Thank You Jada

(Picture is of Jada and Lucas Sept. 2009- Sorry Lucas :-) You were too cute!)

I have a beautiful well-behaved, obedient (depending on who you ask), and protective boxer lab dog named Jada. I was searching for a dog with all of her qualities and found her in 2001 at the Monmouth pound when she was only four months old. Under pressure from my Grandfather and my fiance at the time, (Ted), I needed a dog to run with during my late night runs and while I lived alone in college. I needed a protective and energetic dog. I have a preference for labs and for boxers so the mix was certainly a perfect fit. The man at the pound called me after I left him a message to tell me that I had described the perfect sweet little feisty puppy he had. She was a little girl. She had a brother, but they had to split them up because they fought too much. He apparently beat her up bad enough that she was quite a flincher and coward at times. She has never gotten along well with other dogs since then. Also he informed me that they had found her and her brother along a road next to their mother who had been hit by a car when they were much smaller. When I went to meet her she ran like a wild nut wagging her whole butt, not her tail (because she didn't have one). Her tail had already been docked. She has always wagged her whole butt or lower half of her body when she gets excited. Her little nub wags. She hasn't changed since our first meeting. She was so excited, but as soon as she saw the cats in the cages in the front of the pound she started to shake and she dropped down almost completely to the floor. She is terrified of cats! I can't blame her, I just can't get too fond of cats myself. She almost climbed up my body to get away from them. I said, "I'll take her, I love her, she is hyper and shy- just like me, she is instantly devoted and instantly terrified of unreasonable things-just like me!" I remember laughing at her running and jumping all over place. To say that Jada was insane would be to say that I am insane....I AM INSANE! But, I have never met a dog more in tune with human emotions and more dedicated to her family.


She only has met two dogs that she hasn't tried to kill: Ozzie, my Grandmothers dog; and Aspen, his brother, who is my mothers dog. She grew up with them from when she was a puppy and with Ozzie being submissive they quickly became best friends. To this day, if you say "Ozzie" she flips out, whines and runs to the door hoping you mean that we will be going back to Grandma's to see Ozzie. When she was little Aspen and her kept their distance because they are both dominate dogs, but now they respect each other enough that they never hurt or fight with the other.


We don't let Grant go outside without Jada, and I usually sit on the deck while they play. Grant was sitting in the hammock swing below the deck when Jada took off and all I heard was Jada attack. I heard another dog barking and howling in pain. As I was taking off down the stairs, Grant passed me coming up, screaming and crying for his dog. I was less concerned for Jada than I was for this stupid other dog that walked right up to Grant in our yard. The dog was much larger than Jada, but she has something in her blood that would never let her stop defending her boy, (Grant or Jake), until the animal was dead. I had to do something or the boys were going to see their dog kill this other dog right in front of them. There wasn't anyone else to take the boys off the deck and inside so they would stop watching the attack. So I grabbed a giant tree branch, and stuck it right in between the two dogs. It gave the other dog a chance to run and as it ran I threw the branch and dived forward to grab Jada as she began to go toward the dog again. The strength Jada has is unbelievable. I saw blood and skin with fur attached to it on the cement but quickly realized it wasn't hers. She quickly ran up the stairs in a panic to find Grant. At first Grant was scared. He didn't understand why she wanted to be so close to him. I explained that she was worried and that the whole thing started because she was so worried about his safety. Grant told me he was just swinging in the chair when he felt a soft fur rub up against him and then the dog was right in front of him, but Jada attacked the dog really fast so he didn't see much of the dog before he started to run up the stairs.


Grant helped me wipe Jada down to make sure she wasn't bleeding. I checked her all over. The only thing was her toenails....they were gone! Since she was on cement when she attacked this dog, she was using her toenails for grip and leverage. I only found one spot with blood on her entire body and it was on one toenail where the toenail was bleeding. I filed them down to make them less jagged and so they wouldn't get caught in the carpet. She was so exhausted she just laid there while I did it. Normally she flips out if anyone tries to touch her toenails!


Grant wanted to know why Jada always tries to kill dogs she doesn't know when they get near him. I explained it like this,


If we were standing in the house and you were playing, and a man walked in and walked right over to you and I didn't know him....your Daddy and I would attack him. Jada sees the yard and the house and you the same way we do. But, to her, other dogs are like strangers are to us. No strangers better ever touch you, or they will feel just as bad as that dog did as it ran away crying...or maybe even worse!


This isn't the first time that Jada has attacked someone for walking into the yard or the house uninvited. I adopted her to do just that. Sorry if that seems harsh. You would have to understand my history to appreciate that concept. She has protected me and my family for years. She is a dog and they can be unpredictable. I don't allow the boys to corner her or lay on her or get in her face while she is eating. I read her body language well and can tell when she needs her space. Interesting, she seems just like the rest of us... Jake isn't old enough yet to be trusted to treat her nice enough, so I don't let him play with her or bother her.


I have been feeling guilty lately. I sometimes feel I let her down. I look into her eyes and she looks so sad. She doesn't get walks, she sleeps almost all day, she seems so bored, maybe even depressed. I think I should thank her for all that she has done for me in the last nine years. Through running, living alone, moving various times, depression, her being my only companion so many nights when Ted was at the academy and I was sick and pregnant, the times it felt as if she was hugging me after we lost the baby, the constant presence in my life who is ALWAYS happy to see me....I love Jada like a guardian angel. I don't want to look back someday and think, I wish I would have given her more walks, hugs, treats, Frisbee tosses, swims at the lake, runs through the timber.... I think I will try harder. After all she never thinks twice about doing anything for us, it comes to her naturally, it always has.