Pumpkin loved to play with his babies. He had tons of them. Every time we went away, he always got a new toy. He would get toys from clients as well as his Aunt Kathy. He cherished them.
He really loved the squeaky ones. He would bite them and find the squeaky in them and continue running around the house or yard and you would hear the toys squeaks.
He grew up with a very small front yard of some grass, but it was mostly wet and muddy so we really never let him out the front of the house.
The back yard had a screened in patio and deck and a back yard that was all pea petal stones. He always did his business in the back yard.
We had alot of squirrels and deer. He was always chasing the squirrels and awed by the deer. They would come up close to the house, look in the front windows and door. Pumpkin would just watch them. You always wondered what he was thinking. We at times had more than 6 in the yard at any given time. He never barked at them. he would go outside to pee and poop and wouldn’t bother them. The Deer would just look at him and they would never be startled by Pumpkin. The Deer seems to know Pumpkin was a gentle soul.
In the winter, Pumpkin would go outside onto the patio deck and screened in area, and play in the snow. He loved the snow. He would dive into it and come up with his nose and face covered in snow. He would roll around in it and just lay there enjoying the cold on his tummy. He gave us a lot of exercise, because he always wanted outside to play. When he was little, we put in an electric fence all around our property. He got zapped a couple times and really never wanted to venue out and about. We finally decided he didn’t need the electric fence and never turned it back on. He never roamed too far out of the yard, unless he saw the next door neighbors. Then we would find him getting love and affection from them.
His daddy took him for walks everyday, a couple times a day. They ventured out all over the neighborhood. Pumpkin had favorite places to go. He would make sure you knew where he wanted to go, because it you tried going a different way, he would stop and not want to move. He finally managed to train us and we ended up going wherever he wanted to go.
Pappa was having knee and hip issues, so one day, I decided to look into a electric scooter. it was a 2 seater. Bought it through Ebay and boy did Pumpkin’s exercise programs changed. We would go out with the scooter and Pumpkin would walk beside the scooter and Pappa would comfortably keep up with him around the neighborhood.
One day, Pumpkin decides he wants to run in front of the scooter. Well from that day forward, Pumpkin would always run. When he would get tired, he would slow down and either walk or trot. But he really enjoyed taking off like a streak and we would travel the area over, just him, me and the scooter. We would get many a comments. My response was,: Pumpkin likes to run and I can’t keep up with him. We would have a blast.
I did run into some issues, when Pumpkin decided he wanted to greet a child or a neighbor. The leash would get all tangled up and I would have to get off the scooter, get us unwound and we’d be off again to the next adventure. He was really unique. He loved people and was somewhat anti social with other dogs. His mission was run, walk, have fun and he’d rather be with humans, than dogs. A few dogs caught his interest. He made a few boyfriends and girlfriends along the way. If someone would show up at the house, the minute Pumpkin heard the door bell, he was right there. Once the door was opened and he saw who came to visit, he was off grabbing one of his toys in his mouth and meeting back up with our guest. Next, he wanted to show them the backyard. Toy in mouth, we would open the back door, and out he’d go making sure they followed along to see his play area.
He never was a great toss and fetch and return to us with his toys, or balls. He would run and get them, bring them back to us and didn’t want to drop them for us to throw them again. He would dodge us as we would try to get the toy out of his mouth. We had moderate success getting him to release and fetch, but he was more of a toy or ball hog and run from us with them and not letting us get them from his mouth. He got really good at catching balls and his toys, especially, his cloth frisbee. We would seek out pet parks everywhere we went and would let him run and run and run. He was so pooped we would have to pick him up to put him in the car to go home. He’d be fast asleep the minute his head hit the pillow we had for him in the car.
The first time Pumpkin was near water that he could jump into to swim was in Florida on vacation. We got to a pet beach in Venice Florida. The beach was full of dogs, and we unleashed Pumpkin and he was in the water, playing with all his new found friends. He favored certain dogs and they played and played. He didn’t want to leave the water.
He made an impact on the human beach goers. He would come out of the water, run up the beach and find a human and then shake off the water. What a rascal.
We stayed at a rental house with a in ground pool. he wouldn’t have a thing to do with it. He wouldn’t get in, NO WAY. Daddy tried to pick him up to put him in the pool and Pumpkin started squirming, and guest who ended up in the emergency room with a strained back? Daddy never tried to entice or pick Pumpkin up to get him in a pool from that day forward.