If a piece of gum falls in the woods will my dog find it?
Yes, yes she will.
And it doesn't matter how deep the leaves are, if there is a piece of gum out there she'll find it.
And chew it.
It's hilarious...why doesn't she swallow it?
It's like she watches us and knows you are just supposed to chew.
She doesn't limit herself to the already chewed variety either.
If there's gum in my purse and I've left it within reach she's been known to snag that too.
Hubs was out of town most of last week so I spent a few days with my mom.
My mom doesn't mind if my dog tags along when I come to visit because my dog is a very well behaved pooch.
Well, except of course when she has her nose in my purse.
Normally though, she is good as gold.
This past week?
Not so much.
She has allergies this time of year and they make her itchy.
And when she scratches her collar jingles.
Its hard to sleep with jingle bells playing all night long.
Only 39 days til Christmas by the way.
So I guess this week it is back to the vet we'll go.
I'm pretty sure my car can find its own way there.
We are quite well known at our vets office.
We were also quite well known at our vets office in the UK.
And our vets office in Maryland where she started life.
If ever a family should have purchased pet insurance it was this family.
It's not that she's sick a lot.
It's more like stuff happens.
We picked her up from the breeder in May of 2002.
Three months later she somehow managed to ingest a grass awn which then proceeded to abscess in her throat.
In case you don't know, a grass awn is what you see on the ornamental grasses people grow in their gardens.
Yeah, I didn't know they had a name either.
At least not until I saw it in black and white on the vet bill (s).
Seventeen stitches and one overnite hospital stay later she was good as new.
Did I mention it was a holiday weekend?
Of course it was a holiday weekend.
These things never occur during normal office hours.
We had the pick of the litter when we chose our pup and we got to meet her mama and her daddy and her granddaddy.
They were all lovely dogs with perfect teeth.
I'm guessing the perfect teeth gene must skip a couple of generations.
Everyone who knows her agrees that her teeth only add to her charm.
I think she is slightly embarrassed by them though.
Perhaps that would explain why she chewed up one of my Invisalign trays on Saturday night.
Fortunately I was only a day away from moving into the next set.
And truth be told she probably needs it more than me.
Picture it like this...
Hubs spent his Saturday night in San Antonio at a fun work event.
I spent my Saturday night wrestling a piece of plastic dental equipment from a 60 pound dog who thought it was all some kind of a big game.
Actually I do blame her behavior on the hubs being out of town all week.
She has not done anything like that since she was a tiny tot.
She was awfully cute back then, wasn't she?
Lucky for her she still is.
She's also a gentle dog who is friendly and loves people.
And she's a natural born bird dog.
We've never really encouraged the hunting thing but her DNA will not be denied.
She loves to stalk birds, squirrels, rabbits and the dreaded ground hog.
Oh what she wouldn't give to get her mitts on a groundhog.
Specifically the one living in our rock wall.
And I guess in that instance we might possibly be encouraging the hunting just a wee bit.
She's only ever managed to catch a bird she was stalking on two occasions.
Two out of thousands.
Tens of thousands.
Pretty much every time she's outside she is stalking prey of some sort.
Both birds she captured were already injured when she caught them.
Shh.
Don't tell her.
She thought she was hot stuff.
She is getting older.
I can hardly bear to think it.
She is the sweetest dog I've ever known.
Well, except when she's eating my expensive dental apparatus but you know, the rest of the time she's a sweetie.
A sweetie who thinks she's a lap dog...
She's not, but she thinks she is.
She's a lap dog who loves her walks...
and her rides in the car.
And most especially, a lap dog who loves the hubs...
where he goes, she goes...
When she hears his car pull into the garage after work she hurries over and scoots herself as close as she can possibly get to the door...she leaves exactly enough room for it to open.
Are you a dog person or a cat person?
I figure I can ask that question here because anyone who is neither one of those probably stopped reading many sentences ago.
If you're a dog person then you understand how a dog becomes part of the family...
that no matter what sort of day you may have had she is oh so happy just to see your face.
I remember a quote I read once somewhere that said,
"I want to be the person my dog sees me to be."
I think maybe we can learn a few things from a dog.
edited to add this post is linking to the synchroblog at Chaos Theory
