More Joshu Stories
Not surprisingly, many of the great Joshu stories are about food…
Joshu and the donuts
Joshu loved to take his treats to a private place where he could eat without being disturbed. This was especially true if the food was stolen.
My then girlfriend was a late sleeper. One morning I left for work, having started a pot of coffee for her and left her a bag of donuts on the kitchen counter.
She reports that she was awakened by the sound of the bedroom door slamming open (Joshu was easily able to open doors, but he tended to be a bit forceful about it). There in the doorway was Joshu, holding a bag of donuts. When he looked and saw that she was in the bedroom, looking at him, he paused for a moment – then brought her the bag of donuts with a “I thought you might be hungry and want these, wag wag” sort of expression. He was a pretty quick thinker.
Joshu and the romantic dinner in bed
We were living in L.A. Consequently we (the household humans) sometimes took work as extras in movies. We went to work on an a film in downtown L.A. Film shoots typically run 8 hours. This one went way, way over. We were gone for 14 hours. Dogs (Joshu and our rescue Doberman Carmen) cooped up inside for 14 hours, missing dinner. We figured we would just have to expect whatever havoc they wreaked (at the very least the consequences of not being able to get outside).
Aside – we slept on a futon (Japanese bed on the floor). We kept a bowl of rose petals next to the bed.
When we got home, there was no real havoc. No real mess. But Joshu, romantic soul that he is, dragged the 40 lb. bag of dog food from the kitchen into the bedroom and onto the bed. He had also knocked the bowl of rose petals onto the bed, scattering the petals all over the bed. So he and Carmen had a romantic dinner in bed, complete with rose petals, while we humans were out.
Joshu and the butter
We (the humans) were having an indoor picnic, eating on the living room floor. Joshu had given up on trying to cadge food, and had lain down, on his back (clearly given up, can't grab food when you're on your back). But it just so happened that his head was about 6 inches away from the butter dish.
He lay there, very relaxed and happy, for a while. Then we saw it - his enormous pink tongue snaking out from his upside down head, grabbing the entire stick of butter, and pulling it into his mouth. A frog couldn't have done it better. We were pretty hysterical.
Other stories are about the dog of great strength of body and will, or his judgement of character...
Joshu and the fence
When we moved to Santa Barbara, we had a fenced yard. Good, solid wood fence all around it. I went out one day that first week, leaving Joshu in the solidly fenced yard. But it seems he wanted to go out exploring...
When I got home, Joshu wasn't in the yard. I went out to look, and found a board broken out (remember the old cartoons where the bulldog goes through the fence, leaving a dog-shaped hole in the fence?). But that led into a neighbor's yard. Peering through the hole, I looked, and straight across the neighbor's yard there was another board broken out of the fence on the other side of their yard. That led into another yard, and I could literally see the boards broken out in all three yards. It was the straight line that was so funny and impressive - neither swerving to the left or to the right, Joshu knocked boards out of fences until he got out of the yards. He came home a few hours later, and I reinforced the entire fence with welded wire.
Joshu and the robbers
It was the first week I had Joshu. We lived in Los Angeles, in a relatively OK neighborhood. I was walking my new dog and a human friend to the local 7-11 store. I was fascinated by him, and wasn't paying enough attention to the neighborhood (I still had a lot to learn about bull breeds...). As we walked into the 7-11 parking lot my friend pulled up short and said "whoa". I looked up, and in the store were two young men, trying to rob the attendant at knifepoint. The attendant was chasing them off with a broomstick. He successfully chased them out of the store. Of course, that meant that they came into the parking lot, knives drawn. And saw us in the middle of the lot, with Joshu (85 lbs of big black bull).
Joshu was very calm and very alert. He wasn't going off, nor was he holding back, just standing alert in front of me. and the two toughs came out of the 7-11, saw us, and made a big 30 foot radius arc going past us, nervously saying "nice dog, nice dog" the whole way until they could run away.
Joshu and the gangster
Joshu only lunged at a person once in his life. And he was, in fact, entirely correct. He didn't connect (we belive in short leashes) but he effectively kept his people safe.
I was managing a hot tub spa in Los Angeles. Some of the regular customers were local gangsters - well dressed fellows who came in with different dates and different Porches/Mercedes every few nights. The owner didn't mind their patronage because they dropped very large sums of money.
The front door of the spa was heavily tinted (for privacy). That also meant that you couldn't really see who was outside. Joshu really missed me when I was at work, so very late some nights my girlfriend would come in with him and they would hang out with me while I took a break.
