t own chickens but twice a dove has been on the receiving end of his hunting prowess.
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He’s a great dog, makes me more active and lets me be the family Alpha…hubby unfortunately is third on the totem pole lol. Jack’s ten now and an only dog but next rescue will be a couple at a time…but probably not multiple Jack Russells…I’m crazy but not stupid!
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I’ve attached two photos, one in an unusual non active position and the second is him being natural trying to kill a basketball.
Moses2317
More good polling news for the Democrats
Winning Progressive
TrishB
Too damn cute. My sister’s standard schnauzer kills a new soccer ball once a month. It’s the cost of doing business.
Joseph Nobles
I’m going to pimp this lovely article called “Breaking Ranks” published by the National Defense University website here as well. Here’s the fun, cheery first sentence of the piece:
No, that’s not a misprint. He didn’t say “illegal.” He said “legal.”
How about another quote?
Did you miss the place in the Constitution where military officers are given advise and consent authority over legal orders? Me, too! I’m fascinated to learn otherwise!
Ash Can
@Joseph Nobles: That’s some kinda fucked up, all right. The fact that this article was published on the NDU’s web site, rather than being shitcanned and getting its author put on probation, is what’s most disturbing.
Ash Can
@Joseph Nobles: PS: Went back to the article and looked at it a little more closely. While on an emotional level I sympathize with the examples he gives — the Bush Misadministration violating the Geneva Convention and shredding habeas corpus — even a pacifist like me sees individual, subjective decisions on the part of soldiers whether or not to follow legal orders as a slippery slope to seriously bad shit.
Joseph Nobles
@Ash Can: Yingling, one of the people quoted in the article concerning Congressional abdication of their war powers, thought exactly the same thing. BTW, I should hat-tip to Digby. She linked to an article where this article was quoted. I found the original the more disturbing. I think, though, that it was Yingling who read the Milburn article and said that an American “Caesar crossing the Rubicon” moment was closer than we thought.
There’s even a great “hoocoodanode” moment right at the end of it waiting to happen. Basically it said that generals will always like being generals and will always act rationally, etc., etc., bring me a glass of rainwater or pure grain alcohol.
ETA: Yes, the examples given make me think Milburn leans to the liberal side of things, which gives me a sad. Can you imagine the immense public pressure on individual military members when a sizable portion of the public disagrees with a legal order (like the disbanding of the Iraqi military)? Can you imagine the demagoguery to overrule such a decision? Military discipline would fall apart.
drunken hausfrau
JRTs are used for rat control on farms here in England — we saw video footage of three JRTs cleaning out an infested barn last week — unbelievable! Organic — no poisons needed. The dogs get to do their “job” and the owner gets a little payment. The farmer gets a clean barn, so his cows can eat their hay in peace. It’s all good!
I think we need to find more ways to let our dogs make life better for all of us — more guide dogs, more natural pest control, more exercise for humans, more companion dogs for shutins and nursing home residents. Dogs make life better.
abo gato
Jack looks a lot like my Smarty. She is 6 1/2 now. Love, love, love my two JRTs. We finally realized that two of them are far easier than just one. They need that interaction and play that they get from each other and that as humans, we just can’t provide them. Plus, with two, they can tag team those skunks and opossums and raccoons!
Two speeds at my house, like Jack in the top photo, out completely or full speed crazy. No in betweens. On or off, that’s what you get.
bkny
these photos of doggies napping undercover crack me up.
WereBear
I’ve talked three people out of getting a JRT because they saw Moose on Frazier. Hey, I’m a fan, too, but I know what I would be getting.
Once I explained, they did, too.
JGabriel
Mo Tucker (Velvet Underground, Drummer, that’s her literally playing trash cans in Heroin) is sadly showing signs of mental illness or brain cancer.
I loved you from afar for so long, Mo, but I just can’t follow you there.
.
jcgrim
drunken hausfrau- yes! JRT’s are amazing mousers.
Stalking mice must be in their DNA. My JRT, aka Henry, has stalked and killed 5 mice (to my knowledge) hiding in my backyard stone wall. He’ll stand and stare at a crevice for hours waiting to pounce. One time he used his front paws to hold and pound a water sprinkler on the rock wall to flush out a mouse hiding in crevice of the wall.
