Happy Birthday Zac

Today is the first day of Spring. I love spring time it's so pretty.

Today is also our dog Zac's birthday. He's 9 today so I thought a funny post with a few of the more 'interesting' moments of his life would make a few people laugh.

The story of how we got Zac: I was 15 at the time, my brother 17. We were both at private schools and mum was a single mum. We thought she would struggle financially so we agreed to save all of our own money to help her out. My brother lasted 5 seconds. I lasted a lot longer and saved up a few hundred dollars. When I gave it to mum she cried (she does that a lot) and told me I could get a dog. So I went totally off cuteness factor and decided I wanted a Labrador. Pure breeds are expensive but when I found one for 'sale' for $400 I called up about it.
Mum was convinced we had brought a stolen dog. We agreed to meet the seller at a train station. We stood there and watched this orange ute fly out sideways around the corner and pull up next to us, we were totally shocked to know he had the puppy in the ute tray!! The poor puppy was covered in vomit and poo from his terrifying car ride. I had to take that dog. So we handed over an envelope full of cash and took off with my new buddy. Mum reckons if the cops were watching the surveillance cameras we would have been arrested!!

We did find out later that it was all legit. The bloke was down and out on his luck (I think from too many drugs). His mum was a proper dog breeder living in the country, so she gave him a pup to sell to make some quick cash. And we had a new family member.

It didn't take long for us to realise that although Labradors are supposed to be super intelligent they can also be super dumb. And we got the dumb one.

He had allergies (like doggy hay fever) and he was allergic to dog food!! He used to eat kangaroo meat and veggies and instead of dog biscuits he had apples. It cost a fortune, I started to feel bad for mum, we had this cute new puppy but he was costing us a bloody fortune. He also hated all normal 'dog behaviours' he hated the car, he didn't play fetch, he didn't play with toys. But he also didn't dig holes, used to hide in a corner to poop-so no dodging dog poop in the backyard-he was super easy to house train, didn't bark for 7.5 years and has NEVER pooped on a walk. So he was weird. But some of his weirdness was good, he also has never walked nicely on a lead. For the first year I took him walking every bloody day and did the whole 'heel' 'walk' etc and he never did it, just would rather choke himself than walk nicely.

When I got pregnant and moved out of home Zac came with us. In our first house he was chasing birds and ran straight through our front window, cut his foot, Phil had a day off work, mum got her first ever speeding fine racing to the house to take him to the vet and he ended up with about 5 staples in his leg from the cut. He also used to chase the neighbours bunny that kept digging under our fence.

Our second house had a verandah with wooden 'planks' I guess you would call them. And while laying down his choker chain collar got caught and when he pulled he nearly killed himself-that chain went into the bin. He also tried to run away from home, although we had a mattress on our frlmt verandah so when we arrived home to find the back gate open we were scared, until we saw him relaxing on that big mattress!!

Our third house he started making friends with lizards, as we were living in the country. Except he would love them with his teeth and then we had to put the lizards out of their misery.

Our 4th house he used to chase the lizards UNDER the house but then couldn't figure out how to get out again so one of us had to get under there and drag him out. This was probably his favourite house though as we had a big gate around the side that he could sit and watch the world go by.

Our 5th house he was scared of the floor boards which was difficult since our entire house was floor boards. He used to skid and slide and reverse his way around the house, peeking around corners before leaving a room. It was crazy. He also nearly chewed a hole through his tail due to allergies. He got that bandaged up. He also learnt to bark!! Although he never barked at people coming over or people walking past. He used to sit at the back door and bark at us to come inside.
He let a couple of thieves come into our house and steal our car without making a sound-although in all fairness I think the thieves kicked him or hurt him because he hid in a corner for ages afterwards. He also had surgery while here. He had a lump, thankfully non cancerous but was still a bit scary.
He chewed through a few leads, so we had to buy metal chain leads. He made friends with the neighbours dogs and ran away from home-we found him around the corner. He also became scared of heights. As in jumping on the he bed was fine but getting down again-well he would shit himself. A couple times he got stuck and we had to lift him down.

And now we are in house number 6. He still hates fetch, dog toys, car rides, floorboards, still eating roo meat, veg and apples, he still only poops in the corner of the yard. He's crazy. But we love him.

When Kaitlyn was born he was in love. He used to walk from her to me and back again every time she had a dirty nappy and wouldn't leave me alone until I changed her. He would sleep near her, always want to be with her. It was beautiful.

When Bradley was born Zac pretty much ignored him.

And now with Isla he's gone back to being loving and caring. He will lay right near her feet so that when she kicks she's kicking him. He will go and sleep on the floor in her bedroom and he's so gentle with her. Sniffs her but never licks her and always gives her her own space.

So Happy 9th Birthday to the craziest member of our family.

Old age is catching up to him now. He's got arthritis in his back legs, was gaining weight (now he's on a diet) and can't run around for as long. He also doesn't cope with extreme weather conditions-hot or cold-so it's probably going to be an interesting summer. And with us being in a high risk snake environment I'm planning on keeping him inside, a lot. Knowing Zac he would try to play with the snake and end up dead. We have heard the anti venom costs $4000 so that's not an option. I hope we survive the summer here. He's my best buddy,  always loves us and although he's completely crazy and at times has almost sent us broke I wouldn't change anything about him.

Happy Birthday old boy!