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This week I thought I’d do something different. Instead of telling readers about Jake and his adventures, I thought I’d check to see how well you faithful readers (I hope you’re out there somewhere) know RoadDog.

Every now and then I bump into someone or hear from someone who tells me they read this blog. Sometimes it really surprises me, either because you’re total strangers and I can’t imagine how you found us or you’re people I know who I would never think might be interested in the happenings in our little family. Regardless, it’s always great to hear that you’re reading and get your feedback.

So this week I have a list of questions to find out what you remember about what you’ve read. The answers have all been on the blog at some point so you can go back and look if you want to do that.

You can just take the quiz for fun or you can send me your answers at lbrown@southshorenow.ca. You could post them in the comments area below, but that will give everyone else the answers. Jake helped me choose an appropriate prize for the person who gets the most correct responses and I’ll post the name of the winner and the answers here next week. (Mom and Dad, you can play, but you can’t win. Sorry about that.)

So let me ask you, how well do you know RoadDog? Have fun.

1. Where was Jake born?

2. When is his birthday?

3. What’s his favourite human treat?

4. Can you name a fruit or vegetable that he likes? I’ll give you a bonus point if you name more than one.

5. What did Steve and I put Jake in for his very first test run on Steve’s bike? (Oops, maybe I shouldn’t bring that up again.)

6. Where was his custom carrier built? I’m looking for the town, but I’ll give you an extra point if you name the business, too.

7. What does Jake do when he finishes eating? (He’s such a boy dog!)

8. You may remember that Jake doesn’t like to swim, but where did he first go strolling into the water, much to our surprise?

9. What is Jake’s favourite kind of toy?

10. What bike club does Jake belong to? (Well, Steve and I belong and Jake is the unofficial mascot, so to speak.)

11. Like most riders, Jake suffers a condition this time of year. I wrote about it once. What’s it called?

12. What costume did Jake wear for Halloween this past October?

13. What yard implement makes Jake go crazy?

14. Each September, Jake turns into another type of critter for a few days. What does he become?

15. Where did we take Jake to eat in a restaurant for the first time?

16. Which provinces and states has Jake visited with us? (I’ll give you a point for each correct answer.)

17. Jake and his carrier get a lot of attention. Someone once asked us if we had another sort of critter inside the carrier. What kind of animal did they think was in there? (Jake was not impressed.)

18. Steve and Jake and I all climbed a mountain together a few years ago. What mountain was it?

19. Jake met a girlfriend a few years ago in Baddeck who looked a whole lot like him. What was her name? I’ll give you a hint. It means bear in Mi’kmaq.

20. Our RoadDog doesn’t wear a leather motorcycle jacket, but he has some pretty cool riding gear. What does he wear?

Now wasn’t that fun! Send me your answers. Remember the person with the most right answers wins a prize from RoadDog and I’ll post the answers next week.

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Sometimes Jake is a little too rough with his toys.

I’ve often said that Jake is such a boy dog. Well, when it comes to his toys, let’s just say it’s all a bit rough and tumble. While the rubber and plastic balls he loves to chase can take it, the same can’t always be said for his favourite stuffed toys with the squeakers inside them.

You see, our boy likes to grab his toys and shake them. I don’t mean he shakes them gently either. I mean he shakes them as hard as he can. I’m guessing it has something to do with his instinct as a Cairn terrier, since the breed was developed in Scotland to hunt rodents in piles of rocks (Scottish cairns, hence the name of the breed).

Jake has never caught a live animal and I honestly hope he never does. He shows a great deal of interest in squirrels and chipmunks around our yard, loves to sniff out deer and rabbit tracks and, frankly, doesn’t seem to be too thrilled with cats. I don’t know what he’d do if he caught a small creature, but I’m not really sure I want to know. I’m not convinced it would be pretty. For a big dog with short legs (don’t forget, he is not small, just vertically challenged), he has incredibly strong jaws and teeth.

