Pookie the Wonder Dog
I always wanted a little terrier kind of mutt dog. For a long time, my life wasn't stable enough to consider it, but now it is. Stephanie (my wonderful wife) and I began going to the Humane Society on weekends looking for a dog. We went for a long time, but never found anything like what we were looking for. Then one time we walked in and there in the front lobby was a family with two little boys adopting just exactly the puppy we were looking for. Drat! Too late by ten minutes. But we went back to see what else was there, and whoopee, the dog in the lobby had a little sister puppy. She was so scared and so friendly, jumping up against the bars and saying, "Please, get me out of here!"
"Guard this cage with your life," I said to Stephanie, and I went straight out and got one of the people to open the cage. It was her exactly, the dog I wanted. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of her when she was little, but I have since. Her name is Pookie, and she's insanely enthusiastic as you can see.
I taught her how to say, "Oh wow, wow, wow, wow, wow." Click the link to hear her do it.
We have raised her according to a theory I have about dogs being social animals. My view is that if you want a
really good and loyal dog, you have to make the dog a full fledged member of your social order. (In the dog's mind,
your pack.) So, when we eat, she gets a share, just like we were all dogs and had killed some prey. She never begs,
she sits patiently and waits for her share. Also, I take her everywhere with me if I possibly can. She doesn't
mind waiting in the car. If it's too hot or cold, I have to leave her at home. But, since I work at home, she spends
a lot of time with me. She tries her best to perceive what her place is and how she should behave. She'll accept
anything we communicate to her if we're consistent. She has little routines that show she's doing her part for
the group, like when we come in, she runs up to about the fourth step and waits for me to take her leash off. Then
I say, "Hup, hup," and she runs up to the door. We can leave her at home loose in the house, and she
never chews anything except her rawhide chewies, which we make sure she has plenty of. She never does anything
against the pack. We had intended she would sleep in a wire cage by our bed. We just couldn't do it, so now she
sleeps with us, either above the pillows or down at the foot of the bed under the covers. How she breathes down
there I have no idea. All dogs have a different scent, and fortunately Pookie has a very mild scent that's not
the least offensive, so having her in the bed is no problem. She gazes into our eyes for long periods of time,
something dogs don't normally do. She returns our petting with licking, but never if we don't want it. All in all
she's a sweetie.
Here she is cat fishing at night.
Hey, it was cold out there by the river.