turbo...

I am staying in the home of some friends while they are away. They have three dogs. The dogs are a motley combination of an old lady Labrador, a middle-aged female Jack Russell Terrier (aka “JRT”) who is an amazing athlete, and a long-haired Daschund, who acts alot like a pubescent Junior High Schooler. The Labrador is fed out side and has a peculiar habit of carrying her bowl away so I have to search for it before her next mealtime. The Daschund hops through the grass, off of all fours simultaneously, reminding me of some cartoon character, chasing crickets. He also likes to snuggle up against me on the couch so that every possible part of him is touching me. But it is the JRT that amazes me. She broke her toe 3 weeks ago…probably while doing one of her daily, high speed, squirrel-chases through the woods.

She walks and does a sort of walk-run on three legs. She learned to do that the very day she came home from the vet with her lime green cast-like wrap around her foot, running up to her knee—if dogs have knees! This is supposed to hold her toe steady against the other toes while the bone heals. Just like the suggested human remedy for a broken toe. You’ve probably heard of it, “Just tape the broken toe to the toe next to it.” No physical therapist taught her how to walk and run using only three legs. She just did it. And she’s still pretty darn speedy on three legs!

The only problem is that her wrap is supposed to stay clean and dry. Try it. Try keeping a JRT’s leg clean and dry for 3 weeks. No playing in the stream bed or sand box. No running through the wet, dewy grass in the morning. And absolutely no high speed squirrel chases!

In the book Jack Russell Terriers for Dummies, Deborah Britt-Hay describes “one of the most amusing and common behaviors of JRTs is their proclivity for rapid and continuous movement.” And then goes on to name this endless energy in action, the “Jack Russell Turbo.” She continues on, “They're a big dog in a little dog’s body.”

This morning I took her to the vet for a follow-up wrap change, and now she is sporting a new blaze orange cast. She seemed to be realizing that her foot was something special. She dutifully rolled over on the floor each morning and let me apply a plastic baggy and rubber band to cover the cast. (My best attempt to help insure “clean and dry.”) She seemed to be truly trying to sloooow doooown, stay out of the stream bed, and turn her “turbo” off.

But today she also saw a squirrel. And an instant later, I glimpsed a flash of white, blaze orange, and plastic baggy swish by…on three legs…in turbo! Guess you can’t hold a good “big dog in little dog’s body” down!