MAX AND THE LADY AND Z

She has numerous nicknames: Z, Z-Dog, Z to the E, Zo, ZoZo. Weirdly enough she answers to all of them, but her actual name is Zoie. Zoie is the Australian Queensland Shepard that my mother and I found abounded and we kept.

She is the same Zoie that found me collapsed in the yard and got my mom the night my aneurysm burst.

I’ve wrote about that before, and how we found her.

This tale takes place well before my collapse, at a point when my dad was still alive. At the time the family consisted of: Mom, Dad, I, Lady, Max and Zoie. Six of us. Yes, I had Lady, Max and Zoie all at the same time for six years.

This tale takes place within the first year I had Zoie, when she was still in Puppy Stage.

This is a True Story I call MAX AND THE LADY AND Z.

This also takes place after the previous two MAX AND THE LADY tales – when Lady was no longer quite afraid of Max, but was protective of him.

Especially from Zoie. Yes, Zoie.

Zoie, the gentle, goofy always wanting to play little dog. Even today, she is gentle and wants nothing more than to play – at eight years old. During this time the little mischief maker never knew what to make of Max.

I don’t know if she ever realized (at first) Max was a living creature, she always seemed to treat him like a toy, or a rock.

While Lady would ignore Max and let him do his thing, Zoie used to pay him quite a bit of attention. She would often bounce around him, as if waiting to strike. She would sniff him, looking at him curiously. More than once she would whack him with her paw.

Yep, Zoie would walk up to a moving Max and hit him on the back with her paw. A few times she even flipped him over.

One time I was lifting weights in my backyard make-shift gym when I heard this large bark, followed by a growl. It was Lady. I rounded the corner to see Lady growling at Zoie, they were about ten feet apart.
Lady growled a little more, then let loose with a short, loud, series of barks.

Walking over, I saw the issue.

ZOIE HAD MAX IN HER MOUTH! She had picked Max up and was holding him in her mouth.

Zoie dropped Max right on the brick patio and trotted off the like nothing happened. I came over and put Max right side up. Lady come over, licked Max on his shell and sat down.

This wasn’t the only time this happen. I caught Zoie ‘playing’ with Max a few times. Once she even picked him up and tossed him across the yard, as if trying to crack him open. Any time Lady saw this, she put Zoie in her place with a bark and growl.

And don’t tell me Zoie didn’t know she was doing wrong. Any time she was caught, she would stop, put her head down and mope.

Ace.