Robatoy wrote:
On Jan 22, 10:12 pm, Gil wrote:
Lee Michaels wrote:

"DGDevin" wrote in message
m...
I've said for a long time that a dog not big enough to cripple a
burglar isn't really a dog, it's a substitute for a cat.
I suppose that is one way of looking at it.
Except some of those small dogs have really loud barks. My little Lhasa
Apso can wake the dead., in the middle of the night. Which can be a
pain in the ass at times, but has alerted us to prowlers in the early
AM, more than once.
The Tibetan monks had a unique approach. They had big mastiffs to
patrol outside of the main living quarters. And if anybody got past
them, the "temple dogs", the Lhasa Apso would then respond. The Lhasas
were bred to recognize familiar people and bark like crazy any time a
stranger came around, Which, in my mind, is a perfect, organic alarm
system.
Now, I would have never gone out an bought such an animal. But my honey
loves them. So...., We have one. But they are very sturdy little dogs.
They are hardy, can stand any kind of weather and are strong enough to
drag you around on a leash. You just have to keep them clipped or you
will have to deal with hair issues every day.
Yup. They are great watch dogs and put their heart into whatever they
do. Ours was a 'rescued' dog that we were able to get 4 years ago. He
teams up very well with our large Lab X. The little guy detects the
problem and the big guy goes and checks it out. This past Christmas Eve
he was probably responsible for saving the life of an elderly woman.

We live on one of those lane-and-a-half country roads that might see
half a dozen cars a day go down it. About 6:30 on Christmas Eve he
suddenly started barking in a really determined manner while looking out
the front window. Turning on the yard light we saw a person standing at
the end of our driveway which is about a hundred feet from the house.
Going out to see who it was we found a confused elderly woman who had no
idea where she was. The temperature was dropping below freezing and it
was snowing. She was dressed in a hip length jacket, had lost her
gloves, and had ordinary shoes on her feet and no socks.

It turned out that she had left her house shortly after noon hour, on
foot, to go visit a friend. Finding her friend not home, she decided to
visit another friend who lived a little further out of town and some how
lost her way, but kept walking. We have no idea how she ended up on our
road. Eventually we figured out where she lived and got her home. She
had walked over 11 km from her home where she lived with her brother.
While walking down our road she had passed about a dozen other houses
but was afraid to approach them. By the time she reached our place it
was really dark and she was scared. So, she paused at the end of our
driveway, but was reluctant to come in. If it hadn't been for our little
guy we never would have know she was there.

That turned out pretty well, didn't it?

Yeah, it did considering what the consequences could have been.

We did manage to contact her social worker afterwards and found out that
both her and her elderly brother suffered from Alzheimer's but refused
to move into a health care facility.

Probably can't afford it?

I suspect that's true considering the house, and its state, when we
finally got her home. They certainly had the Christmas spirit though,
since there were five Christmas trees in their tiny living room. It is
sad to see people in these conditions in this day and age and being
responsible for themselves. But, where does society draw the line?

However, from what we learned, the option to go into a home would have
been taken care of by the province, but they just didn't want to leave
their property. They also had no known family other than each other.