300 Words: Thoughts of a pretired French Teacher

I have talked about all sorts of people thus far and I have spoken of my canine cousins Murphy and Lincoln. I may not have mentioned my all time favorite, Mikey.

Mikey is special to me. He came with Richie and picked me out of all my siblings when I was just a little puppy. I was born on his birthday in December and came home with him in February during a snowstorm. It was Mikey who spent most of the time with me and took me outside, played ball with me, and took care of my every need.

When I was little and didn’t get it, Mikey was there for me and guided me. I cried and he took care of me. I whimpered, and he attended to my needs. He spoiled me.

Mikey was living in our home when I arrived. Now he is gone and when he comes home, I literally go crazy. I cannot get enough of him. I am a true drama queen when he shows up and if he does not spend all his home time with me, I make noise until he pays attention. I think I am actually at a point of driving him crazy. I just cannot help myself.

Honestly, I cannot get enough attention from him. He is my all. I love everyone, I play with everyone, I am pretty equal with all, but Mikey is still number one.

Just today he came home and I drove him crazy. He was talking to Rich and Mary Kay and spending time playing with one of the grandkids, but I wouldn’t give him a moment of peace. He is home? I play or annoy him; that is what I do.

Like anything else, when I put my mind to it, I am good. Mikey’s around, he is paying attention to me, period!

I pride myself on doing the unexpected.

Sometimes I am caught, but sometimes the results of my unexpected behavior are found after the fact, when it is harder to reprimand me.

This morning alone, my human came down into the family room, looked at me with a strange expression on his face, and I kept that intelligent/dumb face that I wear so well. I don’t understand why a throw rug that is rumpled and totally out of place and balled up should get such a response, but it does. My human just cannot fathom what might possess me to do such a thing. Personally, I do it for the joy of having that face staring at me in disbelief!

Although a Border collie, for whom food is not always a super crazy attraction, I have morphed. As a puppy, I saw my Black lab cousin, Murphy and I decided to follow his lead. I have learned all sorts of things from him; some of them are liked by my humans, but others not so much so. They love that I am like Murphy with the grandkids, allowing them to step on me, pull my tail, etc., but they don’t like that I have now become incensed with people food. They hate my newfound crazy, non-stop attraction for any sort of people food. Besides that, I lick any things my humans find gross, like the extra oil that lubricates something. My interest in that drives them crazy!

Just to keep them on their toes, sometimes I do my ‘dog’ job and chase the squirrels and chipmunks. Other times, I just let them be, it is a win/win for all of us. Good for the silly animals I chase and for me as I keep my humans on their toes.

Being a pampered dog is such a great gig!