As a child I was fairly active; however, my age group did not have the medications to slow us down, only switches that we were lucky enough to pick ourselves. So when my son was diagnosed with ADHD I told myself, the doctors, and my family that I could teach him self control without medication. Honestly he did a good job learning as long as he was in my presence.
In other people’s care he had problems. It was during his Uncle Pete’s watch that he drove the car through the carport at age 4, missing the support beam by 5”. With in the second month of pre-kindergarten he was rocking the classroom so much I was politely requested to home school him. The last straw was at age 6, when he was “helping” his father wire in a metal barn, and unbeknown to his father, climbed up the outside of the 15’ tall metal barn, using the octagon screw heads, up to the roof. With in the week I had him back in the doctor’s office getting a prescription!
Giving my history with hyper activity, of course I was up for the challenge when my friend Billy came to me in April, giving me a Jack Russell Terrier, Buford. I brought Buford home and immediately he fit in to our family, and even better, he bonded with our 6 year old blue healer, Oscar. Within a few months Buford had learned his new home and some of the “Laws of the land”, such as no chasing cows or horses because it hurts when they kick, eating out of Oscar’s food dish causes Oscar to show rather large teeth, and that there is a consequence to using humans as a chew toy.
Unfortunately, his self control fled as well when he heard other dogs across the highway barking at night, and at a pace of 0-90 in 2.4 seconds that was one lesson he could not learn from.
RIP Buford, you brought us laughter and joy for a short time, but one that will not be forgotten.
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