Mandel came into my life in June, 1990 at about 8 weeks old.  He was 11lbs. when I brought him home from the SPCA.  He was sick with what turned out to be parvo.  It nearly killed him.  He needed surgery to remove a section of his intestine which had telescoped in on itself.  Mandel was down to 7lbs. when he came home from the hospital.  Once home he recovered quickly.  Years later he would suffer a hernia right at the site of his intestinal surgery, but that was the only ill effect I ever noticed from his near-death experience.

People always ask about the name... Mandel is named after Benoit Mandelbrot, the mathematician who did pioneering work in fractal geometry.

Mandel is about seven months old and going through a digging phase.  After one particular excavation, Mandel trots over to me with his little snout all covered with dirt.  I turned to him and said, "Hi Mandel."  Right as I opened my mouth to speak he thrusts forward his entire snout.  He practically got his eyeballs into my mouth.  It was truly gross.  I was spitting out dirt, fur, and dog nose drippings.
    -- November, 1990

Got another dog.  His name is Lancelot (Lance).  He is black with white chin, chest, and feet.  He is a Lab mix like Mandel.  I think he will be about 60lbs. full grown, but not as tall as Mandel.  Right now he is 22lbs. and about 3 months old.  He was sick the first week at home, but it was nothing serious.  He is better now and playing with Mandel all the time. Actually they terrorize each other as best they can.  Mandel can get Lance's entire neck in his mouth (and often does).  Lance is getting braver by the day.  Now he taunts Mandel from beneath the kitchen table where he has a distinct fighting advantage (being short).  Usually Mandel grabs Lance's neck and pushes Lance to the ground with his foot.  Then Lance starts biting Mandel's neck, face, and tummy.  They go after each other until Lance yelps, then I come rescue him.
    -- January, 1991

The SPCA told me that Lance's original name was "Touchdown."  I envision some fat, lazy, irresponsible, football-watching, beer-drinking, Texan who doesn't have the humanity to make sure his dogs are neutered or spayed.  At least he had the decency to bring Lance to the SPCA where I could find him and provide him an infinitely better life.  Lance was in a cage with other puppies.  He was fat from stealing all their food, and he was surrounded by all the toys in the cage.  He wasn't playing with the toys, he just wouldn't let the other dogs play with them.  I knew in an instant that he was the perfect dog to be Mandel's new little brother.

Both dogs managed to accidentally bite me over the years.  Mandel got my thumb twice.  The first time was as a puppy when we were playing with a toy and he bit past the toy and right through my thumbnail.  The nail split across my thumb and eventually fell off.  The second time was near the end of his life.  I was holding a rawhide toy for him to chew and talking on the phone at the same time.  He went right through my thumb again.  This time the nail didn't split, and all the blood came out through the hole in the nail.  So I ended up not losing the nail.  Lance only got me once, but it was a good one.  He caught a bit of my hand in his teeth when he was trying to take a stick from me.  Tore it pretty well, and right before my first ever outdoor climbing trip.  Still have a scar from that one.

Lance was a lifeguard dog.  For a time, he would try to drag anything he could find out of the water.  It started with sticks, but continued to swimmers (he only grabbed clothing or life jackets).  He even tried to pull a boat to shore.  The funniest instance was when I put Mandel in one of those innertubes you drag behind a ski boat.  Mandel was floating, happy as can be.  Lance swims up, grabs the tether in his mouth, pulls Mandel to shore, then drags Mandel as far up the beach as he can.  Everyone around was watching and laughing hysterically.

Lance never experienced fear or pain.  Once he ran clear though an electric fence, knocking down one of the posts.  When he came trotting back to me, he went right through the fence again.  He paused this time with the fence touching his back and kept looking around for whatever was tickling him.  This is the same dog who once went after a Rottweiler and Doberman simultaneously.  That's Lance.  No pain, no fear.  Almost no fear.  He was terrified of beeping noises like a watch alarm.  I could tell right away when he got scared, but it took me a long time to figure out the cause.  Once I knew, I could protect him from all beeping objects.

Took the dogs walking in the woods by my parent's house.  Mandel comes trotting up with this huge stick in his mouth.  Except it isn't a stick...  It is an entire deer leg.  Hoof and everything.  Mostly still covered with skin except at the very top where it was just a bloody stump.  Still in pretty good shape, so it probably hadn't been detached long ago.  I guess some poachers only wanted to bring home the head.  Poor Mandel, he was so proud, he didn't understand why I made him drop it.
    -- November, 1995

Went for a winter hike at Taughannock Falls State Park.  There was nobody around, so I had the dogs off leash.  We were hiking up to the falls when suddenly this big, funny looking dog comes charging down the path at us.  But wait... it isn't a dog, it's a deer.  And it is still coming straight at us.  The deer hurdled Lance.  Didn't pass near him, or brush by him.  That crazy deer went straight over the top of Lance and passed about 12 inches from Mandel.  Lance was bemused, but Mandel was off like a rocket after that deer.  The deer initially had a 100' head start, and by the time they passed out of my view Mandel had closed to about 20'.  I expected to see him come trotting back with another deer leg.  From the tracks in the snow I could see what happened.  The deer went straight up a 10' cliff to escape.  My guess is that Mandel caught up with it, then didn't really know what to do.  He probably didn't bite the deer, just wanted to play.
    -- December, 1995

Mandel finds a 7" turtle, carries it across the yard, then chews intently on the shell.  Mandel is disappointed when I return the turtle to the creek.  The turtle looks none the worse for the experience, but probably prefers not to be a chew toy.
    -- May, 1996