Tail Talk

I’m sure there are people out there that believe I use “poetic license” while writing about some of the things I do for my animals, but no, I am just that goofy. I hand dip water from the guest bathroom toilet because Budward won’t drink any other water and his legs can no longer navigate the vinyl floor. He’s been my buddy for so long and given me so much over his lifetime that I can’t imagine doing any less for him than the best I can do. But somehow I’m going to have to get the point across to Action Jackson and Girlie Sue, both able legged dogs, that they are perfectly capable of walking up to the toilet to get a drink and the hand dipped toilet water should be left for Budward. Love doesn’t make it any easier to scoop water out of the toilet bowl no matter how many times I’ve cleaned that toilet bowl, but we do what we have to in life. Fortunately the time we have to suffer for love is minute compared to the expanse of life we’ve lived with our most precious friends. Girlie Sue is the one dog we have that gives us the least amount of trouble (think of trouble as entertainment in hindsight). Girlie Sue was abused and not socialized when she was a puppy, and it’s taken many, many years of work for my husband to gain her trust, and now she’s a daddy’s girl if there ever was one. She can barely contain herself when he gets home from work (second shift in St. Louis, so it’s late in the day). She watches him take his boots off with this wide eyed look of anticipation, then as soon as the socks are clear she starts to work on his calluses. We have an ongoing thing where he says Girlie Sue takes better care of him but I tell him the only reason I don’t get the royal treatment is because I wash my feet (now that’s a joke – not that I wash my feet but the innuendo that he doesn’t – he hates it when I tell you these things). And Happy Jack, our puppy, relatively speaking. I’ve found the key with getting him to behave is to get out the water bottle. I spritzed him a couple of times and now all I have to do is pick it up and show it to him. He’s so funny. My husband sleeps with a fan on for the white noise. When Jack wants something he knows to go stand in front of the fan and stare into dad’s face. Without fail my husband will open his eyes to find Action Jackson standing two inches away from his face, staring intently into his eyes. You can’t help but laugh. When Jack is feeling affectionate he’ll rest his head on your leg or your arm, or your face if you’re lying in bed. Our dogs sleep with us in the bedroom. At various times they will all be up on the bed, and on occasion they’ll all get up there together. At first we had to take the bed frame out from under the box springs and mattress because Budward could no long jump so high. Then we removed the box springs and we’re down to the mattress on the floor just for those days when Budward is feeling especially spunky and manages a three legged hop up on to the mattress. He loves to pull the covers over his eyes with his paws. He’s such a silly boy. I put a pillow on the floor next to me on my side of the bed and Action Jackson has taken that to be his spot. He circles around four or five times until he’s in just the right position, then down he goes and lands with his head on the pillow. I can see the pillow from my chair in the living room and sometimes I’ll look up to see him lying with his head on the pillow, sleeping, looking like an angel. Then he rolls over on his back and has frog legs. I’ve never seen a dog lay like that before, but imagine a 70 pound dog with his legs straight out like frog legs, with his head still on his pillow. There is never a moment when I’m not content beyond words to be at home with my family, my husband and my bubs. Together we are complete. We love each other with all our hearts and we feel joy any time we are in the presence of our loved ones. It is a wonderful life to live, and for anyone that hasn’t yet experienced life with a bevy of bubs all I can say is what are you waiting for? There is no better experience on this earth than to live a life of love in a place where your home is your sanctuary, not because of the four walls but because of the love that emanates from within the hearts of all that live there. It just doesn’t get any better than this, and it can be yours too if you make the effort to contact the Randolph County Humane Society and tell them you’re ready to adopt. You won’t be sorry.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Animal Lover. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.