Jack Russell Story Jack Russell StoryMy Jack Russell Story:
Now some people would think that I am mean calling this cute little creature a terrorist, but then you haven’t lived with one.
The Jack Russell Terrier is the lovable little dog on the TV show Frasier (Eddy), the sweet little dog on that kids educational TV show (Wishbone), and the intelligent key getting dog in the movie the Mask (Milo). Trouble is it’s also the tough dog that keeps the postman away, that bites the neighborhood kids, and chases anything from a little field mouse to a bear.
Life with a Jack Russell is anything but dull. One minute they are the most affectionate loving little rascals and the next minute they can scare the wits of a pit bull in full attack mode.
How do I know about these little animals. My wife rescued one from the grips of the Humane Society two years ago. (But that’s another story.) When we first brought Asheleigh (yes that is the way we spell her name) home we expected some trouble, after all she had been a resident of the Humane Society twice before in her short life (she was nine or 10 months old). So when she acted up we attributed her behavior to an abused background because that’s what the veterinarian told us. Within the first three weeks of having her in our home, she managed to bite me and our son, tear apart a choke chain, destroy a thick wooden baby gate, chew the molding around our stairs, eat up the carpet, and terrorize the mailman. (We don’t get home delivery when Asheleigh is outside.)
Asheleigh (Sibyl, as her walking buddies call her because of her multiple personality’s) is an extremely intelligent dog. She is able to solve problems, like the way she figured out how to look out the front window. She gets up on the window sill and pushes the curtain aside with her paw. The only trouble is, she ruined the curtain.
She has is not allowed to eat table scrapes (a sensitive stomach, you know) so she figured that the next best thing was to get the food before we do. One day I took a tray of chicken burgers out to the BBQ. I put them on the side table, went back in the house to get something, and came out to start cooking. I thought there was something wrong when I put only two burgers on the BBQ. My wife usually makes six. Then there was the time we accidentally left a chair out by the table. Asheleigh (or the Schmoe, as I’ll call her) figured that if the chair was in close enough proximity to the table she could jump on the table and help herself.
On the other hand the Schmoe doesn’t always learn her lesson. She has this habit of climbing up on the open door of the dishwasher and cleaning the plates. Well, one day she climbed up and started to clean and managed to get her collar caught on the dishrack. Panic and freight set in and that got the dog upset too! After dislodging her collar and calming down my wife I said, “that should teach her a lesson! I don’t expect to see climb up again.” I’m still eating my words. No sooner did I finish saying that then Asheleigh was back on the dishwasher door.
And as for loyalty you will not find a more loyal companion. Last winter we took the Schmoe and some friends tobogganing to the Experimental Farm. Some how Asheleigh managed to get lose and that meant I had to catch her. As I was running her down I got blindsided by a toboggan. There I was lying in the snow, writhing in pain, my knee swollen and in distress, and my little four-legged friend came over to me, sat on my chest, and started to lick me to try and make me feel better.
So life is never dull in our house. Every time we see her we wonder what kind of marvelous adventure will Asheleigh take us on.
There are a multitude of stories about Asheleigh as any Jack Russell owner will tell, I’m going to leave you with these. If you are interested in owning a Jack see a psychiatrist first.