Hopefully, as a result, we’ll get ‘exit, the rats’ pretty sharpish!
My friend Lynn sent me two photos of a Jack Russell terrier on Saturday night and the remark that he needed rehoming urgently. I asked why, of course – but later on thought again and added that provided he had the typical JRT rat-killing instincts I could retrain him out of most anything else with time. Lynn went to see him in the afternoon and messaged to say she really liked him, and that he’d been bought for children who’d lost interest and their mum didn’t have time to look after him, so that was why he needed a new home.
Lockdown fallout, I suspect.
Anyway, Lynn brought him straight to me Sunday afternoon and he moved in without hesitation. He’s already accustomed to lambs in the house, he’s good with cats, he only needed a few sharp words when he considered the chickens, he’s (mostly) good with the whippets and they with him, and he’s an absolute lapdog, just wants to be loved and close to his human.
He arrived labelled ‘Bruno’ but I’m finding that not only does he not seem like a Bruno to me, he actually answers to Jack! So, Jack he is.
He’s quite an unusual colour for a JRT, a rich very dark chocolate tending to black as you go from nose to tail, with white markings (or vice versa). He’s two years old and will be attending the vet next week for castration – one of those (mostly) things I mentioned above being the typical entire dog attitude to anything he can attempt to mate with!
I’ve had terriers before – my first was a JRT with a sixteenth share of Border Terrier ancestry who came from a Hunt kennels in Kent, nearly 30 years ago, and shared my adventures for fifteen years. More recently, I acquired a JRT cross Smooth Fox Terrier just before Wicket arrived in my life, but unfortunately he was the victim of a road accident after a tradesman left the garden gate open one day. Jack’s not nearly as tall as Raccoon or Charlie Fox, both of whom were long-leg terriers; he’s not a dwarf with the stumpy out-of-proportion type legs but a true short-legged JRT, sturdy and fit to run all day. He’s a little skinny, rather short of muscle especially on the back end, but food and exercise will take care of both of those minor quibbles! Being a JRT, he’ll take all the running he can get – unlike the whippets, who are sprinters who need just a short walk each day – so I’ll probably take him out with Abe every morning and again with the whippets in the evenings.
We went out for a walk in the woods together this evening, the two whippets, Jack and I, and he’s a joy to be with. No pulling, though he’s no clue about ‘heel’ (not uncommon amongst terriers anyway!) and he was interested in everything, trotted along just ahead of me happily at a good walking speed, and when we got home, he turned in at the gate without hesitation, waited to be let into the yard, then when I took all the leads and harnesses off, he went straight to the back door with the whippets.
Jack definitely has the JRT work ethic – I lifted the boards that are the access to the crawl space under the house and he was riveted, though it’s too far for him to jump down. I’ll sort out a ladder or something so he can go up and down comfortably by himself and then he can terrorise the rats to his heart’s content!
The only real problem is that it’s very difficult to walk into or out of the house while surrounded by two medium-large dogs, a small dog and two rapidly-growing lambs, all attempting to be between your feet!
Cairnorchies Chronicles 