MAMBO THE MAMA'S BOY (PEDIGREE)
IDCR# IDC1285M; NKC# NKC14-900468340
HEIGHT AT WITHERS: 29"
WEIGHT: 132 LBS.

Gone but not forgotten, this was Abi's dog, Mambo at 11-weeks old. For ten weeks, he has firmly believed that Abi is his mother and that his mother, Bella, is just the restaurant where he eats. From 3-weeks of age on, Mambo would not sleep near the litter. Instead he cried and cried for Abi. If we refused, he'd curl up as far away from the other puppies as he could get, and get up and leave if anyone bothered him, returning to crying for Abi. We eventually let him have her. Mambo slept beside Abi in bed as a puppy and never once had an accident - an essentially unheard of circumstance with a puppy this age. I am a typically rational person not veering much into mysticism, but I have no logical explanation for this dog's behavior regarding my daughter. I'm left needing to concede that God really may have sent my child a dog all her own.

Mambo is a self-willed, stubborn monstrosity of 130 pounds. Mom, Bella, is 85 pounds, dad, Judah 88 pounds. Mambo does not tolerate strangers - at all. He does not tolererate a cross word towards Abi without a quickly returned threat - and he means it. If I need to spank Abi, Mambo will bite me - possibly even the next day if he was outside at the time. Mambo is exclusively Abi's dog - not our dog, but Abi's dog. If I tell him to sit, he'll stand up. Tell him to come and he'll go. Tell him don't touch that and he'll pick it up and chew it right in front of me, daring me to stop him. Mambo guards my brain damaged child, alerts to her seizures in advance, and waits upon her every whim. Abi and Mambo share a secret language, and he'll jump to do whatever she says. I cannot explain it; I'm only a witness to it. I'm just glad he lets us pet him.

Mambo at under a year, waiting outside a bedroom door for Abi. He waits as long as the door is closed - unless he decides to open it, as he eventually did one day by head butting it, and breaking the lock and two hinges. Abi had just had a seizure. He'd been barking and raising the alarm, but I was on the phone and didn't think about it. I found Abi unconscious, having vomitted. Mambo's head was below her head and neck as a pillow, preventing her from choking on it as she slept.

Mambo is playful and fun, so don't get the wrong idea. He is very sweet towards the kids, towards Becky and even typically towads me - though I think with me, the vote is still out; he may just be tolerating me till he figures out how to drive the truck and go buy dog food and McDonald's cheeseburgers on his own.

Mambo with Abi at 11-weeks. We named him "Mambo the Mama's Boy," Abi being his "mama." Now that he's older, Mambo typically sleeps outside, below my own bedroom window, completely on the other side of the house from Abi's room, because he's so effective guarding the yards and rear door. On more than one occassion, Mambo has woken us up in the night, telling us to go check Abi. Every single time she has been awake and with some issue - sick, a seizure, a bad dream. He just knows... Mambo is now 130+ pounds, 29" at the Withers, 25" head and disturbingly intelligent. He is entirely untrained but by Abi herself, she being about three mentally. He'll do whatever she wants, from laying beneath her as a pillow for hours at a time, to attending tea parties with her dolls, to going and getting things for her.