So our dear doggie takes out his energy and instincts — who knows, maybe even his frustrations — on his stuffed toys. And sometimes they suffer. When Jake shakes a toy and lets go, it sometimes flies across the room. More than once I’ve found toys laying on the desk or against the wall on the back of the sofa. I think I even once found one on the dining room table.

And sometimes those strong teeth and jaws of his make holes in his toys. We usually know when that happens, because we find the white stuffing, typically in heaps under the dining room table. It seems once the hole is made our dear Cairn can’t stop himself from pulling out as much stuffing as possible before we find out about it.

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That ends with us gathering up the stuffing, and often the squeaker too, then I stuff it all back in the critter, get a needle and thread, and repair it as best I can. While I sew, Jake sits at my feet or sometimes stands with his front paws against my leg, and watches. He never takes his eyes off me while I have that toy. He can’t help himself, but he really seems sorry that he hurt it.

The most recent casualty was the frog he got for Christmas, but it’s all better now and is once again flying around the living room landing who knows where.

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I’m not too sure, but I think our RoadDog may be going through some sort of holiday withdrawal.

Jake hasn’t quite been himself this past week or so. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still driving us crazy running outside to play in the snow whenever we’ll take him. In fact, he’s been quite proud of himself lately as he ambles over the snow banks in our yard.

But when he’s inside, he seems a little mopey. Jake was anything but happy on the January 1 weekend when I took everything away from the tree, packed up Christmas and put the decorations in the attic. I haven’t been doing any baking this past week or two either, so the treats coming out of the kitchen have pretty much dried up as well.

Actually, I’m thinking that might be the problem. (If you’re a vet, you should maybe stop reading now.) Jake ate quite a few gingerbread cookies over the holidays. I had never made them before and decided they’d be quite festive. I even decorated them with white icing.

When I went looking for a gingerbread cookie cutter, I found a package of four — boys and girls in two sizes. I mostly used the larger ones, but did cut out maybe a dozen or so of the smaller ones because they were just too cute. We quickly discovered that our Cairn is a big, I mean really big, fan of gingerbread cookies. Steve and I rapidly learned that we couldn’t open the container without finding Jake at our feet, big brown eyes looking up at us, that tongue out just enough to be too adorable.

Needless to say, Jake ended up eating quite a few of those small gingerbread cookies. Maybe his lack of energy isn’t depression so much as sugar withdrawal. I may have to go pick up a couple of Timbits. After all, it’s January so we can’t ride and a RoadDog has to have some sort of fun.
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Happy New Year and new decade to one and all from our little family to yours.

And wasn’t that a lot of snow? Jake loved the snow on New Year’s Day. It was so light and fluffy he could bounce around in it, chase his red ball and generally have a great time. He kept flipping his ball into the snow, then going after it, burying his whole head in the white stuff. I kept thinking he couldn’t find the ball, but whenever I tried to help him, he’d grab it and run off. It was all part of his snowball game.

Day 2 was a little different. Our big dog with short legs kept getting stuck in the heavy snow and he was not happy about it. By the time we finally got cleared out around 10 p.m., Jake soon discovered that all those paths Steve had made for him were great, but they were more like tunnels. The sides were higher than he was tall. Whenever he wanted to see anything, he’d have to put his front paws up on the edge and look around.

By the way, in case anyone drove by our house and saw my dear husband using the snow blower in the middle of the front lawn, no I haven’t finally driven him over the edge. He was making paths for Jake.

And on Sunday, Jake was thrilled about those paths. It was so warm outside, he spent a lot of time running around the paths, first sniffing all (as in every single one) of the deer tracks (apparently the deer like the paths too), then racing around the paths with me running behind trying to keep up and finally chasing that red ball again, burying his face in the snow. He had a great time.

And that’s a good thing, because our dear RoadDog was not happy when I boxed up Christmas, including his stocking, and put it all away. Oh well, happy January. It’s just a few months until spring.

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