Things Beau Despises
Admittedly this is a very long list, as this dog hates just about everything. The wind, a cloud going over the sun, me whining about him farting in bed, not getting to eat my parasitology notes anymore. But lately, he’s getting more and more set in his ways, and I suppose that’s about right. He’s hitting middle-age, and as far as I know, dogs don’t have crises where they reinvent themselves. They settle right in to being crotchety and they look at their 5th birthdays (that would be 35 in dog years) as a good excuse to hog the bed AND the sofa. And Beau is ahead of his curve. He’s more like 100 in dog years, or any years for that matter, and in addition to hogging the sofa and bed, he’s become very opinionated about some recent habits of mine. Thus the spurring of this list.
Top 5 Things Beau Despises:
1. Good books. Apparently the long hours I spend in my classic PJs with a cup or two or four of green tea is just unacceptable when he is wasting away from lack of love in the corner.
2. Not getting invited for a trip. Especially when there is company. He will bark and howl at the laundry room door. Even if it’s just to the grocery store and back. When I go to school, he could care less. But any other time, he better get invited or he will be even more obnoxious (if that’s possible).
3. Wind. No explanation, but it’s pretty damn scary, apparently.
4. My new bicycle. Well, he doesn’t hate it yet, but he will. Because that thing is a dream and I plan on becoming one with the bike at every opportunity possible. There is a lot of adrenaline associated with being stuck to your bike via clipless pedals.
5. Getting up at 6 a.m. Usually he’s very eager to get up and potty and get breakfast. But with my new work hours, I have to be at school at 7 a.m. and that’s just not working for the moose.
At least he finally got over his hate for windchimes, bird feeders, the weedeater, being alone outside (thank God for Buster Cubes, Molecuballs and Kongs stuffed with goodies), construction noise and loud bass from passerby (or parked) vehicles.
Ah well, at least life is more interesting this way.
Also, I might get a cat, but we will see.
better than hanging out with humans, can't imagine life without them | Comment (0)Why I would Do Anything For him
I love how at the end of a long day at school, and many, many horrible things happening to me, that I can crawl in to bed at night and he’s right there. He can’t sleep up with me anymore, I’m tired of the dirt and the hair, but he’s right there on the left side of my bed. And when it’s still and quiet in the witching hour, I can listen and hear the deep rhythm of his breathing. Faye snores in her corner, but Beau is always truly, deeply at rest. Like he had a hard day too. Like he understands exactly what I went through and knows that misery loves company. He’s the steady in my life, the constant shadow I watch out for when I step out of bed, the little nudge with a cold nose in the morning, the bright brown eyes that make my heart melt everytime I look in to them.
So much changes around me, everything is always getting worse or getting betters, and Beau, he’s always the same. A little more excited or a little more sleepy, but his needs and wants are constant and enough for me to handle.
I read in a book that the reason people have dogs is because its like the perfect marriage. You can give as much, or as little, as you like, and it’s always returned in excess. Dogs don’t nag and they don’t care what you look like or that you haven’t showered since yesterday. They are happy to do what you want to do, just as they are happy to share their interests with you (we’re always very excited about poop and squirrels at my house). They are content with silence, they are content with laughter and noise. My dogs sleep through everything. They don’t argue you with you about how you spend your money, how you dress, why you are miserable at your job all the time. They don’t trade you in for the newer model when you get old and they look just as bad but they want to think they are puppies again. The point is - they don’t care. They just want you - every little piece and smell and quirk of you - and they always give back. They are selfless and they are forgiving. It’s why we can love them so much and rarely find ourselves divorcing them.
I would give anything for Beau. He’s everything I have. I don’t care if we have to live in a box the rest of our lives, as long as I have him, everything is right in this world, no matter how much it spins so violently out of control. He’s only himself and I only have to be myself around him. All my hats and costumes get left at the door and nothing else matters.
