Special Maddie

I always knew that Maddie was special. And by special I mean special ed.

Ok, so that’s a bit offensive. But if you saw her in a dog harness you would think she belonged in some mental institution made specifically for dogs.

You see, Maddie is a Jack Russell Terrier.... she’s just not all quite there. Some DNA strands got misplaced in her gene pool and she happens to look shorter and “stockier” than pure Jacks. Maybe Mama Jack Russell cheated on Papa Jack Russell one night and eloped with a Chihuahua. Nevertheless, she is just not the cream of the crop, to put ever so lightly. As you can see in the picture below, a pure Jack Russell is in the foreground. Maddie is in the back. Look at how deformed she appears compared to the all and mighty Pure Jack.



This brings me to my next case: collars. Maddie’s neck is small but it’s also kind of stocky. She also has a tiny cranium (insert brain-size-jokes here). I felt like her collars were tugging too hard on her neck but I had to keep them snug or else they’d slip over her tiny head (believe me, it’s happened, and it’s NOT fun to chase her), so today I went out and bought her a harness.



Yes, this black quasi-medieval torture device/sex toy cuffs-looking thing is her harness. It’s supposed to help with her tugging tendencies as well as provide “comfort”.



Comfort, my ass. This thing didn’t do one bit of justice for her. She looks like some miserable little rat about to go mountain climbing. Poor little girl.

So it looks like I’m back to collars. If any of you dog gurus out there know of anything better, let me know. I’m just mainly concerned about hurting her neck, because sometimes when she gets excited about potty time she will drag me to the lawn. I love her to death, and I want to avoid any injury, but lets also avoid trying to make my dog look like some crazy dominatrix fool. I mean, look at her face, she already looks like a fool (but a damn cute one) :)