SHEKA
AKA Bub, Little Miss Stinky. Born 24
th Dec 2008.
Her Motto " Lots of new smells out there to explore and new people to throw
the ball."
I used to work for a man who breeds Red Kelpies (working
dogs) and his wife owned a Tenterfield Terrier. She like him so much she
decided to breed the Tenterfield terriers herself. So she got a Breeding pair
and her first litter where so cute all the staff at the catering company were
oohing and ahhing about how cute and tiny and just plain adorable the 4 of them
were. Sally (mum) and Sparky (dad) where very happy I’m sure. The 3 boys were
promised to good homes in days after the birth but the little girl wasn’t. The
big day (week 6) arrived that Sally had waited for, the boys left home and were
happy with their new parents, the little girl was still unnamed and had no
home. The Boss quietly said to all us staff that he will have to put the girl
down if no one can take it home. I wasn’t working that day but heard the girls
mention it a few days later and I went to the bosses wife and said I will have
the girl and take her home today.
So my life with a little Puppy started. I had owned a Maltese
terrier 10 years ago, but he died from a broken Jaw (kicked by a horse) and I promised
myself I wouldn’t have another pet ever, as the pain of losing him was too
great. But here I was with a Puppy.
I looked on Google to find a name to suit her and could find
none. Girl’s names, boy’s names, pet names and random names were no help. I went
to colour and found a name of the red/brown colour her patch was (to this day I
can’t remember the Colour) and shortened it and she ended up being called Sheka.
I was living by myself when I brought her home and I had no
fence on the yard so I had to keep her inside all day while I was at work. So toilet
training was impossible to start with. I tried everything Newspaper on the
floor, a litter tray and puppy pee pads. Nothing helped until I moved to a new
place with a fence and she could go outside during the day to pee. Yeah.
I was sure when I got Sheka that she would be like my Maltese
Gizmo, calm lap dog who was afraid of his shadow. But no Sheka is a hyper
active, always on the go, super quick puppy. In the beginning I taught her to
chase a ball and bring it back to calm her down. That didn’t work still hyper active.
So I had her desexed, for 24 hours she was calm and was a sit on your lap dog,
then back to hyper active again. I gave up trying to calm her down.
I remember when she was younger I had fallen down the step
at the back door and sprained both my ankles. She sat with me until I had stopped
crying and crawled into the house to bed. When my Niece call in to take me to
hospital, to see if I had broken them(they hurt a lot) she wouldn’t let my niece
get close to me. She was not overly unfriendly growing or the like but she made
it known that she was not happy with my niece being there, getting in the way
of her looking at my ankles and not being happy to see her like she normally
is. Normally she loves my niece as much as she loves me. (Used to live with us
for a year during the early puppy years.)
Sheka does not Yap like most little dogs. Mainly because I trained
her to only bark when there was a reason for it e.g. someone at the door or a
car pulling up at the front of the house. She has added to the list of things to bark at,
unexplained noises. But I let her have that one. Of course when she finds out
that the person is someone she knows, her bark changes to I’m so glad you have
come to see me, I’ll get my ball and we can play. Sheka Loves people, Any visitors
are there to see her. Pizza delivery guy to family member and door to door
sales people.
She can jump very high but is yet to understand that she can
jump higher than the fence and get out. PS the fence is 4 foot high and she
could clear it easily.
When we moved to Brisbane I was living with a family who
spoke Greek as a second language and they taught her to sit, stay, get off the
lounge, where’s the ball, etc. So I have a bilingual Dog.
Her best friend is a
red Kelpie who is 13 years old, Buzz. But he lives back in Country NSW where we
used to life. So only gets to see him 3-4 times a year now.
We moved in with 2 Nurses in March, Sheka meet the neighbours
before we did because she had them throwing the ball for her. She also taught
the girls to throw the ball when they go outside to have a smoke, (she thinks the
word smoke means go outside and throw the ball, sigh she can also understand
when the girls spell it). They don’t think its cute anymore. The door opens and
out she goes to play. Woo hoo Ball.
Nurse #1 has a cat called Meeka. Pronounced MEE KA Sheka Pronounced
SHE KA. Her affectionate name is Bub also Well we thought after a few months
that the cat and dog would become friends but no. SHEKA HATES CATS. She chases
the cat back into its master’s bedroom every time it has the nerve to be seen
moving where she is. It’s ok if she is sitting still on the lounge but the cat
moves to a better spot fair game it gets chased back to her room. Meeka will
not let the dog into its room she will arch her back, stand sideways and chase
the dog out of her room. (Now that is funny to see).
When the cat goes missing Nurse #1 asked sheka to find the
cat… Woo Hoo she thinks its ok the chase the cat because she has permission to.
She wakes me up in the middle of the night for her to go
outside to the toilet by putting her cold nose on my nose, if that doesn’t work
she will give me a kiss and if that doesn’t work lots of kisses. On her
midnight pee break she runs around the outside of the house to see that it is
possum free then pees.
She puts her cold nose under your armpit to get you to move
your arm and she sits there waiting to be patted if you do not pat she will do
it again. Don’t know how she does it but her nose always seems to be freezing
when she makes contact with human skin.
She loves to visit my mum as she lives on a Farm and there
is sooo many smells there, Chooks, peacocks, cows, kangaroos, parrots and lots
of cool things to smell and get really dirty. Reason for the name Little Miss Stinky.
Loves the smell of really stinky and rolls in it every time.
So that’s all I can think of about my little Girl Sheka. I
know she has given me 4 years of joy so far and I pray for many more years of
friendship. Next year we hope to travel Australia most Weekends and 4 weeks Holiday
at Christmas. Lots of new smells out there to explore and new people to throw
the ball. I know she can travel 3 hours to visit mum on the farm with one smell
break usually at a beach near Byron Bay or dog park near Tweed heads. So its
looking positive to happen in 2013.
A few pictures of the times I have been able to get her to
sit still. Not very often.
