Lady Mals

Oh, D., your mail made me cry! Your gal sounds so special and wonderful! I'm sure you miss her terribly ...

My darling Guerillera Alexandria (Allie) died at 13 last fall. She was in kidney failure and on a home-cooked diet and subq fluids for 2.5 years. I got her from TAMR when she was ca. 6, so I was owned by her for a horribly short time! But I would not have survived her puppyhood (although she must have been irresistibly cute).

Allie was a true alpha and a true Mal bitch. Not only was she a mighty huntress, but she was also WAY more intelligent than me and all the other critters put together. She and my Ridgeback started out as best buds, but after I took in Ghost (a rescue with serious emotional issues), the girls started trying to kill each other. Allie adopted Ghost and helped him get over a lot of his panics -- lots of tough love ... She got along with my big red Rowan, who also came from a horrible situation and is chondrodysplastic. She did make friends with the cats -- let them swat her tail, and if she could corner one, she would give it a thorough sliming with the long Mallie tongue.

We did lots of obedience together (essential! she was unquestionably the Queen of the Universe ...), an agility course, where she was quite creative ;-), and performed on a drill team. She was always perfect in rehearsal, but in performance, would get that gleam in her eye and pull off some outrageous stunt ... Given half a chance, she could clear a countertop or empty the fridge in seconds flat. Her judgment of humans was always spot-on, and she wasn't subtle about it ;-).

Ms Allie basically got me to cater to her every whim and very much enjoyed being a "stealth" hellraiser for the short time that she had me. I miss her every day. I now have another wonderful Mallie lady, Miss Congeniality, and love her to pieces, but she doesn't have that mischievous sparkle, that "go ahead, get into bed, see what I've left between the sheets" look (disgusting bones, usually). I could very easily imagine why her owners gave Allie up for adoption -- she was quite the handful, but I adored and miss that about her.

Thank you for letting me vent! ;-)
We must find you another wonderful Mal bitch. I'll keep my ears to the ground and see if I hear about one.

Best
Connie

Re: "I actually prefer a female – I have had both males and females and I really prefer the females – especially the ones that are alpha. The last one we had was so remarkable – she was a shelter dog from Fort Worth that a friend found for us – it later turned out that she was an escaped show dog but the lady no longer was interested in getting her back since she had been spayed. From the beginning we knew she was special because she loved being brushed – even her tail. She was 16 when she passed away – the oldest one I have ever had. ..."