Jaci Walker: Tag: My Furry Friend

1. What is your pets name?
His name is Kobe; or according to the council, vet or boarding centre, his name is Kobe Walker.

2. What kind of pet is it and what breed?
Kobe is a Whippet which is a breed of dog.

3. How long have you had your pet friend?
We picked him up from the pet shop on the 15th of August, 2009. The only reason why I remember that date is because it was the weekend before my 18th birthday.

4. How did you get your pet?
We first looked online at breeds and I initially wanted a Shitzu x Maltese x Poodle, but the one boy puppy got sold at a local pet shop when we were on our way to get it. After we came home, we looked online at other breeds and a friend of my mother has a Whippet so we started researching the breed and looked online. We found an advertisement in The Trading Post by smaller pet shop that was about 15 minutes from where we live so we went there on the 9th of August (Sunday) to have a look at it. There were two males left; Kobe and his brother that was smaller, more dominant and had the same markings but had maroon instead of the brown colour. We came home and all we could think about was that dog so on the Monday or Tuesday my mother went over and put a deposit on him. We then picked him up on the Saturday.

5. How old is your pet?
Kobe was born on the 25th of May, 2009; so he is three years old.

6. What are some quirky things about your pets personality?
There's a lot of things Kobe does or has done:
He has these toys that we call "Brownie" and they look like toy dogs with squeakers all in them. He thinks they are real dogs so he shares his food, bed, bones, water and everything else with them. We have even caught him teaching them how to go to the toilet and give them a bath in a bucket of water. Also, Kobe knows if he has done something wrong as he will often place one of them at the scene of the "crime".

Back when he had two "Brownie" toys, at nighttime, there has to be one "Brownie" on gate duty and one on dog-door duty (which he placed there himself). Kobe would sleep in his bed knowing that everything was safe. One night, a "Brownie" was missing (it needed to be fixed) so Kobe moved his bed to the front of the dog-door. Now he has four of the toys and when he puts them to bed, there's no room for him!

The day we put the dog-door in, we used one of his toys to show him how to go through the dog-door. After he wasn't scared of it anymore, we went out for 10 minutes only to come back to find everything in his room (apart from his food and water bowl) was moved outside. This included a 2-metre long and thick pole that was use to hold a sliding door in place so he wouldn't go inside the door.

There's a sliding door in his room, and the 2-metre long pole was held to hold one door, and some duct tape was used to hold the other door. He got part of the door open that was held by the tape and he got inside the cupboard and the door closed on him. He wasn't on the floor, not the next shelf up, but the shelf above it. And there was a seperater going vertical in the cupboard and half of his body was on one side and the other half was on the other side.

Kobe doesn't like people watching him go to the toilet so when he has to go, he goes somewhere hidden where we can't see.

At the local park, there's hares everywhere. The greyhound in Kobe wants to chase them and be friends with them. So glad that Kobe knows his way home from the park as once he is in the mindset to chase a hare, he never will return to us in the park. Once we spent two hours looking for him on a Sunday morning, right before going to a dog training competition day.

My father went into the cellar to get some string and as it was a windy day, he put the end of the string under a pot while he went and got other things out of the cellar. When my father came out, he realised that Kobe had taken the string and it started to unravel from the inside out. Kobe ran all around the backyard and around the gazebo and the table. Eventually he took it through the dog door, and around my desk in my study and then upstairs running everywhere with it.

7. What does your relationship with your pet mean to you?
He is something that is always excited to see me and makes the family feel like a family as he gathers us all together at nighttime to watch television together.

8. What are some of your favorite past times with your pet?
When I got my wisdom teeth out, he knew I wasn't feeling 100% and came to look after me like a nurse. I love the happiness he shows when he gets a new "Brownie" toy or one gets repaired.

9. What are nicknames that you call your pet?
A name I call my dog is Mr Freckles as he has fair skin and "freckles" all over his stomach and legs. That's the only other name I call him.