Dont Mince Words

The challenge with any rescue dog is not knowing its history.  With Dixie, I’ve taken it very slowly and carefully and continue to learn what she likes and dislikes.

Men are on a case-by-case basis.  She’s size and race agnostic, but if a man has a hat, goatee, and/or sunglasses, the low volume growl begins.  With frequent visits, she eventually converts and tolerates the man.  Kind of like me.

Women she categorically likes and is not threatened by as long as there are no sunglasses involved.  That was until she met her first asian accountant.  I don’t know if it was the eyes, the straight black hair, or if she just hated the smell of straight line depreciation, but Dixie no likey.

Despite all this, I continue my love affair with Miss Dixie.  We keep the lines of communication open and take it one day at a time.  And now I know my Chinese will have to be carry out and not delivery.

I promise I won’t turn into a mommy blogger or a new mom who thinks she’s got the best baby on earth.  But until I date again, all I can do is sing the praises of my new rescue dog.

Dixie showed up as a stray at a SoCal shelter with pink toenail polish on.  That’s a sure sign she was living with a family or with a tweaker that wanted something to do.  She walks beside my knee on leash.  She always craps next to the curb.  She sits.  She lays.  She goes down when another dog approaches.

I knew Dixie was an alpha female the first time I took her to the beach.  I wanted to believe she was just socially awkward, but when I watched her play, she was the four-legged version of a bull-dyke field hockey player.  This was confirmed when she stopped squatting like a dainty lady to pee and backed up to telephone polls and squirted.  She enjoyed marking over the leg-cocking boys and making her own urine graffiti.

Friday I took her to get evaluated for doggie daycare.  I told them she was three, high energy, and liked to play rough, but I didn’t think she was aggressive.  She just needed to pick her playmates wisely.  After testing her two hours, she was approved to join the team.

Now I wait and see how many days before she’s fouled and put on the sidelines.  Even good babies have their bad days.

The other day I was searching on OKCupid.   There were six men between the ages of 37 and 60 that were my height or taller, held master’s degrees, and lived within 50 miles of me.  I’m serious.  Six men.  I decided I had better luck at finding love on Petfinder and adopted a three-year old american bulldog/boxer mix from my old rescue in Los Angeles.

After a Facebook dog-naming contest amongst my friends, we decided to pay homage to the late, great Tex by naming this girl after a region and getting an “X” in her name.  We settled with Dixie.  I wasn’t sure the name was the right one until I stopped in Petco with her on the way home and said “Hey Dix, come here.”  I’ve been saying “hey dicks, come here” for years now, so I kept the name.

We have spent the weekend bonding and she is settling in nicely.  At least a dozen guys have told me I have a “nice dog” this weekend.  Welcome, Dixie, you are my new dick magnet.