We've been through a lot in 14 years; the good, the bad and everything in between. As I sit and watch Jessie sleep; her breathing is heavy, she is completely relaxed and surely dreaming of the chase. There were days in the past that I would have loved to see her sleep; those days when I was off and running to catch her at the neighbors house, yet again. Being a Jack Russell; Jessie is trigger happy, it takes but the slightest of movement to set her in motion. In fact the number one cause of Jack Russell death is being hit by cars. Once they get onto movement they rarely come back before they are done with their hunt. At the age of fourteen there are very few occasions where she might bolt now. Keeping her on leash has nothing to do with chase these days; but lack of hearing and vision.
The stories that this little gal could tell; charging down groundhog holes and being retrieved by the tail, falling 30 feet out of a tree after chasing a squirrel up. Jumping and catching a bird in mid flight and swallowing it down in entirety; no need to chew. Waiting patiently at the top of a critter hole; knowing full well it was in there. She waited for it to make an appearance; and again, it went down whole. She took on a skunk and lost; attempted to take down a few very large dogs and was caught in the nick of time.
Jacks can climb; boy can they climb. We had a chain link fence that she regularly scaled to reach the critters that tormented her from the other side. The higher we built; the higher she climbed. There was no stopping her until we built a prison like enclosure with inward leaning fencing. That stopped her; but only just. She tried to dig out; as the chipmunks screeched at her, driving her over the edge. But we had covered the entire enclosure with gravel making it very tough for even the mightiest of Jacks to dig with their tiny feet.
When Jessie joined our family we also had Clyde; a 5 year old male standard poodle. Clyde was a love; a real pushover and it took her mere days to conquer him; leaving him to do whatever she said. It was amusing to see a tiny 12 week old 8 lb. dog push around an adult male weighing in at 50 lbs. She wielded such power; she took what she wanted and left him with the remnants. But it worked; somehow this little pushy; headstrong gal wiggled her way into even Clyde's heart and he adored her. He was wary none the less.
And now she rules over two nearly 50 lb standard poodles. They have learned well and know to listen up when she speaks; deek when she snaps and duck when she leaps. At 14 she needs help to withhold her status; we are happy to oblige her. She misses a lot of what goes on around now; but one bark from the big dogs and she is screaming mad and ready to protect her territory. There is no messing with a Jack; they are a lot of dog in a tiny body. A Jack Russell is a force to be reckoned with; tenacious, stout, durable, unyielding, intense power houses, and one of the cutest most loveable little munchkins around.
If a Jack shares your life; you may need one of these.
I've had several Jack Russells. My current Jack is a male named Chance. He's just 5 now, but I already think about him not being with me at some point in the future. Not having him sleeping next to me when I go to bed at night. He's so funny! Sometimes at night I have to shift his little body because I need more room or I want to turn over. I hear this low pitched grrrrrr coming from him (but he's deep asleep) and I laugh to myself. He adds so much to my life.
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