May Lee Goes on Vacation

I recently got to take May Lee out for a test drive away from the shelter. At the shelter, by many accounts, she’s been a lady with attitude. Nevertheless, I’m a big fan of hers so I thought I’d try her out and I’m so pleased that I did. She was spectacular – turns out May Lee is very sharp and eager to please…..as long as you have her respect! So here are a few notes from our holiday…

May Lee LOVES water. Not only did she make a point of getting into every body of water that we came across on our hikes, but she even poked her head in on me while I was showering, and then popped right into the tub after I was finished (this may change after she discovers bathtubs= baths).

She must have Pointer in her. My friend and I were stunned by her “point”, perfectly erect, and then we realized that she was pointing at a bobcat that was just crossing the trail in front of us, they were both a sight!

May Lee can get a bit mouthy when she gets excited so I spent some time introducing and redirecting her onto toys. It took a little encouragement to get her interested but then she discovered just the toy for her….a giant snake (and, yes, this dramatically reduced the mouthiness)!

My favorite May Lee story, though, is when we were out on the trail. We hit an area which required some rock scrambling. She was such a great working dog, listening and watching for all of my directional queues, almost like it was instinct. It was impressive, even the folks waiting for us to reach the top before they came down commented that they wished their dog listened that well….not bad for one day of practice!

We also encountered dogs and cats. My cat is pretty dog savvy so when May Lee tried to paw her, Mollie kitty responded in due kind with a big swat on May Lee’s nose. May Lee very sensibly retreated….who knows, maybe she could live with a dog savvy kitty, given some time, training, and patience.

May Lee hasn’t had a lot of close encounters with other dogs so I was curious to see how she would do with a slow meet and greet with my friend’s very steady dog. I’m happy to say she did wonderfully – she even tried to get him to play but he’s an old grump and rebuked all of her solicitations, which she accepted with submissive respect. May Lee ended up quite happy to trot alongside him and sniffing scents with him. She also did very well passing the many dogs on the trail. Mighty May Lee has so much potential to be Magnificent May Lee, with a little guidance and experience. She is so keen to partner up with her person and to be challenged to put her mind to work. She is a quintessential diamond in the rough - my friend and I both give her two strong thumbs up!