Kitsune: My Xmas Fox

12.25.23

Ode to Kitsune, my first born 🤣. Shiba Inu, his name is just fox in Japanese, I thought I was being clever but pretty popular name I found. He had a bunch of nicknames Kit, KitKat, Kisstunes, Kissytunah-nah, Katmandoo, Catfish, Tunafish, Kitsune Cattywamp, Tangelo Fandango, Foxybanana 😂😂😂 there are more but those were the mains how he knew his actual name baffles me.

He was born on Christmas Day 2003 which would make him 20 years old today. This picture was taken on his first day home with me. He was so good on the drive in the car always was too after that, like he just knew how to do everything already. I can’t remember but it seemed like he learned sit in a day. He was born potty trained, not even kidding. I never peepad trained him, but did Zita, and it never altered his good behavior. When he was a puppy I just took him outside every few hours, when he woke up from naps and feedings, and he never had an accident in the house except for once, but that was right after his first rab vac which tends to bring on diarrhea. It’s like he came pre programmed with all the good housekeeping dog lessons mastered. I couldn’t have asked for a better dog than he was. I did train him to go the bed in a crate at night then, I would take him out first thing in the morning, get ready for work feed and water, go back outside,then in the crate while I went to work. He enjoyed the crate actually, he was never a dog that slept in bed with me, even when I would unlatch the crate to let him free roam at night when he was older. Now because he was so smart and headstrong and full of turbo energy he would jump on the bed often just to mess up the comforter and make me yell at him. He thought it was funny, and knew how to push my buttons. I learned from him quickly to just stay quiet and calm and he would stop doing it, it wasn’t as fun anymore.

Now for the biggest story of his life 🐕,
He loved to be chased, oh boy, that was the funnest thing, to him, not to me 🤣. I never in all my life trusted him off leash. The first year I had him we had an accident, I was walking him on a new heavy chain leash and it accidentally slipped out of my hand. He immediately looked behind at me as he felt the drop and noticed he was free and started running forward. He never stopped looking at me, I started running and yelling because I saw his approaching death. A van was driving quickly into the park lot well over the speed limit. I watched in absolute horror as they ran him over, or so I thought. Well…it was a stop drop and roll because he apparently had ninja skills. Turned out they barely clipped him and ran over the chain, it didn’t stop him though back on his feet he ran in a straight line into the woods across the parking lot. Long story short, they apologized and I let them go because I had to find him before it got dark. A Shiba Inu is not obedient with recall, I yelled and yelled and cried knowing he was not going to come to me, I started to panic because that heavy leash was still on him. The woods were so thick I knew he’d possibly get tangled up and hurt. I went back to my apartment and found a flashlight. Started walking up and down the back of the apartment complex and people started coming out on thier balconies. Unfortunately most of them only spoke Spanish and didn’t know what was happening, and I didn’t have time to mess with it.

I almost gave up looking after five hours but decided to do a few circles in the car. Not knowing what to do if I found him that way. It was 11pm and my last circle back around to the apartment about to call off work for the next day so I could continue the search. Then, lo and behold I see a silhouette of a foxy little dog sitting in the light of the moon beside the community mailboxes. I leaned over and opened the car door and said Kitsune and he turned his head and calmly walked up and jumped in and sat down. My heart was thumping I was in shock and disbelief that he was okay and so fucking calm, he was tired. I was so relieved and exhausted, I never used that chain again. He woke up in the morning stiff but not really phased at all, he had no open wounds just some bruising inside I’m sure. He was so fucking lucky, and I called him a cat from then on because he had just spent one of his lives that night.

He had many adventures in his life I’m sure. He had spent the night in a kennel when I first moved to Tallahassee and I had traveled home to visit family. I cried because it was his first night with people he didn’t know. I tried to explain every minute detail of his quirks so they were prepared. The owner of the kennel laughed as he was familiar with the breed and seemed to ease my tension. When I came back to pick him up they said he was a Houdini because when they closed up that first night Kitsune had escaped the kennel and was just loose running around the Facility, the only explanation was that he climbed the door and jumped over it. I knew he would! He also came home knowing how to shake paw 😏, they must have taught him that and didn’t tell me. He was so smart.

Eventually I started working in a doggy job and he would stay with my people there when I was out of town and stuff so that was much easier on me. So weird things about him, he would sit calmly and sweet on a leash if another dog was coming down the sidewalk and then when they would get close enough his face would turn grimacing and he would lunge at them and start barking. Or if I took him to a park and he saw a dog he would ambush them, drop to the ground like a cheetah and wait for them to come at him. I of course would NOT let him do that stuff though. It was so hard to break him of that 😫. He was good at daycare for the most part, because he wasn’t on a leash. Most dogs tolerated him but he didn’t play right (bad etiquette), so it was frustrating. I liked to keep him with small dogs so he was king of the littles, which worked for him. He was good then, but bored. Dogs his own size he would challenge and easily get that cold shoulder from them and would act like he didn’t exist. You could see the confusion it brought him too. Big dogs he would annoy by sneaking up and barking loudly in their ear and aggressively poke their bodies with his nose, or nibbling their ankle to play, or pull fur out their tail. It was like he didn’t know how to dog, even though he had Zita at home. Luckily for her coming into his life his first year (6 month age difference) she taught him a lot about how to treat her even though she was pint sized, he was the funniest gentleman to her, so much love and respect between them.

Eventually he became more and more mellow with age and he was the best dog I could ask for. He had catlike cleanliness and charm, he enjoyed his own space so he was not a Velcro dog. He knew when I was sad, and would comfort me with his goofball ways, knowing how to make me laugh. After about four years old he stopped going for negative attention triggers like jumping on the bed or flying around the house bouncing off the furniture. He definitely knew a ton of words, when I didn’t understand what he wanted he would give me subtle clues like sighs and eye rolls. I swear I channeled his inner human voice too and personality through me, in my mind he said “What” a lot and his voice sounded a lot like that Right said Fred singer, I used to sing him that catwalk song it was SO him. He would take treats and food from your hand so gentle with his front little teeth 😆, he ate one piece of food at a time so he savored his food and never over ate. I could have free fed him, but Zita was not like that, she would inhale the food and eat everything you gave her. Many times she would finish hers and start eating his but he didn’t care. I would get her though because she’d easily gain weight.

I think I have mentioned his passing already in a previous blog post, so I’ll just say it was when I lived in Michigan before winter, so unfortunately he never experienced snow or the desert in New Mexico. But I think he had a full and vibrant Florida life, with lots of adventures and people friends. I’m just going to end this now because I could go on and on but yes now for the pictures, lots of them.