The New Adventures of Emo Dog and El Chupacabra

Once upon a time there were two people who didnt have a dog. They were quite happy in their dog free world until one of the people’s father decided that he was going to leave his great hairy mutt of a dog to them in his will. The two people, who’s hands were most definately forced at this point, decided to at least choose the dog that they were going to be lumbered with and raced into the first pet shop that they could find and discovered what they thought were two lovely staffy pups. Not having much to do with dogs, they didnt realise that there is a world of difference between “Staffy” and “American Staffy”. In their ignorance, they used their incredible wealth of knowledge about dogs and remembered what they had seen on the telly a few days before regarding the choosing of a pup. “Make sure to pick the pup that is interested in you”. Steve was very interested in a big boofy looking pup but the pup could care less about us. Sitting on the floor and Steve’s chosen pup took off running to check out the pet shop. The other longer legged boy was all over Steve and despite wanting the bigger boy, I suggested that he take this one, and on a hot summers day we brought him home.

This photo was taken on the day that we brought Bezial aka Emo Dog home. Steve soon grew to love him and he was his constant companion. Steve had always wanted a staffy since he arrived in Australia and he finally got one…pity it didnt stop growing and ended up weighing 37kg, somewhat more than a normal staffy!

A year later we bought him a little companion as we were going to Polytechnic and he needed something to take his mind off us not being there. We went back to the same pet shop and bought Qi, a teeny pup, half Jack Russell Terrier, half Staffy and from the moment that we brought her home she knew just who was the boss…she was!

Qi loved Bezial from the moment that she got home and followed him around constantly. Despite numerous attempts from our girls to change her into a handbag dog, she is the first to find anything dead and roll in it, and is always on the lookout for a chance to elevate herself up the pack ladder. She now rules the roost in our house in town and loves it when she gets the chance to come out and boss everyone around. She is one of those dogs who have ‘been here before’ and is the wisest and most clever of our dogs. Within a day of arriving she was tumbling in and out of the dog door despite being teeny. Steve has a very special place in his heart for Qi as Qi contracted canine cough the day after this photo was taken and he stayed up with her sleeping on him so as to make sure that she didnt feel alone…

We found out that Qi was born on exactly the same day as Bezial, a year after him. How is that for a coincidence? Again, she was the ‘reject’ dog, we seem to collect freaks, rejects and weirdo’s, that way we wont look out of place )

After my father died and we moved out to his place, we had to leave Qi behind because our daughters had become very attached to her. Emo Dog loved his new house but was becoming incredibly sulky and needy so we decided to add to our family. We didnt want to get a female as that would upset Qi so another male it was. We bought the new little fellow from a Kennel in South Australia. When he arrived, we had to drive down to Hobart to get him from the plane. We unloaded his carrier and opened it up to see the most scared and starving hungry little man around. He hadnt had much to do with people before he was tossed onto a plane and his whole world was turned upside down. It didnt take him long to realise that we were friendly and Earl arrived. He is the most cuddly and snuggly boy when he isnt maddly racing around the house, chewing on the furniture and eating plants. He has eaten his weights worth of electrical equipment and cords, twice his weight in plants. He is very selective and only eats plants that cost over $50 or that we took AGES to find or graft ourselves (and he ALWAYS chews them off below the graft….), he constantly has his nose in the compost bin and has learned to open the cupboard if its slightly ajar (thus gaining access to the compost bin…) He eats stuffed toys and grass with the greatest of joy and stands grazing on the side of the road whenever we go walking. We get the feeling that Earl didnt have a good start in life so we are making up for it now. Apart from being an alien in a dogs body, he is a lovely dog.

Its hard to reconcile this photo of a small 17 week old Earl who has evolved into the dastardly El Chupacabra!…

This photo was when he was 8 months old…he hasnt stopped growing…its all that green matter that he is constantly scoffing… You want to see what the boys are looking at?…

Meet Jacko on the left, and Pink on the right. Both boys we have now discovered and brought here by their feral mother Felix who after months of eating what we were giving her, watched us for 2 days solid and made her mind up that this was the place to bring her babies. Pink is timid, despite being much bigger than Jacko. Jacko has always been fearless and Steve had to rescue him from our deck when he decided to come visiting one night and got bailed up by Emo Dog and ever since then he has been almost tame, not quite…but almost. Pretty well fed boys means pretty well fed wrens and no chicken tail feathers floating up to us on the breeze…its worth what we pay in cat food to keep Serendipity farm in the way that the ferals have become accustomed to. We are currently working on teaching Emo Dog and El Chupacabra just who is the boss around here. They think that they already know, now they just have to teach us…