Benjamin (left) and Lucille (aka Lucifer)
I'll start with these two. I just love this picture! Will add some of our adventure stories later. It's time to go to bed. Gotta get to work early tomorrow

Benjamin's story:I met Benjamin when he was first rescued. He was malnourished, sick, and would have died soon without the intervention of my friend Kathy. After a short time he regained his strength and energy, but started being aggressive towards other dogs at first, then men, and finally all people (except for a select few he had met early on). When my brother and wife came to visit they had to walk 500ft behind us.
It was a little bit of a challenge trying to find trails so remote that we wouldn't meet too many people and/or dogs. I ended up getting up really early, and driving into the remotest corners of the Berkeley hills I could think of. It worked with a couple of exceptions
The trails were rather steep dirt paths. Once we encountered another dog and his owner. Of course Benjamin started growling, but I assured the guy I had him under control (famous last words :oops: ). I had barely finished the sentence when Benjamin lunged towards the pair. Let me tell you those trails are extremely slippery when you are holding on to a very determined Rottweiler on a mission :shock: The guy gave me a very skeptical look as I was "elegantly"

pirouetting down the trail towards them. Luckily I am very resourceful :lol: I came up with a plan, and it worked like a charm. All I had to do was drop down on my butt and voila: the dog was stopped! :mrgreen: So I was in control after all

However, my performance did not convince the guy and he made a hasty retreat :oops:
However, there is a happy ending to the story. Kathy found these wonderful dog trainers, and Benjamin underwent a complete personality change. I always knew he was a great dog, but now people don't think I am crazy when I say it

He loves everyone and isn't even aggressive with dogs that bug him. My brother couldn't believe it was the same dog when he saw him again.
I warned you I might go overboard
"My" pets are just one of my favorite topics, and it is hard to stop :oops: Lucille (aka Lucifer :twisted: )
Lucille is a very sweet and fun dog; most of the time :lol: Having her in the car however is something else :shock: She gets very excited when she gets to go somewhere. She likes to put her head on my shoulder and starts "singing". It is worse than my singing, ear piercing, and goes on for the whole ride. Amazingly we always reached our destinations in one piece
One time she was very quiet while licking my seat-belt, or so I thought until I realized that she had chewed through about half of it :twisted:; now no longer a safety belt

When I told my mechanic "The dog ate the seatbelt", he laughed and said that it must have been a Pitbull. He said he and his wife were on their 5th seatbelt since they had gotten their Pitbull :mrgreen: Let's just say I appreciated Lucille's singing a lot more after this incident

:mrgreen: I even started to join in, much to the chagrin of poor Benjamin :oops:
And I'll finish with the last Lucifer-car anecdote..... It was a gray and rainy day in Berkeley, one of those days where one likes to curl up in bed with a good book! However, the dogs need to be walked rain or shine. So before taking them on our outing, I walked Benjamin and Lucille for about 20 minutes in the neighborhood so they could do their business, packed them in the car to go hike through the mud in the Berkeley hills (anything for the dogs!). Apparently Lucille had decided that the backseat of my car is a much more comfortable bathroom than the wet sidewalks of Berkeley. She produced a pile of "you know what" of very impressive size (and scent) :twisted: :x I love my dogs, but I was ready to strangle her :x And she knew...... No singing on that trip! Fortunately, I had an old sheet on the seat and I could just throw out the whole thing.
I didn't speak to her for all of ten minutes, but then I just couldn't stay mad at such a cute dog anymore. What can I say? I am a complete sucker for dogs

(as you will find out in my upcoming stories........ )