Carter, the other dingo.

Jack is the dingo that gets most of the press in my household and a lot of that is because he honestly believes that he is person. Jack seems to possess a lot of my more, shall we say, more eccentric qualities. As a result, the other dog in my household, Carter, is frequently relegated to the background. Well that changes today, today we are going to talk about Carter. Carter is a terrier whose story needs to be told and songs to be sung about him. Jack wants to rule the world, but Carter lives for something else entirely. It's time for Carter to stand in the limelight!  By the way, since Jack honestly thinks he is a person, he views Carter as the dog in our household and has tendency to treat him as such.

Dingo riding shotgun.

Carter came to be a member of my household just over three years ago in the fall of 2009. I had been talking about getting a companion for Jack since he spends so much time alone in his crate and I had a lot of anxiety over it.. A coworker of mine happened to be perusing the local pound directory and came upon a doggie that was listed as a fox terrier. Intrigued, I went out to said fox terrier. To start out with, Carter is not a fox terrier. I'm not quite sure just what Carter is, he's tall like a rat terrier but his face is more like a Jack Russel terrier. I just say that he's a rat terrier for the time being. Anyway, this poor dog was found wandering a trail just south of town and he looked absolutely miserable in the pound. I went home that evening and thought a lot about him, I couldn't stand the thought of him being abandoned and placed in the pound, his face was haunting me. So, I adopted him a few days later.

Carter's name that the pound had given him was Scrappy, which did not sit well with me. He needed a proper name. Jack is named for Captain Jack Sparrow and Carter needed a similar, honorable name full of character. I decided to name him after the always smiling drummer from the Dave Matthews Band, Carter Beauford. I can hear everyone groaning over this and I stand by my decision to name him thus. I'm allowed to have one animal named after a member of my favorite band, at least his name isn't Dave. I think it's a good name and it suits him well.

Speckled nose, speckled tummy.

When I brought Carter home, he and Jack sorted out the pecking order of the house terrier style. Terrier style meaning they humped each other for four hours straight. Apparently Jack's stamina won the day and he was crowned the alpha of the two of them. Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've experienced listening to two terriers hump the hell out of each other for four hours straight while you try to play video games. Jack may be the alpha but every time the two of them get into a scrap, Carter usually kicks the shit out of him and Carter isn't as tall and weighs 3 pounds less than Jack. This dog has heart, lots of heart. That's something that I find very endearing in a dog (I wouldn't have terriers if this was the case). Carter could steal the alpha status from Jack at any moment, the things is, he doesn't care about being the alpha for reasons that will become clear here in a little bit.

We lost a lot of balls to that creek.

Carter fit in just fine in the household, he has a great personality, but he is a bit dim witted as far as terriers go, especially in comparison to Jack's megalomaniacal genius. Unfortunately, Carter is a bit of a nervous doggie, which makes me wonder if he wasn't abused in his former household. Jack trusts me implicitly but Carter gets nervous if I randomly show him the same level of affection that I'm used to giving Jack. That's not to say that he doesn't want affection, he's just more independent and wants his attention on his own terms. Carter has this habit of crawling up on my pillow just after I've crawled into bed and laying on his back for what I like to call "Carter Time". I scratch his belly to his heart's content and he grunts and groans.....like a piglet. It's really funny, Carter's snout is completely white and his coat is so thin there that you can see the pink skin that resides underneath. Thus, he loosk like a bit of a piglet and sounds like one too.

The first few months with Carter went by without much incident. If anything, he seemed to be the exact opposite of Jack. Jack is spilling over with character, whereas it didn't seem like Carter had much personality in that department. That all changed one day when Carter found a ball outside our apartment. Carter is absolutely bonkers for balls. It was like someone flipped a personality switch within him. For Carter it's all ball, all the time. This was a completely new experience for me, Jack couldn't care less for chasing balls and fetching them.  In fact, I'm pretty sure Jack looks down on carter for his obsession. Carter on the other hand, lives to play ball, there is nothing else to him. When I come home from work, I let the dogs out and Jack jumps all over me demanding to know where the hell I've been. Not Carter. He goes straight for his ball without even a glance at me. His nightly ritual involves spending 15 minutes rooting with his ball in my pillows on my bed. He does this thing where he nudges the ball under the pillow, sticks his nose under the pillow and the ball and then flips the ball into the air and catches it when it comes down. It's really amazing to watch, he flips the ball up so high that it bounces against the wall before he catches it. Once he's done with rooting around in the pillows with the ball, it's at this time that he finally acknowledges me. There are days that I feel like my sole purpose in Carter's mind is to throw the ball for him. Let me tell you, Carter may be dimwitted when compared to Jack, but he is an absolute whiz when it comes to playing ball. He never ceases to amaze me, when he gives me the ball it's like he goes into some kind of focused trance. He shuts out the entire world and focuses on nothing but the ball in my hand. You absolutely cannot fake him out because his eyes never leave the ball. As a result, he can often catch the ball in the air as soon as it leaves my hand. He routinely catches the ball in his mouth directly after it bounces against the wall. It's a shame that I don't have more free time because he could be a world champion flyball dog.

Throw the damn ball already.

At first it seemed like Carter didn't have a lot of character quirks like Jack, but that proved to be wrong. Carter is absolutely obsessed with the dog food dish being full. If the dish is not full, Carter is not happy. I free feed the dogs since Jack tends to be a bit of a grazer. If the dish is empty, Carter will whine incessantly and push the bowl around the kitchen until I get up and fill the dish. This isn't because Carter is hungry, it's because he's worried that there isn't going to be any more food. Ever. I think this comes from him being abandoned on a trail and he may have had to fend for himself for a time. Thus, he worries if there is going to be a next meal. Carter also like to roll and smoke his own cigars. Smoking cigars meaning he likes to eat his own shit. Jack finds this extremely distasteful and turns his nose up at Carter any time he observes him lighting up a stogie. I do believe that I have mostly broken Carter of this habit though I do catch him looking intently at a freshly passed specimen. It's really funny, he looks around to see if anyone is watching and then sort of casually places said cigar in his mouth, like he's lighting up a marijuana joint in public and is afraid someone is going to narc on him. Carter is unlike Jack in his sleeping habits too. Carter is a sort of "let's get up early and play ball" kind of dog, whereas Jack and I are very much about sleeping in. I think Carter waits for hours each morning for my telltale deep inhale and exhale that signifies that I am waking up. As soon as he hears this, he's out of the bed and has his ball in his mouth, ready to go. Carter also has what I like to call an "iron bladder", he can seriously go over twelve hours without having to pee. Jack gets me up at least twice a night to go out but Carter stays in bed for the duration. Also Carter has his favorite spot when I'm playing video games or watching a movie. Jack is usually snuggled up next to me, whereas Carter sits on top of the couch back, wrapped around my neck, it's just where he likes to be when he's tired of playing ball.

Enthused dingo is enthused.

Carter's favorite spot.

                                              

It may seem like Carter plays second fiddle to Jack and to some extent that is true. I've had Jack since he was a puppy and we really bonded strongly during our time on Kauai. That's not to say that I don't love Carter dearly, I just have a different sort of relationship with him than I do with Jack. Personality wise, Jack and Carter couldn't be more different if they tried. Appearance wise, it's the same,  Jack is very regal and handsome, whereas Carter is cute in a piglet sort of way. They are different dogs, I'm not sure I could handle having another dog with Jack's personality, having one dog that thinks he is a person and wants to rule the world is enough. I'm very to have Carter and couldn't be happier with the fact that Carter joined our family, even if he drives me nuts wanting to play ball 24 hours a day.

Who can say no to a face like that?