H in the A to Z bloggers challenge

Harley de.

Well I thought I would take a break from reading for the 24 hour read-a-thon to bring you my H in the A to Z bloggers challenge.

And my H had to be for my ever loyal dog Harley de.

first let me just say that I am not a huge fan of harley davidson motorbikes, but my mother was, and at the time harley was born I was living with my mum, and when I asked to keep one of Tamika's puppies, she said, only if I kept a boy and called him harley lol.

anywho, Harley has been with me since before he was even born and he is a real good old fashioned mix breed.
are you ready for this? lol

Harley is a parson's jack Russel x dalmation x border collie x dachhound x corgie.

But ultimately he looks like a slightly longer in the body, and quite stocky, (it is stocky not fat regardless of what my hubbys says, its all muscle honest hehe) black and white parson jack russel, with a few dalmation spots mingled in with the white.

harley was born at exactly 3 am christmas morning 2000, I was there at his birth, having been sat with his mum all night, who was desprate for me not to leave her side.
she had a litter of 6 pups, who all got loving homes harley the only boy among the lot staying with me.

Harley has now been with me 10 years, when he was born he had a smooth coat that was a beautiful crisp brown in colour and gleamed in the sun. But as harley got bigger, his face fungus began to sprout starting around his face, then down his back, until it pretty much covered everything.

now you can only see his smooth brown undercoat when he gets clipped down in the summer. still has the face fungus though lol.

Harley believes he is royalties, and expects to be treated as such, when I met and married my husband his place as top dog got knocked down a peg, but he still rules over the rest of our pets.

he's a very inteligent dog, too smart sometimes, and has a weird penchant for gnawing on small pieces of wire, I'm talking tiny pieces so small you can barely see them.

its only the grinding of his teeth on it that tells you he is up to no good. So we have to be careful not to leave any thin wires around him.

this is the only place where Harley can be classed as bad however for the most part he is very obediant, if growing grumpier with age.

he'll groan, moan, and snarl in disgust if you nudge him while he sleeps, then looks horrified when he realises its you, the one that hands out the treats, and not one of the other dogs lol.

Harley is very set in his ways and knows exactly what he likes and doesn't like, and God help the things he doesn't like.

One of harley's biggest pet hates it men with long hair. He's fine until they speak the instant they do and he hears a deep voice, war is declared.

he will sit sulking by mine or dans feet and he will growl, snarl, and snort in protest everytime they speak as if to say how dare you have a deep voice and long hair.

He also has a deep hatred towards one of my best friends jade, while adoring her partner Karl. Karl finds this greatly amusing as harley will lay in his lap not letting jade come anywhere near karl.

Thankfully harley is all bark and no bite, his prefered methord of dealing with a persistant pet hate if it refuses to leave him alone is to run away and sulk loudly in a corner.

We are not sure why Harley hates Jade so much, the only reason we can come up with is that she looks quite similar to me, but has a very strong liverpool accent and is quite loud.

and Harley does seem to have a problem with people who dont sound how he thinks they should lol.

Harley has a firm beliefe that he is top dog, and this is ever evident with how he acts around our other dogs one of which is a male rottie twice his size called Hooch, Harley squares up to hooch on a regular basis, and promptly puts him in his place.

Recently this has caused some problems as hooch has started to challenge Harley for the top dog spot.

When ever hooch makes an attempt at this all hell breaks out, and Harley completely looses the plot, flying at hooch in a rage, and refusing to let up until hooch is practically cowering in the corner, about to wet himself.

They have never drawn blood on each other or even hurt each other, which i am so thankful for, so I guess it is more a show than an actual attack but still it can be pretty scary, especially when I have to dive in the middle of it and yank out a seething Harley, who just does not want to let it go without scaring hooch half to death.

My biggest fear is that hooch being twice the size of harley could one day have enough and give harley a nasty bite, so I have learned to spot the signs of them getting narky with each other and separate them.

thankfully things seemed to have calmed down abit recently and all I can hope is that when Hooch once again decides to try for boss he'll be wise enough to wait till harley is a bit older and not so quick.

Harley is also a very good hunter, although this must purely be due to instinct as I never trained him.

he takes on rats, and rodents with enthusiams, and his normal savage temper, so much so that he once took on a huge rat that ripped chunks out of him, including a huge chuck that is now missing from harleys ear.

but harley wasnt going to let the rat off till he'd killed it.

I was petried at the sight of him after, all dripping blood, but harley stomped around with pride, all puffed up, well till the next day where he was all sorrowful and giving everyone his best pity me eyes because he was sore.

now it might sound from what I have said that harley is a bit of a git, but really he is a very affectionate dog, and everyone that comes into contact with him falls in love with him, well those that he likes at any rate.

he just has so much character, and is so gentle where it matters, for instance with my son, he'll sit for hours just letting kye stroke him or dress him up.

like i said he just knows what he likes and doesnt like and well the things he doesnt like sadly gets a rough deal.

I mentioned that harley was smart so I should give some examples of this.

Harley suffers from stiff joints in his legs when the weather is cold and so we had pills that he had to take. Getting Harley to take something he doesnt want to is never an easy task, so we would hide the pill in a piece of cheese.
it didnt take harley long to figure out if he limped he got cheese, and so now when ever he spys cheese he gets a limp.

and he will limp everyday all day until all the cheese is gone.

The worst part is I fell for his ploy for a long time before my husband, who is not quite so devoted to harley pointed out that he was playing me.

Then there are tricks, harley is so quick to learn new tricks, he can roll over, beg, give high fives, and even sing along with how much is that doggy in the window, simply adding in the barks at the right times.

I couldnt imagine my life without harley he has been with me since before my husband and I hope he will be with me many years to come and I'm very hopeful as his father scampy who lives with my mum is now about 20, is still going strong, even if he does have catrax is deaf as a post, and like harley gets stiff joints in cold weather.

oh one more thing in the hunting area, harley and pheasants, it is amazing watching harley take out pheasants, he has worked out that they can only fly so far, and so harley chases them and as they come back down, he'll catch them, break there necks and grab for the next, I once watch him bring down 5 pheasants in quick succession like this.

I love this dog, and always will, so today had to be all about Harley De.

harleys nicknames are.

de man, hols, De and grumpy old man. and there you have it, my grumpy old man, de lol.

ps other words that begin with H are...

H = Handy

My husband is very handy to have around, after all we all need someone to throw things at don’t we lol (just kidding)

H = Heaven

I hope to go to heaven one day, but until then I’ll enjoy the beauty of the world we live in, and relish in the wonderful people, that I’m privileged to share it with.

H = homely.

I’m told something being called homely in America is seen as a bad thing, to me homely has always been a nice word. A cosy place, that is comfortable, welcoming and warm, or a person who has similar attributes.

H = hospitals

I have a deep fear of hospitals.

H = happy

I am happy to have met so many wonderful people through blogger