Chapter 27 (Animals I’ve Known and Loved, cont.)

KAISER
We found the perfect home in Vestal, on a dead end street in a small development with similar houses, most containing a family with some children around August’s and Joanna’s age. We had a wonderful view of the valley that runs south along Route 26. Once good and settled into our new home, we thought of getting another dog for our family and started looking at ads.

Kaiser was AKC registered pup of good quality and references. He was a good looking dog, and seemed very intelligent, and eventually found he was genius at Houdini like skills. Since the Weimaraner was developed to be a good family dog, that part of his character translated to “needing to never be left alone no matter what!”

We discovered this trait when he was four months old and was left at home one summer’s day when it would have been to hot in the car. The screened windows were left opened, but the doors closed and locked. When we got home, he greeted us on the driveway so glad to see us. We were more than puzzled as to how he got out, and went into the back yard finding a screen bent beyond repair, looked up and saw it was from the second story window. We hadn’t even a back lawn to have cushioned his fall. He seemed to be OK, but we took him to be checked over by the vet, and Dr. Norris agreed, but told us to keep him quiet in case he had strained some muscles. That was to be his first of many escapes, and attempted escapes in a Houdini-like life.

Dogs are very observant, and Kaiser applied his observations for how to also get back into the house. The children had learned how to ring the bell to be let in if they had trouble with the front door. The dog was their constant companion outside, and would follow them in whether they worked the knobs, or rang the bell. I wasn’t the greatest housekeeper, and this was in the 1960s when the greatest ego threat to the housewife was the white glove. I was more the type to want to get down on the floor and join them in their games than to be constantly picking up, yet I would be very embarrassed if caught with a messy house, so when one day the doorbell rang in the middle of the day, I panicked! The living room was a mess. I made a clean sweep, filling my arms with the disarray to throw into the closest bedroom and kicking the rest under the couch, yelling, “Just a minute!” Then ran to answer the door. No one was there. I leaned out looking for a prankster while Kaiser wandered in. Later on in the day, the same thing happened… and the dog wandered in. I was sure some neighborhood kid was the culprit. But no one seemed to be around. I looked at Kaiser, and shook my head. Then I tried sticking the dog outside, and on my tip toes looked through the little high windows on the front door. Kaiser walked down the two steps, sniffed around, looked around, nothing was going on, so he came back up and jumped up at the door, his big paws hitting clumsily at the door handle and frame until “bingo” he hit the bell.

From then on it was the favorite parlor trick for the master of the house if anyone new visited. They had to wait while we pushed Kaiser out the door, and saying for them to just wait… and wait… several minutes later, “Ding, dong,” and Kaiser will have rung the bell.

Like with other dogs, I would take Kaiser just about everywhere in the car with us. We had a small red Volkswagen Beetle with a roll open sun roof. I took the kids to Ingram Hill to climb the tower. The dog had to stay in the car, so I rolled open the sun roof just a bit so the car wouldn’t get hot. The ranger made out cards on which it stated that they climbed the tower on such and such a date, then he printed out their names, and signed it giving one to both Joanna and August. They were happy. When we got back to the car… Kaiser had torn away at the headliner all around the sunroof trying to get out of the car. I knew he didn't want to be left home, but thought he was great in the car... Wrong! We knew better than to EVER take him anywhere in the Volkswagen unless we could take him with us when we got to our destination. We started leaving him home, but he began to chew at door knobs and the handle of the sliding glass door, and scratching the wooden trim around doors until it was mostly clawed away.

Midway Bowl, had a babysitting service that was more like a pre-school run by a Mrs. Pickering, for young mothers to have watch their children while they bowled. I had first joined the team at IBM Country Club, then followed the lead of a few who tipped me off about Midway. Once when coming home from bowling at Midway, when we pulled down the driveway to the front of the garage, we could see Kaiser’s belly passing by the window as he must have run across the garage at such momentum that he ran right up the door. When we came inside we could see his footprints on the ceiling. I think he scratched and chewed at every door in the house, and because all were locked except the door to the garage, he opened that knob with his teeth, and was busy trying to find a way out of the garage.

It wasn’t long before Kaiser could open every door in the house to get out, pulling back the sliding glass door; opening the front door knob, and pushing on the storm door handle; and, of course, opening the door to the garage; and even discovered how to lift up the garage door with his teeth. It got so we would leave the doors unlocked so he wouldn’t destroy the moldings around the door. We knew he’d get out, but it took him awhile, and when we’d get home, there he’d be waiting for us, looking so relieved that we were finally home, and then he was safe. This was fine in the warm weather, but not when it was cold.

There was an iron pole support in the middle of the garage. I decided that Kaiser could be chained to this support if he had to be kept home. I did so once, and wasn’t careful to clear away everything within Kaiser’s range. When I returned, he had clawed open a bag and evenly distributed a yard of peat moss throughout the garage.

I found a big, heavy, almost round rock, I found an iron loop with a flat flange bottom and glued it to the rock with epoxy cement. I placed this in the corner of the garage, clearing everything away that had been within reach. Even this didn’t work. He was like an old fashioned prisoner with a ball and chain--literally! Again, it just slowed him down, and he’d drag around that rock like a sled dog in training.

I needed to shop for some new clothes, and took him with us to Vestal Plaza, and attached his chain leash to an anchored bench while I went into a story close by. Before I had even looked through my second rack of clothes, a cold nose was nudging my elbow, and other shoppers were giving me disapproving looks. Kaiser had broken his choke collar, and tracked me down.

Aside from his escape artist tendencies, he was a good family dog. He was patient with the children, but had his limits. Joanna was an inquisitive child, and would sit on the same bed where Kaiser was resting, and try to touch his eyeball before he’d blink. It just happened that I noticed this while I was putting away clothes, and Joanna didn't know I was observing her little game. Gently but firmly, Kaiser took her chubby little toddler’s hand in his mouth until she yelled. I stepped into the room, knew she wasn’t harmed in any way, and Kaiser willingly released her hand which hadn't a mark on it, so I wasn’t too hard on Kaiser, but taught Jo not to hurt the dog. He was even good with the little guinea pig I had gotten for the children. Or maybe for me, and I was reliving my childhood through my children. Kaiser understood that this was a pet, and not food.

But Kaiser was getting to be a danger both to himself and the traffic, as he was playing near the main road with some other dogs. One day I had no alternative but to take him with me when I went bowling. I had the station wagon, and thought he would be fine staying within it. He was used to being in that car, but I guess he hadn't been left alone in it much, as, in the middle of bowling, over the loud speaker a voice boomed, “Would the owner of a blue Ford station wagon please come to the office--a dog is tearing up the interior of your car.”

He had completely torn out the headliner of the station wagon. We had to get the headliner in the red Volkswagen replaced, and then... the Ford.

Once we had to leave the dog in the kennel for a weekend away. It felt so good to leave him somewhere--having someone else responsible for a change. When we returned, I don’t think it surprised me that they said they had to cover their 8 foot chain link yard so he wouldn’t go over the top. Also, they said, he had chewed and clawed his way into the hallway adjoining all the other pens--barked, and kept all the other dogs barking all night. And his paws were raw and almost nail-less from digging at the cement. I don't think they would have accepted him there again had we ever put him in a kennel again.

At least we got Kaiser past his second birthday. And on the day I came home from the hospital with my third child, Albert, Jr., a friend of Al’s took Kaiser to live with his family. He had six children, and his parents lived with his family. Someone would always be there for Kaiser. He finally had the perfect home, and would never have to pull his Houdini acts again. Plus it makes for a happier ending for our last Weimaraner.