He needs a TECA - total ear canal ablation. It will cost a fortune. At first, I was worried about the cost, the impact, the possible student loans that may result. But now, none of that matters. He’s the single most important thing to me in the whole world simply for the fact that unlike everyone else, he’s never once lost faith in me or found me unworthy. So he’ll get his TECA, he’ll live without any more infection in that ear, and I can at least pretend that I have slightly returned the favor for his constant unwavering friendship. Even if it means I will have to eat less and keep the A/C off for a month and delay getting any internet other than the dialup I have now… I just can’t bear the thought of him not having everything he needs.
Thanks, Beau, for being the best dog ever. Even if no one else understands you or wants you, you are everything to me, as always, and forever.
can't imagine life without them, obsession with dog | Comment (0)Adrenaline rush
I got the brilliant idea this morning that when I went to pick up the dog food from Close Quarters, I would bring just Faye along to see how she did in pet stores and of course for the added benefit of some work on her socialization skills. I thought it would be nice for just the two of us to do something, get in some bonding time, as this is what I did with Beau when I had him at first - we toured around the city running errands (still one of our favorite things to do together) and we are duly bonded very closely.
However, as we left the store, the guy with the sixty pounds of food on his dolly trailing behind us, she completely freaked out on me and ran off. She has been so good lately with the “wait” command inside the car as the tailgate is opening - apparently such a thing does not apply when the door is closing. Other than that very first day, she has never tried to escape from the back of the CR-V, and I stood, frozen for a moment in the hot afternoon sun as she bolted straight for the highway. The food guy just stood there, probably unsure of what the hell to do next, as I tore off after Faye, screaming and about dying right there in the middle of the parking lot as my heart lept from my throat and all my insides knotted up.
The cars on the highway are going at least 60, if not 70 or more, and there she was on the shoulder, looking back at me, frantically calling, crouching, trying to entice her to chase after me (which is what I did the one time Beau got away from me - I just ran the other way and he followed). But she darted across the road to the other side, just as the cab of a 16 wheeler came barreling down the stretch. I don’t know what I was thinking, or maybe I don’t know what stopped me from being so stupid, but I stepped out into that road, screaming, waving my arms at the cab and the trucks coming in the other direction, and trying to see where Faye was darting off to next. I called to her, I crouched in the middle of the road, the cars honking and stopped all around me. But Faye wouldn’t come, I think she was as scared as I was.
A man in a Dodge 1500 suddenly saw what I was doing and pulled his truck into the ditch on the side of the road, blocking Faye’s exit that way. Another man ahead of where I was standing did the same, so Faye was trapped in the ditch (unless she decided to leap over the high brush and go across the rail road tracks). I crept closer and closer to her, trying to be non-threatening, freaking out, saying good girl good girl goodgirl goodgirlgoodgirl… The truck driver in the cab was getting out of his truck at this point to help as well, the dog food guy was still standing by my CR-V where I had just dropped my purse and phone and keys in the parking lot.
She laid down onto the ground and let me get her lease. I clasped her so tight, so relieved, still so incredibly scared and shaking. I shouted thanks to all those who stopped, and the oncoming traffic remained at a standstill until I crossed back to the parking lot. Faye was panting heavily, but unharmed, thank God, and trotted expertly at my side. I don’t know exactly what possessed her to flee from my car, but I certainly never expected it. I have also never been nearly so scared in all my life - I feel deathly sick to my stomach just thinking about something horrible happening to her. About her getting hit by a car going 70 or more, about how she would probably be dead in an instant or have injuries I could never afford to repair. About how much pain she would be in and how much she would be suffering.
The adrenaline has still not worn off and I can’t stop sobbing every time I think about how close we came today. How very very close we came to something horrible and how very very lucky we were to escape unscathed and merely shook up.
It’s amazing how quickly we come to love our dogs, as surely today proved to me. She too is one of the loves of my life, and I can’t stop shaking…
can't imagine life without them, moose on the loose | Comment (0)