TheBanyanTree: Wonder dog?

[Monique Colver]

Dogs are the most entertaining creatures. Yesterday the charming husband was
downstairs making his lunch. He has a tendency to cook things on breaks,
going up and down the stairs so I'm never sure when he's at lunch or when
he's just roaming between outgoing calls. Other times he's at his desk for
hours at a time, so there's no telling. I don't worry about it, since I'm
doing my own work. We each make our lunch when we each feel like it, and
occasionally we pass each other in the hallway, or we sit downstairs for a
few minutes before one of us heads back up. He'd decided to use up the
bacon, since it was just sitting there (likely story), so he'd cooked it and
made a sandwich. I was sitting on the couch enjoying my lunch, and he came
into the living room and sat down next to me and we asked each other how
work was.
I don't know why he left his bacon sandwich on the kitchen counter.
Sometimes he makes food and then leaves it laying around. This is one of
those boy mysteries I don't worry about, though occasionally I'll say
something appropriate like, "Are you going to eat that, or did you just make
it for fun?" But this time his habit of leaving food around was just the
opportunity Ash had been looking for, and the sound of something falling in
the kitchen, right behind us, alerted us to the possibility that something
was going down.

And there was Ash, with the bacon sandwich, quite pleased with himself for
having won the prize, the prize that he was obviously deserving of, for why
else would someone leave perfectly good food laying around? Charming husband
was not pleased, and when he yelled at Ash the poor dog came running to me,
as if I'd protect him.

Charming husband went back up to work, his break being over, and later he
made more bacon, determined to get his bacon sandwich no matter what Ash had
to say about it. This time he did not leave it unattended.

On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 12:33 PM, Laura <wolfljsh at gmail.com> wrote:

> When my two beloved Papillons had to be euthanized, we decided to get
> slightly larger dogs.  We'd had Shelties before, and loved them.  They are
> the perfect size, small enough to keep in a house or even an apartment, but
> big enough to take to the park and run or throw the ball with.  So we got
> Shelties.  Kona the mahogany sable Sheltie came first, in July 2008, just
> six weeks after Ziggy died.  Maya, the blue-eyed blue merle Sheltie came to
> live with us in May of 2009, more than two months after Pucky left us.
>
> Both of these beautiful girls are such a joy to have around!  Maya is still
> very much a puppy at only 6 months old, and a hefty 18 or so pounds, but
> Kona, at a petite 14 pounds, is a big grown-up girl at 17 months.  She
> knows
> all the house rules, knows all the important obedience stuff, plus a few
> cute tricks, and has been 100% trustworthy in the house since she was 3 1/2
> months old.  When we leave the house, Maya usually has to be in her kennel
> because we don't really trust her self-control at such a young age, but
> Kona
> is left loose in the house with her much older sister, Angel.  (Angel is
> somewhere around 9 years old and spends most of her time sleeping or
> begging
> for pats, so doesn't figure into this story.)
>
> Today, my husband has to work.  Normally he doesn't work on Saturday,  but
> they've scheduled several for the rest of the year.  He works in a factory,
> and it's HARD work.  I always feel sorry for him on Saturday weeks, because
> he gets so tired when he misses out on that extra day of rest and recovery
> time.  Last night I decided to do something a little special for him to
> sort
> of make up for having to work, so I offered to fix him whatever he wanted
> for today's dinner.  After a couple hours of thinking about it, he decided
> he wanted a country dinner of pan-fried pork chops, sauteed squash, and
> yeast rolls.  This is a special dinner because I don't fry stuff.  It's too
> messy.  When I have to spend longer cleaning up after a dinner than it took
> to cook it, I usually won't do it anymore.  However, since he requested it
> special, I took the time to slice the pork loin, bread it, and fry it up in
> a combination of butter and oil.  Along with the yellow summer squash and
> yeast rolls (from the store, I'm not SuperWoman!) and the gravy I made from
> the drippings, it was a delicious country dinner.  Even the boys "yum"ed
> their way through dinner.  It was a big success.  It was also a big mess.
>
> I couldn't face the mess right after eating; I thought I'd wait a little
> while before I cleaned up.  I left the pans on the stove, and the dishes on
> the table, and flopped on the couch in the living room.  Larry and I got to
> visit some.  He works night shift, we eat at 1:00 in the afternoon, and
> then
> we usually have some together time before he has to leave for work.  While
> we were watching Kentucky's quarterback get his knee blown out, I heard a
> weird noise coming from the kitchen.  I looked around, and was able to see
> two dogs and two cats, that left one dog unaccounted for - Kona.  I heard
> the weird noise again, and it sounded suspiciously like cutlery hitting a
> plate.  I got up, and quickly but quietly, moved over to the kitchen door.
> Much to my surprise, there was Kona, all 14" and 14 pounds of her, standing
> on the top of the kitchen table - all four feet on the table! - licking the
> plates clean for me!
>
> Using the Pack Leader Voice, I said, "KONA!"  Her head snapped around so
> fast I'm surprised she didn't break her neck.  She instantly jumped down
> from the table all the way to the floor, miraculously without hurting
> herself.  I made her get in her kennel and 'down-stay', then I glared at
> her
> until she turned away, reinforcing my pack leader status.  After that I
> just
> ignored her as I cleaned up the dinner mess.
>
> I really wasn't mad.  I'm still not mad.  I'm actually quite impressed.
>  How
> smart is that, for a tiny Sheltie like her to figure out how to get up on
> the big tall table?  I know how she did it, I left my chair out slightly,
> and she hopped up there first, then onto the table.  The remarkable thing
> is
> that she did it completely silently.  I didn't hear anything until she
> bumped the fork on the plate and it clinked.
>
> I guess Shelties like pan-fried pork chops with gravy, too.
>
> --
> Laura
> wolfljsh at gmail.com
> http://wolfsinger.wordpress.com
>



-- 
Monique Colver