Lifestyles
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A Dog’s Tail
One family and their best friend
By Jenny Glick
Special to the Jewish Times
When you think of a family dog, you might not think of Zody. He is little, he is scrappy and he’s no bigger than a small cat. Zody is the kind of dog that fans of big dogs such as Labs or retrievers might condescendingly describe as a “yip-yappy.”
However, make no mistake: This seven pound, white-and black-spotted toy fox terrier that inhabits the Davidson house in Owings Mills is an integral part of the Davidson family and everyone knows who the boss is.
Finding Mr. Right
Zody joined the Davidson family approximately three years ago when then-six-year-old Jordyn Davidson and her mom Kimberly stopped on a whim in front of a big sign on Reisterstown Road proclaiming “Puppies, Puppies, Puppies.”
Kimberly Davidson remembers several adorable full-breed puppies roaming around, but Jordyn couldn’t take her eyes off the tiny toy fox terrier in the sales office nicknamed “Sponge Bob Square-Pants.”
It was the only dog Kimberly Davidson remembers that was not a full breed. And, she recalls, he was also kind of homely.
She still remembers the moment when Jordyn asked her, “Can we get him?”
Trying to steer her daughter in another direction, she pointed to a cute puppy and said, “Look at this puff ball.” But she knew she was in trouble when she looked into her daughter’s serious big hazel eyes and heard, “No, Mommy, this is the one. I want him.”
Kimberly Davidson, a JCC Owings Mills preschool teacher, with a sunny, glass-half-full personality, took a hard look at Zody and her daughter’s steadfast love and decided the dog had at least one redeeming quality. .
“He’s so ugly that he’s cute,” she remembers thinking.
“Who’s the Boss?”
The rest is history. For starters, all five members of the Davidson clan had no idea that when they brought Zody home, he would have such a strong personality. Or, for that matter, that he would stake his claim on the matriarch of the family.
“He thinks he’s the husband in this relationship. She’ll be in bed; I walk in the door. I get a little growl,” says Brian Davidson.
After working a long day and putting three kids to bed, when Kimberly and Brian finally climb into bed, Zody has beaten them to the finish. His pillow is sandwiched in between their two pillows, with blankets pulled up under his chin.
Kimberly Davidson says, “He does things really unusual. He’s a diva dog. He won’t go to sleep until he has a pillow and a blanket.”
If they decide they want a little time alone, there is a price to pay.
“If you close the door to have some privacy…he leaves a present.”
The list of what this temperamental dog does is long and exhausting:
He poops in rainbows, because he loves to eat crayons.
He has forced Himalayan cats Zinfandel and Zima into the basement: They haven’t come out of hiding in three years.
He greets his favorite people by spraying them with just a touch of eau de…. YUCK! The poor nanny never catches a break.
“She’s such a dog person; he is so excited to see her. He always pees on her,” says Kimberly Davidson.
Zody is also very finicky about where he puts his business. Most of the time only porches will do, but he’s very specific about what kind of porch.
“He goes to the bathroom on our deck, only goes on composite wood. He is very particular where he does his business,” Kimberly Davidson says.
Like many small dogs, Zody holds a very strong belief that he is much bigger, stronger and more powerful than he is. Kimberly Davidson says his “little man” syndrome has put him into some tight spots. Like the time they were camping in Maine, and he decided to take down a much bigger dog.
The incident is memorialized by a half dozen tiny stylish casts: a tiny yellow cast with hearts, and purple casts with blue stars for his broken leg. Forty-five hundred dollars in vet bills later, the family wishes he would take a look in the mirror and realize that the pint-size pooch staring back is, frankly, quite unmistakably small.
The one serious incident they’ve had with Zody was a year ago, when Zody was sunning himself and Grandpa Lolo leaned over to scream a surprise greeting, and received a nasty return hello — a bloody nose.
Kimberly Davidson says she frantically rushed out of her preschool class after she got the call that her father was in the hospital. She says she was mentally preparing for the worst, to have “to put Zody down.” She certainly didn’t want him to bite her kids, Brady, Corey or Jordyn. She remembers sharing her concerns with the vet and waiting, bracing for his answer. Then the vet, knowing her father and knowing how much the Davidsons adore Zody despite his prima donna tendencies, says…
“Give him another chance.”
They did.
Here’s why. If you ask about Zody’s redeeming qualities, you get a much shorter, but impressive list nonetheless.
He’s a big time snuggler.
Five-year-old Brady and seven-year-old Cory love it when he wakes them up with big juicy kisses.
Best of all, he makes them laugh.
“When he gets really happy he starts running around in circles,” Brady says.
“I love that he protects us…that he’s a miniature Cujo” Kimberly Davidson says. “He would never let anything happen to us … if he ever knew we were in danger.”
Here Kimberly Davidson pauses to think. That’s when her husband jumps in, to finish her sentence, to rescue her from the thought …What exactly could he, would he, do?
“He’d bark” Brian Davidson says.
Zody, the Davidson’s toy fox terrier, licks peanut butter off a window.
Brady Davidson enjoys entertaining Zody with his mother Kimberly.
Zody, the boss of the Davidson family, loves to make parents Brian and Kimberly, and children (left to right), Corey, Jordyn and Brady, laugh.
Zody poops in rainbows because he loves to eat crayons.
Jordyn Davidson feeds Zody a piece of cheese as her mother, Kimberly, looks on.
Corey and Zody
Brady and Zody
Corey dropping cheese for Zody
