Pit bull – Tucker

Hi everyone, Tucker’s my name, being the best boy ever is my game. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I was what you call a “stray.” I don’t really know what that means, but I do know I spent a lot of time wandering around and my belly was pretty empty. I got picked up in rural Kansas and taken to a place with lots of cages and other dogs. (Now, I know what you’re thinking, places like Wayside Waifs and GPSPCA are really pretty nice …… well, so I’ve heard. I was kind of at the Motel 6 of dog shelters. No offense to them, I know they were doing what they could with the money they had.) When MABBR heard about my “situation” they reached out to find an emergency foster mom and drove 8 hours on a Saturday to save me.

After the long car ride I met my foster mom and her dog — who, to be honest, is a little bit of a pipsqueak. He’s about one-third my size but makes no bones about who is the boss of the house. I let him bark and growl at me if he thinks I’m too close to his favorite toys. How would I know which ones are his favorites? It’s not like they have his name on them. When he has his little tantrums I just walk away from him and find something else to play with.

Mom seems to be kind of routine-oriented which is great because that means I always know when dinner time is! I have a big crate in the family room right in front of the big window so I can keep an. eye on the neighborhood. I’ve only found one thing to bark at — the garbage truck. That thing is huge! And it makes a lot of noise. Luckily it only comes once a week. I don’t spend much time in my crate, I just sleep there during the night and mom puts me in there if she is going somewhere that I can’t go. Oh, and I do eat in there. That’s because pipsqueak tries to steal my food.

We’ve been going for a lots of car rides and mom says I am an excellent car rider. I don’t try to get in the front seat like some dogs. I hop right in and take my spot in back and look out the window. Just be careful when I’m getting out and make sure you have my leash so I don’t see something and bolt after it — like a squirrel. Those suckers are fast, but I know I am going to catch one one eventually.

We’ve also been going for nice walks. I am a great leash walker! I get a little excited if I see a squirrel or rabbit. A guy’s gotta dream. We pass a lot of dogs in their yards and they bark at me. I don’t say anything back — it’s just a lot of noise. I haven’t been super up close to any dogs on our walks but I’ve been by people and was a pawfect gentleman.

I don’t really like those hard toys much. I prefer stuffed toys and I just got a brand new rope toy. I’m a master at tug-of-war. Speaking of new toys, mom took me to this magical place where they only have things for dogs. Well, I think they have things for cattos too, but who cares? It was very hard, but I was such a good boy! Lots of people wanted to pet me and I loved it. (Ahem, well, there was the bone I stole from a really low shelf that I ate before we got to the check-out line which mom says is called shoplifting, but how’s a guy to know? They shouldn’t put that stuff down so low. And, I did knock a few things off a low shelf also. Mom said that’s called being a bull in a china shop. And, well, I did put my paws on the counter when she was trying to pay. Mom says that is called counter-surfing. But, really, OVERALL, it was a successful trip. And pipsqueak had to stay home. Just me and mom got to go there. I hope we go back soon!

Oh, I had another great field trip to a place where there’s water and noisy things with air that they floof your hair with. Mom says that was because I stunk and needed pawfessional help. The girls there said I was a very good boy.

Can I tell you how much I love the yard? It’s so much fun to be out there because there are woods behind the house and there are always birds or other small varmits running around. Mom always watches me though. She says she doesn’t trust me not to hop over the fence. I haven’t told her yet, but of course I know I can do that. Keep that a secret.

There was this one little incident I got scolded for. When she went in the room where the water is she left this other door open and it looked to me like these things called “shoes” were dog toys. And there were so many! I thought it was like the auxiliary dog toy closet. So I apparently got the brand new shoes she bought really recently — like a week ago she told me — and I sort of made them into what we would call a different style of shoe. “Shoes by Tucker” I call them. Not sure what the demand will be, but I’m working on a marketing plan. (Mom really has too many shoes anyway, I was just trying to help.)

Mom says we have to start working on commands like sit and come and stay — stuff like that. Kind of sounds like a drag, but I’ll give it a try.

We snuggle on the couch every night and do this thing called “binge Netflix.” I sit on one side of Mom and pipsqueak on the other. I usually hit the crate about 10:30 or 11 for the night. Then we’re up at 6:30. I keep quiet during the night because I know how important everyone’s sleep is. I can’t imagine how grumpy pipsqueak would be if he didn’t get his sleep. So that’s me, Tucker.