One of these nights we had had a pleasant visit, and they were leaving. It was about one in the morning. As they approached the door I buzzed to let a customer in. As the door opened I saw Joshu go airborne at whoever was coming in the door. He'd never done that before. His leash pulled him up short. It turned out that it was one of the gangsters coming in. The fellow somehow crossed the street in such a big hurried retreat that his feet didn't seem to actually touch the asphalt.
He was well dressed and not overtly "scummy" to human perception. Joshu had less than a second to make his assessment and react. I didn't see who was on the other side of the door until after he lunged, so I really don't think he was picking up on my judgement. He never reacted that way to a person before that time, or since. He almost always would deal with threatening or unsavory characters simply by placing his imposing body between us and them - he was never challenged when he did so. But somehow in his dog mind, this person was a definite and immediate threat to his humans and would not be tolerated.
And the amazing thing was, he was right. Several weeks later this same fellow drew a gun on one of the other attendants. Joshu had a keen sense of character that way, I learned to trust his opinion of people. Beth (my wife) says that she was more nervous meeting my dog than meeting my parents - she knew that if Joshu didn't like her the relationship would not go far (need I say that he really did like her?).
Joshu gets Dognapped
Some people tried to dognap Joshu from a parking space in Hollywood late
one night.
They had sprayed beer in through the window to get the dogs away from the
window while they reached in to unlock the car (beer spray on the headliner
near the window). Pretty darn audacious.
They successfully got the door open. A few spots of blood nearby suggested
to me that they didn't successfully get the dogs, but I wasn't sure until I
started hearing from various people on the streets that they had seen him
loose.
We searched until we found Joshu (about 2 am - Carmen, the doberman, took
longer to find and came in from a phone tip). The successful search tactic
was to tell all the homeless people who were out on the street that we were
offering a reward. We also called the Hollywood PD (this was during the
early years of the Pit Bull wars) to describe him, tell them his name and
that he was very friendly and please not to shoot him. They were very
good about at least taking the call.
A homeless guy had him on a rope leash and was leading him across a parking
lot. I drove (rather fast!) into the parking lot and called him. He came
across the lot at a full run, dragging the poor guy. He jumped into the
car and into my arms, again, dragging the poor guy, this time face first
into my car roof. Ouch!
The guy shook himself off, looked at me and said "I guess he must be your dog".
Turns out that (because of the reward) a lot of other street folks had
come up to him saying it was their dog, but it was clear from Joshu's
behavior that it wasn't so. Gotta give the guy credit for being
observant. And of course give him the reward.
I was really glad to get him back. It was not a four hours I'd care to relive.
Keep those pups safe.
Joshu and Sara
Joshu loved children. He met my stepdaughter Sara when she was 5 years old, and he was 6. He adopted her immediately, tolerated her ministrations, walked politely on leash for her, comforted her when she was sad, and made her feel safe when she was afraid. He became her dog as much as my dog. She still carries his picture in her wallet.
Joshu finds homes for the puppies
Back to those first weeks. We lived in L.A., and rented out part of our garage to a fellow who stored some things there. He was an early riser, and we worked nights, so were often asleep. One morning he came by about 6:30, got some things, and didn't quite shut the gate to the yard when he left.
Joshu and the puppies were outside that morning. We were asleep. When we awoke a bit before 10, the gate was open. Joshu and the puppies were gone. We had to go search the neighborhood for dogs who had been gone for hours.
But we knew that Joshu wouldn't leave the puppies. So off we went. If you've ever looked for a dog who's gotten out, you know that people often don't notice a dog going by ("Did you see a big black dog come by here this morning?""No..."). But it's pretty much another story with a parade of dogs. Almost everyone had seen the Big Black Dog with 5 little black puppies following him. It took us less than an hour to find them, camped out with a family on their front lawn, being fed and played with and loved. The family would up adopting 2 of the puppies themselves!
Joshu and the Coyotes
A final story, at least for now. We spent New Years' Eve 1993 camping in Joshua Tree National Monument. Beth and I, with Joshu (then 9 years old but still strong and healthy), along with Fawnie the greyhound and Missy, the old blind terrier foster dog. As the sun was setting on the first evening of our trip, several coyotes began howling. It was an amazing sound, and many of the campers around the site began to join them. I had heard Joshu howl along with fire and police sirens, and expected him to join the howling of the wild, but what he did instead amazed me, and stirred me to the core of my being. He stood up to his full size and began to growl, a deep, powerful growl, a growl that he would protect all that was his from these wild things. It was a growl of strength coming from the domestic guardian, and there was pride in it, and triumph, and profound challenge. I had never heard such a growl from him, and it was truly an awesome sound, and I felt privileged to accompany such nobility.
Epilogue
Joshu passed on in February 2000 at the ripe old age of 16. He was an amazing dog, and I still miss him. He was my friend.