Here is Lola, our best girl, in her favored spot on the porch couch. You can see that she has one blue eye, the dangerous one, that since she was a puppy, alerted us to her demands (many!). From her perch on the couch she can see out into the yard and monitor the comings and goings of armadillos, her first choice of critters to chase. When she spots one, or even the possibility of one, she is instantly off the couch and barking at the screen door. She has never caught one because they are armored with hard scales and way bigger than she is.
Lola is such a social animal; she prefers people to other dogs she mostly ignores. I am amazed at her memory of people she loves. All during the long summer when our house was closed up and air conditioned Lola fell into our routines. But today, the first day of cool weather after six long months, when we opened up the house she remembered that it would be good to go out on the front porch and lie in the sun. She remembers these routines. She is happiest when she can sit beside Andy when he reads the morning paper, or after lunch when she accompanies me on the couch to read the New York Times or in the evening when she knows one of us will boost her into our high bed so she can worm her way under the covers and await our warm bodies for the night.
I know the names of hundreds of my friends' dogs. Maggie, Pepper, Daisy, Breezy, Zoe, Bailey, Rebel, Phoebe -all friends of mine. No one ever would ask in a job interview or in a doctor's office about our pets. But they are key to our lives.
My sister has a dog who came to her as a puppy and it turned out that this dog was extremely difficult. But they kept on with this dog who did such things as eat the refrigerator. I wondered how in the world they could keep on with this creature. But, now, when I visit, Daisy just seems to be kind of a loopy personality, friendly, and watch your possessions.
An old friend from my childhood has the perfect dog, Velvet, a black lab, smart, perfectly trained and a joy to be with. My sister in law has a large curly Portugese water dog, Breezy, who is truly friendly and outgoing. I love having this large soft wonderful dog sit on my lap!
A daughter of one of my good friends has no kids but she has that old basset hound and she has to consider him as she contemplates a move.
Having dogs makes us human, I think. We laugh at their antics. They endure beyond our own kids. They are tactile and loving. All that good stuff. Dogs keep us fit because they always need a walk. They keep us responsible because they always need to be fed and watered. Sixty percent of us sleep with our dogs! We carefully tend to our puppy training and in their old age we lift them up onto the couch and give them soft food. We ignore their smelly farts. We incorporate the names of our dogs into our passwords.
Most of all our dogs present in our lives a sense of humor. In their own ways, all of our dogs are certainly funny. We dress them up in Halloween costumes (that they try to take off) and we give them ridiculous toys that squeak and quack.
We think of getting a back up dog. (Lola is a 'young' thirteen). Should we get another weiner dog?
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