March 22, 2003

Dear LaRinda:

I know that you'll forgive me for taking this long to write; but now I have even funnier stories to tell you about your little Kodiak II.

He's six months old now; and we still think the Creator sent him to us through you to make our lives TOTALLY fulfilled and joyous! We can't even look at him without falling down on the carpet and cuddling or touching or stroking or kissing or  combing him. By the way, he sees the little "rakes" come out, and he eagerly comes over and sits down to be combed. And he lays on one side with his back arched till I get through with the ears, behind the ears, the mane, the back of the head (I think from the rear, his hair looks like Tina Turner's hair when she did all those concerts), his rib cage, his back, his tummy, and finally the best part - the tail. Then I coo t him: "Okay now the other side." And his flips over for me!!!

His eating habits are varied. He gets tired of certain diets quickly and turns his snobby little nose up at them. By sheer accident, I discovered he liked cooked white rice. So I mix white rice with EVERYTHING. He siphons up the food like a pig at a trough. Once in a rare while, I give him a treat like a piece of cheddar cheese or some peanut better or chicken or steak (little pieces, though). We learned the hard way not to give him any ham. I thought because the bone was rounded it would be okay to feed him some ham bones while I cooked homemade pea soup a months ago. Then he'd 'beg' for ham and I fed him huge chunks of ham. After a week, he got diarrhea and started vomiting. After the first day o_ this, we rushed him to the vet to find out he had worms from eating TOO RICH A DIET! After a sizeable bill from the vet, we took him off ham, ham bones, Bego-strips, pigs ears, bacon, and anything at all that has to do with pork. Since then, he's been healthy as a horse.

The big expenditure we put out recently was for a black, vinyl-coated cyclone fence around the, front yard where the deck is. Ohhhh, my Gawwwwwd! He goes apeshit over that yard. We have to leave the sliding glass door partly open day and night! When the men got through with the last section of fence and put the gates on, we let him out; he came flying off the deck, raced in 'laps' around the entire yard four or five times with his mane flying straight back from his BEAUTIFUL face (he looked like a race horse)! When he settled down, we fell on the lawn and started acting SILLY with him. Then he got so squirrley, he had the entire construction crew laughing so hard tears were streaming down their faces.

LaRINDA, HE IS THE BEST GIFT ANYBODY HAS EVER GIVEN US! What a clown, what a love, what a loyal dog, what a silly-nilly, ham of a creature Kodi is! He's turned out lives from feeling old and retired and down, to not being able to sleep nights, just thinking of leaping out of bed in the morning to play with him and walk him and feed him. I'm crying right this moment as I'm writing this. I get so emotional sometimes. Anyway, he's the light and the love of our lives. Spat’s has even started purring like a motor boat nights when Kodi gets on the bed. As long as Kodi stays at the foot of the bed or on my legs (ouchhhh), Spats is fine. The minute Kodi rolls over too close to the pillows where Spats sleeps between us with only his head out of the covers, then Spats lets out a long, hissy, howling sounds and uses his right hand to bat Kodi's nose like a boxer with a punching bag!!! Kodi just sits there now and whines, as if to say: "Hey, what did I DO? I JUST WANT TO PLAY?!" But he respects Spats in the long run and moves off to an opposite corner of the bed. But I think it gives Spats a reason to live at 16 years, just having a full time job all day and night keeping Kodi in his please. The cat's smart enough to realize that if he doesn't spit and swat and yowl at him, Kodi will one day realize how big he is and how small the cat is. That could turn out really bad.

We are taking Kodi to obedience training with Sue Giles Green (she's been at it for 27 years and is EXCELLENT) She calls him "Handsome" when she's commanding him to do something. It's wonderful. And his tail starts wagging every Friday morning as we pull into her yard. Believe it or not, he's learned all the commands now except "come." She is saving that for our last session next week. We're having a little trouble with getting him to obey the command, "down.". We watch her as she says, ""Kodi, down!" And if he doesn't do it within 2 seconds, she takes her left foot and places it on the leash as close to his neck as possible and then pulls his head forward and snaps him down. It looks like she's killing him and we cringe every time. So when we do it now, he hesitates because he- knows we're wusses and aren't going to push him down as hard as she does. But guess what, when she now tells him "down," he flattens out like a pancake with no trouble at all. He's intelligent and likes to "play us," if you know what I mean.

LaRinda, we have too many funny stories to write them down. We'll wait for a time when you come out and visit us (or we come up there). Everywhere we go, we take him with us. To friends' homes, to Salem when we go to Kaiser, to Lincoln City when we run errands, and anywhere else. At least 95% of the time when our Jeep pulls out of the garage, HE'S IN IT!!! One thing I have to tell you is that he has a favorite toy. We know he likes the fleece toys and catnip toys because they're soft, right? Well, a month ago, I picked up a stuffed Hedgehog that looks exactly like his colors (black and tan). He carries it into and out of every room, he takes it in the car with him, and when the fence got put up that day and the men were still here, after he did his racing around and silly-dog stuff, we all started talking about the bill and writing out a check on the deck. Two minutes later, we looked over and Kodi had gone into the house, gotten Mr. Hedgehog, and brought him out on the lawn and sat down next to him. “Like he was showing him his new yard and fence”.

I swear he did that! We haven't met a man or woman or child YET who hasn't fallen apart smiling and melting down to their socks when they see him. He is so socialized and so friendly. Yet - and I say this to you, as you know better than we do - he is ever and ALWAYS a loyal and good guard dog! If one of us goes into a shop or store and the other is in the car, he strains and looks out the window till he sees one of us come out, the door and come over to get into the car. Never, never takes his eyes off us. When we stop to talk to people in our neighborhood when we're out for a walk, he sits down right ON TOP of our right foot.