Oil can

I have a dog with a squeak. Oddly enough, it is worse when he is crated and seems to be exacerbated by his barking. Bark, bark, squeak, squeeeeek, squeeeeeeeeeek.

Since we can't figure out where to oil him, we have been generally squirting him with a water bottle. It works in the short run, but next think I know, we get the bark, bark, squeeeeeek, squeeeeeeeeeeeeeek, squeak again. He squeaks when he is hungry; he squeaks when he wants out; he squeaks when he wants attention or water.

For a dog who is such a bruiser, the squeaking is a bit disconcerting. However, it does appear to be his nature. This same dog, called by the nickname Nene, or baby in Spanish, had to go to the vet for stitches on his eyelid because he got into an altercation with Dirty Harry, our other dog. When I took Nene to the vet to get the stitches removed, the vet stuck his face right by the dog's eye, magnifying glasses in place, and removed the sutures. The entire time the vet is saying, "Yes, I know, you're just a big baby," I am envisioning those long pearly white canines slashing the vet's face to ribbons. However, when the vet finished the procedure, he mopped up a puddle--Nene, the bruiser, had wet on the floor from fear.

Is all that toughness potential I see in Nene really an illusion? Is Nene, who looks like he could and would take on anyone or anything, really just a squeakbox who wags all the time; as his nickname says, is he a baby?

Or is it like the characters in the Wizard of Oz--he doesn't see himself as he really is, and he won't until he is tested.