Never trained him to hunt anything.
He is quite an escape artist, too. When he first came to us from the dog pound, I drove the neighborhood looking for him at least twice a week. I mistakenly thought a fenced yard would keep him in. Now in addition to a chain link fence, we have an invisible fence around the fence. And 2 collars- one for the invisible zapper and one for his ID tags.
He only escapes about once a month now and the neighbors all know him. JRT’s- not for the faint of heart or couch potato.
jcgrim
One other thing about JRT’s. My Henry is an excellent companion for my older, anti-social, separation anxiety, fearful dog, Henrietta. She needed a companion who cared not when she growled and snapped. He always comes back at her for more without being aggressive.
asiangrrlMN
Aw, cuuuuuuute JT! And, horrible ex-owners. Glad he’s found a great forever home with Cindi and hubby.
@JGabriel: Yeah. Instant crush-killer to me. Bagging of the tea (in the political sense) is NOT attractive!
Woodrowfan
I love all the terriers like JRTs. We had a Rat Terrier and now have a smooth Fox Terrier. They love to hunt and catch critters, are smart as hell, active, playful, loving and loyal. The fact that they’re rescues just makes having them part of the family that much sweeter.
Our Rat Terrier was being wheeled in a cart to be “put down” when the rescue group showed up and adopted him! The county shelter thought he was unadoptable because he growled when they poked him with a pencil through his cage grate. We kept him safe and loved for over 14 years… He passed away from heart failure last year and we soon got not one, but two more rescues. A dachshund/setter mix puppy from Puerto Rico and our middle-aged Fox Terrier. As I write this, the older dog is asleep between me and the couch arm, and the younger is asleep on the top of the couch behind me. (We also have 3 outdoor cats, but that’s a longer story).
I LOVE DOGS!
JAHILL10
I think hatred of basketballs must also be in terrier DNA because our Jake attacks his daily.
Dog is My Co-Pilot
I love these rescue stories. It warms my heart to know Jack found a loving home with you. We have four rescues – two golden retrievers, a Chihuahua/rat terrier mix and a Pomeranian. Quite the zoo we have around here!
wonkie
I have a corgie JRT mix. I don’t think he got the JRT brains but he got the fiestiness. I love the little muttcase but one terrierist in my life is enough. My next dog will not be a terrier.
trollhattan
Have to confess, I don’t know that I’d drive to a distant city to check out a critter named Heathen, but I’m happy to read everything turned out splendidly.
4jkb4ia
If asiangrrrlMN is still lost about watching baseball, she can get Postseason.TV on mlb.com for $9.95.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
I love these threads.
I’d never have a JRT even if my life depended on it but have endless respect for those people who can handle the breed and give them the love and kindness they deserve.
I say it all the time, funny how you don’t see this kind of stuff on Republican sites. If I look around at my red, wingnut neighbors, I also see how they treat dogs like chattel although in their defense, that’s somewhat of a rurl thing.
Ron
Given the number of people who read Balloon Juice (myself included) who have adopted animals from shelters, this story on TPM seems particularly appropriate. I think the whole Tea Party movement is nuts generally, but the idea that regulations to stop puppy mills is some liberal conspiracy boggles the mind.
Mr. Wonderful
Jeez, I just almost suffered a myocardial infarction-type event.
Not only does Jack’s face resemble, in coloring, the face of the late Cassie, my smooth-haired fox terrier, AND does his white body exactly duplicate hers, but we have exactly that set of yellow floral bed linen.
Okay, Jack has more black. But the ears, too, are the same.
Her snout was pointier.
Is it too soon (2:13 pm PDT) to start drinking?
caune
What a nice surprise to come home from a long day of work and see my Jack is now famous. He really is a good dog…for a Jack Russell Terrier ;)
Seriously if you have love to give and attention to spare (hubby works from home so he is rarely alone) than I highly recommend a JRT. Never a dull moment and as others have mentioned they keep the critter population at bay!