Through the Eyes of Love

TRex ... my crazy little nutjob TRex.     I was thinking this morning why in the world everyone in our group is so crazy about this boy?     Kati told me yesterday at the adoption event that we need to have TRex fan club.   Elisa practically jumps for joy any time I post a new silly pic of him, Virginia has always loved this tubby min pin, Lesa always cracks up at any story I tell her about TRex, and Nicole always comments about how she relates to his craziness so they have a bond.  :)

TRex is a little bit of a loose cannon.   He has very strict boundaries and should another person or dog cross them, he's pretty much pissed for life.    Yesterday a female dog sniffed TRex's private parts and he was FURIOUS.   Any time he even got a glimpse of her he'd growl and bark and act like he wanted to attack her.    Even if she were 4 yards away!   And the thing about TRex, he has a solid memory.    If he runs into this dog in a month - he will still be holding that grudge!   There was a dog in our group named Dave and I don't know what Dave did to TRex, but man did he ever hate that dog.    It was excruciatingly stressful being at the same events together!    Thank goodness, Dave was adopted by his foster Mom and I don't have to plan TRex's attendance based on Dave's presence anymore.

Tina's Mine ALL Mine

TRex's opinion of other dogs can never be predicted.    He is an equal opportunity hater - seniors, adults, puppies, males, females, you name it.     Once I had a couple of  female poodles that I was fostering who were basically twins and he hated one and loved the other.   Right now, he LOVES Tina but he doesn't like Suzie too much.   Tina doesn't like TRex and growls at him if he gets near her, but Suzie seems to be enthralled with him.    She reminds me of how some of us human chicks would act towards a bad boy biker dude.    She can't keep her eyes off of him, she keeps trying to get his attention and she always perks up when he's doing any one of his TRex stunts.   But ... being the perfect bad boy he won't give her the time of day - he instead pursues the one that's hard to get.  :)  AND you'd think he'd get mad when Tina growls at him, but he doesn't care and just keeps trying to get her to love him.

Cooper is in his Sights

TRex HATES our dog Cooper. No matter what Cooper does or doesn't do.    TRex simply has to hear the jingle jingle jingling of Cooper's tags and he goes ballistic. He won't even see him, but he'll hear those tags and get so angry I think he's literally seeing red.    (If you've seen any of TRex's "devil eye" pictures I don't think you'll disagree.  If we're in bed at night and TRex hears the jingle and another dog happens to touch him, he goes nuts. I have to then convince TRex that Cooper is not trying to attack him through the covers.

Snarly Nose Galore!!

TRex has an issue with strangers, especially men.     And even once they're no longer strangers, he still gets mad at them.    My nephew, Tristan, has stayed the night plenty of times and he just LOVES TRex.   TRex, though, has to be obnoxious to my nephew every time he sees him.    Let's say Tristan spends the night on a Saturday.   All day Saturday TRex will bark at Tristan if he moves, but he will allow him to pet him and love him.    As long as Tristan sits still, all is good with the world.   But if Tristan should try to get up and walk across the room you'd think TRex had just encountered a burglar.   By the end of the day, TRex thinks Tristan is great and might even sleep with him for a while.   Then, he'll come to my room and we'll all wake up the next morning.   You'd think TRex would still love Tristan - but, NO!!  We start the process all over again.

TRex has been adopted ONCE and he was returned the next morning.    Because once the people left the living room, he apparently wouldn't let them back in with his ferocious growling.   TRex has NEVER displayed that behavior in my house but for some reason it didn't surprise me.    In the almost two years I've had him, nobody has ever been seriously interested in him - except a family with a baby.   I knew right away that wouldn't be a good fit.   Can you imagine if the kid was playing with a set of keys and TRex remembered the jingle jingle jingling of Cooper's tags???
We have all sorts of ways to calm TRex down.    JTK's favorite is what he calls "Treating him like a parrot."   If TRex is too annoying or angry, we just get a cover and throw it over him.    He just completely settles down and shuts up - it's magic!   It's like he has a reverse invisibility cloak over him.  :)    Another way is to rub both of his ear tips at once.   This is a dog whisperer trick and the only dog it's ever worked on is Rex.   And one of TRex's favorite things in this world is to have his butt rubbed.   I tell you he could be in the middle or thinking about attacking another dog and one butt rub, and he's jelly in your hands.

Speaking of jelly, it's impossible to have anything to snack on in the car if TRex is out of a crate.    He has laser focus when it comes to food and ninja skills to swipe it from any unsuspecting human.   Yesterday on the way to the adoption event, we stopped at BK and I even bought TRex his own breakfast sandwhich and he still was after ours like an insane man.    Why don't I put him in a crate for the ride?   ::sigh::  Because the poor guy gets himself so worked up into a frenzy in a crate, I honestly think he might hurt himself.    He's already a little nutty - put him in a crate and he becomes a nut with superpowers.

JTK computing and rubbing TRex's belly at the same time

And last but not least TRex is NEEDY NEEDY NEEDY.    If I let him, he'd spend his entire day lying on my chest - blocking every view I have so I can only see and adore him.    He has to always be touched constantly by me.    When I'm driving and he's in the car, he has to be on my left leg,  tucked under my left arm while it's on the steering wheel so I'm pretty much hugging him the entire car ride.     One of my friends in the group, Virginia, loves minpins and always counsels me on their mental challenges.  :)   In her opinion, the only way a minpin would be truly happy in regards to the object of their affection is if they could just crawl inside their human's mouth and live inside their body.    I think she's right!  JTK and I have both learned how to do many things with only one hand - it's literally like having a newborn baby in the house that never grows up.    TRex can never be close enough to me or Joey and some days it is exhausting, annoying and infuriating!

Ok, with all that being said -   Why in the world do so  many of my friends just love him beyond belief?   Because I do, and no matter what I say about him or write about him - it's done through the eyes of love.  This crazy little dog who is clearly not the "perfect" dog has totally wormed his way into our lives and our home.    I'm in the process of figuring out how to afford adopting him.  I don't think I could let him go at this point even though it would make our house quieter and more calm.   But you know what, it would be a lot more lonely without him around.   TRex is a misfit, he doesn't quite fit into what is considered normal.   But if given the chance, he can love deeply and is staunchly loyal.    Maybe TRex reminds us all a little bit of ourselves.   

Jingle is TRex's Surrogate Mommy