Daisy Duke has a change of attitude

There was a time when Piper was Daisy Duke’s favorite target for her monkey business. A couple of swift bloodhound paws to the face would lead to the smaller dog growling, snarling and eventually acting out in revenge. The bloodhound would immediately turn into Muhammad Ali, bobbing and weaving to avoid any retaliatory nips before going in for more.

Of course, for Daisy Duke it’s all a game. The other four dogs in the house are her personal toys. She whacks them, chases them, howls at them, all in an attempt to play.

It never works. All they can see is a giant, out-of-control monster threatening their existence. So they don’t play. It’s all business to them.

The more they try to ignore her or even fight her off, the more she wants to play. It always ends with a room full of snarling, growling dogs seemingly on the verge of a brawl.

This mayhem happens every day, almost every hour when everybody is home together.

But Daisy Duke has taken a different approach with one of them recently. While she still riles up the others, she’s become more calm and gentle with Piper.

Dogs can tell when people or other animals are sick. Sometimes it’s their sense of smell, which we know in a bloodhound is out of this world. Other times they can read body language. They just know.

Whatever the case, Daisy Duke has sensed something is going on with Piper and she has given her little sister the benefit of the doubt. They can now share the same space without any skirmishes breaking out. It’s sad, but touching at the same time.

Of course, Piper is always the one who defends herself better than any of the others when Daisy Duke starts acting up. She reminds of us of a snarling badger the she feels threatened. It usually sends Daisy Duke looking for some other “prey.”

They’re still not exactly running through the yard together singing “Kumbaya” and sharing a bone, but for any of our pups, mere coexistence with Daisy Duke is a noteworthy occurrence.

She finally found a play toy that wouldn’t fight back.

Somewhere in the house, Daisy Duke discovered a stuffed animal that we didn’t even realize we had. She was seen running through the living room with a small Snuffleupagus in her mouth.

With the Sesame Street character dangling from her lips, she looked proud as could be, jumping on and off of the one couch in the house that is off limits to dogs. When she was cornered and ordered to give up the bounty, she raised her head and wailed — without even dropping the Snuffaluffagus. It was amusing to hear her muffled bay.

When she was finally finished howling, we took the toy out her mouth. Like anything else that’s been in there, it sustained severe water damage.

Joe Avento is the Sports Editor for the Johnson City Press. His award-winning column about the exploits of his bloodhound Daisy Duke appears on the first Sunday of every month. Contact him at javento@johnsoncitypress.com.