Are you Hungary?

Recently my husband & I were relaxing in the living room with Reo the black lab nestled on the floor at my feet, and my daughter came in asking about Gypsies and Transylvania. "Where is Transylvania?" she wanted to know. "I think it's in Hungary," I said. All of a sudden Reo's big head popped up, his eyes huge with hope, his ears pricked up. We looked at Reo, wondering what had excited him so. He leapt to his feet and dashed off into the kitchen, prancing back a few seconds later carrying his food bowl in his mouth. We all started laughing - "oh, he heard the word Hungary!" (At every meal time I ask my dogs, "Are you hungry?") Reo danced around the living room, smacking each of us in turn with his happy tail, swaying like a shark, weaving his big, glossy black body around chairs and legs, & jerking the bowl away from us as we pretended to try to snatch it from him.

Reo knows several English words, but "hungry" is his favorite. "Walk" and "ride" are up high on his list too. "Sit", "down", "wait" and "bye-bye", are way down at the bottom, as shown by his drooping ears, head and tail. And the eyebrows - the expressive eyebrows- that twitch and rise and fall with his moods.


PS - since I posted this my 18 year old daughter has informed me that "Transylvania is in Romania" (rolling her eyes).