Dave has an affinity for terriers, and they look good on him. So when Mary Ann got her new dog Cooper, a pound mutt, we took lots of pictures. This is her first terrier.
Cooper will actually let Mary Ann get some work done. Her previous two dogs borrowed heavily from the border-collie genome, and tended to last about three minutes on a "stay" before they reminded her that it had been about three minutes since she taught them anything. Consequently they both knew several thousand different things to do, fetch, slide down, point at, look for, etc., and it was a miracle she was ever able to get anyt

Our old dog Boomer, also a terrier mutt, was a good fit for us. She was so cute it wobbled your heart. She was so cute as a puppy that when she'd roll over and piddle on herself, that was cute, too. We snapped her up and stocked up on Lysol and called it a bargain. She was affectionate and loyal, but she also had an independent spirit that we appreciated, because we are not the sort of folk who want a dog's undivided attention.

The neighbor man thought she was so cute that he routinely gave her as much food as she would take in. She could maintain that for the amount of time it took to get back home, where she would knock urgently at the front door, run inside and hurl on the floor, presenting us with the neighbor's dinner in virtually original condition. "That's bigger than her whole head," we would marvel in disbelief, and then she'd take two paces and do it again. Fortunately, she never ate the baking powder biscuits. Those were strictly for burying in the back yard. She didn't know how to climb back over the hedge, and so she would knock

For a dog this resourceful, dry kibble was definitely the food of last resort; she'd take one at a time and crunch it down, lips peeled back in distaste. We went through almost two bags of it in her entire lifetime. Who knows how much longer than seventeen years she would have lived with a proper diet?
I guess it's just as well we never had children, because we probably overvalue the ability of animals to fend for themselves. Consequently, in the post-Boomer years, we have become cat people. We are still the recipients of intense affection, expressed somewhat differently in the form of head-bonking, eyebrow-chewing, and kneecap-gnawing, but now we can go away for up to three days, leaving behind a critter with world-class napping skills and a rich interior life. When we come home, it will be to a very well-rested cat with three days of love stored up and a kneecap jones. Ain't nobody going to sleep tonight.
AWWWW. . . . .
ReplyDeleteMy Uncle Skip, a Labrador, used to go to the store on the command, "Skip, go get your supper." He'd show up back at the house with a can of Dr. Ballard's.
ReplyDeleteDave in brown: cool. Boomer: unbelievably, ridiculously adorable. Description of border collie mentality: spot on.
ReplyDeleteOnce had two border collies, Whiskey and Soda -both drove me crackers! but smart they were, if I just could have found more things for them to herd.
ReplyDeleteI made the silliest gasp when I opened the blog and saw the first pic, because I though you and uncle dave got a new puppy!!! Oh, well. These are exTREMEly cute ... love and miss you, S.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to mention that Cooper is an "Imperial Podunk Terrier", or Impy for short. A very rare breed.
ReplyDelete(More on Cooper, just in case you are interested: http://www.castofcharacters.com/cooper.htm)
I DID forget to mention that. Just another one of the ways Coop is one of a kind.
ReplyDeleteDave in brown: cool. Boomer: unbelievably, ridiculously adorable. Description of border collie mentality: spot on.
ReplyDelete