"Cool Dog!"
This is what I would invariably hear whenever I and Parker (my 17-pound Jack Russell terrier) would go jogging on the bikepaths around Lincoln. I would hear this sometimes not just once, but two or three times, usually from kids who often times asked me if I would stop and let them pet the "puppy." One time there was a toddler, maybe two or three years old and his mother. He said something I couldn't understand and his mother said, "Yes, Wishbone!" referring to the Jack Russell terrier on the popular kids TV show.
Parker and I ran hundreds of miles on Lincoln's bikepaths. Sometimes we would pass someone and they would say something to the effect that I was being hard on the little dog making him run with me. Little did they know! We would go on a 7-mile jog and I would let Parker loose in the yard and he would go chasing after a rabbit. (Only this last year and a half, did I quit taking him with me because the vet said he had a heart murmer.) He had such a big chest for a little dog that no doggie sweater would fit him. The ones that would fit his chest would be for a much bigger dog and cover his whole body, so that he couldn't pee.
When I got Parker, I was an intolerant bachelor, used to having everything my own way. Boy, did that change! I remember one September he got out 7 times, and I had to go looking for him, or drive to some person's house who found him and called me up. He was so friendly and affable that no one ever called the dogcatcher. I can only recall one time I had to go to the Pound to pick him up, and I think it was because his tags had come off and there was no way to figure out who his owner was. As the years went by I learned strategies to keep him in the yard and the last few years, running away was not a problem.
I remember when Carrie and I started dating, Parker would get so excited when her car came in the drive. He knew who it was somehow. When I first got him I thought he would be a sentinel to tell me if a stranger was around, but he would rarely bark at people. On the other hand, if a dog and his master walked by on the other side of the street, he would come up from the basement and bark his head off. How he knew the other dog was there, hearing or smell or some other mysterious sense, I'll never know.
When I got Parker he was three years old. He died when he was just a month over fifteen years old. Originally, he was a breeding male my sister bought from Pennsylvania. After a couple years of being a stud, he went to my brother in Wichita to be a pet. But he got into a serious dog fight with another of their dogs, and he had to find a new home. My sister told me about this, and I, after moving into my first home, had it in the back of my mind that I would like to have a dog. I mentioned to her that I like would take Parker. She seemed kind of surprised since I had never owned a dog before.
I had always been a fan of Jack Russell terriers since I had read an article about them in Sports Illustrated in 1980. I sent the article to my sister and this initiated her adventure in Jack Russell breeding, which she is only now (22 years later) retiring from.
I must mention that Parker is/was the only individual, whom I knew personally, who inspired a computer game. My brother in Wichita was inpired to create a game called "Parker" where an errant Jack Russell terrier went through many adventures.
I was looking at a picture of Sox & Parker and I remember how gentle he could be with other animals. The cats tended to terrorize Parker and he would usually stoically put up with it, occasionally growling when it became to much to bear.
He loved to chase wild rabbits. (Occasionally I would let go of the leash when we were jogging and let him chase a rabbit or squirrel. After a few times I learned to only let him chase squirrels because squirrels usually ran to the nearest tree, while rabbits would run into people's back yards and then I would have to go into people's back yards trying to find Parker.)
Two or three times Parker caught a wild rabbit in our back yard. The first time, he brought it to me. I thought for a second whether I should try to intervene on behalf of the motionless rabbit in his jaws. I grabbed Parker's throat and squeezed it. He would not let go. I squeezed harder. He still would not let go. I bet I squeezed his throat for a solid minute before he let go of the rabbit. The rabbit dropped the the ground and didn't move for a few seconds, then slowly he seemed to come back to life and bounded off. Parker never brought me another of his prey.
One day Carrie brought home a long-haired domestic rabbit as a pet. It's name was 'Mocha.' We were very careful to keep Mocha and Parker separated. We knew what Parker liked to do to rabbits.
We sometimes put the rabbit in Parker's dog kennel when Parker was in the house. This allowed the rabbit to run around and we didn't have to watch to make sure it hopped away. I think I put the rabbit in the pen and Parker in the house and went somewhere. When I came back (maybe and hour later), I couldn't find Parker in the house. "Have you seen Parker," I asked Carrie. Yes, she had put him in his pen. Oh, no!
We raced out to the pen only to see Parker and Mocha peacefully coexisting in the pen.
I guess Mocha was too tame to run from Parker and Parker
didn't think it was much sport to kill something that wouldn't run from
him!
Parker was deathly afraid of storms. Actually, it is quite
smart for a dog to be afraid of storms because they don't know what it going
on and it is in their best interest to seek cover. But Parker was a little
excessive.
I remember mowing the lawn and having him get real
close to me, like right under my legs. I didn't like this because I
was afraid he would get tied up in the mower. I couldn't figure out his problem
until I realized it was sprinkling very slightly.
You didn't bring Parker into the house while it was raining.
He forgot all his housebreaking. He would rather get in trouble for an accident
than go out in the rain.
I remember one stormy night when I was working at Lenco.
Carrie called me up. Parker had gotten out and could not be found. Carrie
had called for him in the yard and the house and he was nowhere. She and
Anna had gotten in the car and driven around looking for him for an hour
and had no luck. I told her to stay calm. We would go to the dog pound the
next day and see if they had picked him up.
When I finished my shift, around 6 am, I got ready for
bed and sat on the bed. I heard a little jingle. I looked under the bed and
saw two eyes staring back at me. Parker had been hiding from the storm, under
the bed the whole time!