Nuisance the wee dog

Shortly after the death of our cat, Lugs, last year in early October, a wee dog decided to mosey on up to our house to say “hello”.
This was her very first visit.

She wasn’t a complete stranger as she had spent the past few years visiting Ruby in the Orchard whilst she was thinning or pruning trees, during the months of Winter and Spring.
She rested against a hydralada wheel which made it difficult for Ruby when she had to move to the next tree. Often Ruby had to hop down off the hydralada to physically move the dog from the wheel.

Of course the wee dog would then wander up to the new position of the hydralada and slump down on the wheel. All rather comical but Ruby, who has the patience of a saint, thought it was no big deal.

 As this dog refused to listen to commands, trying to get her to go home was futile.
Sadly this silly little dog loved the road so if she wasn’t visiting Ruby there was every chance she would be on the road and the sound of the vehicles blaring their horns was always the indicator she was on the road.  So many near misses!
We named her Nuisance after her first visit to our home because that is what she became!

Lugs, our territorial cat would have given her the hiding of her life if she had the audacity to enter our home when she was alive.
Many a confident cat, found themselves limping out the gate licking their wounds after an encounter with her.
Furthermore Lugs had no fear of dogs, the bigger the better!  She even took on Pat the Pig Dog….the most kindest dog you could ever imagine. His crime being, sitting on the deck beside his owner.
I can still hear poor Pat yelping!

Nuisance’s first visit was most memorable.
She raced into our sunroom, leapt on the back of the couch directly behind a visitor who naturally assumed she was our dog.
She quickly leapt off, did a lap of the house and was gone.
I assumed this was a one off.
I was so wrong!

The next day she decided Ruby’s pet chook needed a scare so she jumped up and down on her cage, scaring the daylights out of her whilst barking uncontrollably.
I remembered at that precise moment a Policeman friend telling me many years prior, how he cured a nuisance neighbourhood dog of scaring his cats, a good squirt of the hose was all that was required. Of course this very day the hose wasn’t connected and I didn’t dare leave Dixie Chick’s side.
Eventually Nuisance gave up and disappeared.
But a few days later she was back.
It was raining heavily and this muddy dog leapt on my white duvet and velvet quilt.
What a mess!

Belle thought it was funny as Nuisance had leapt on her on the way to my room.  Her artwork was ruined but it didn’t worry her. It was Belle’s smile that made me laugh at how ridiculous the whole situation was and I didn’t mind chucking the bedding into the washing machine.   Worth it to see Belle have such another happy experience, as loosing Lugs was traumatising for me. 

The next day I was folding washing in the sunroom and she raced in, jumped up on the workstation in the kitchen, grabbed the chicken breast thawing under a piece of greaseproof paper and sped out the door.
By the time I got outside to tell her “not to come back” in obviously a polite way, she was well and truly gone, and so was Sam’s dinner!
A few days later, at 4am I found her asleep on the couch on the deck.
She wasn’t there when I closed the curtains at 11pm the previous night!
She looked up at me with a look of “what’s for breakfast?”.
This was probably the only time she listened to me as I yelled, “go home” into the calm of the morning.  She went rather hurriedly.
The neighbours farm dogs actually heard me shriek and started barking…….oops!!

Oh and did I mention when she leapt up onto the kitchen table and drank out of Belle’s cereal bowl….Oh my giddy Aunt….how did we survive this invasion!!
We endured many more fleeting daytime visits….Ruby, Belle and I…..never knew when she would pop in.

She was such a crazy dog with not an ounce of common sense.
One good thing came out of this saga…..Ruby was cured of ever wanting a wee dog as she was definitely leaning towards the idea before the arrival of Nuisance.

Nuisance finally left us alone early November, fairly sure she found another family to temporarily harass as for a couple of weeks after her departure we would hear her being called for, usually late afternoon and often well into the evening.
We always smiled as we knew that little Nuisance wasn’t our problem anymore.
But to be honest I did think it was a bit late for them to worry about their dog after it had wreaked havoc on our lives for many weeks.
Did they ever wonder where she was?

How very lucky they were to have her find us; animal lovers; and not folk who could have been less tolerant.
Her visits to Ruby in the Orchard are ongoing but that’s fine, as long as she never turns up here at the house again.
Just way too exhausting!
But then again if she needs a sanctuary again in life, we are probably the best place to choose as she will come to no harm.

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