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).

Being adopted by a dog

1974
I had wanted a dog for a while. I went to an animal shelter called Pets Unlimited, in San Francisco and walked past many kennels. All of the kennels contained big black dogs and all of the big black dogs were throwing themselves against the kennel doors and barking ferociously. I continued walking. Close to the end of my tour I stopped in front of a kennel with a quiet dog inside. He was sitting very politely and with very good posture, one ear up and one ear down. He was smiling. He was white with big brown patches, like a pinto pony. "Hello," I said. He wagged his tail. I looked at his info card. His name was Cisco. He was 9 months old. He was a Shepherd X. I started to walk on to look at the next dog, when something touched my arm. I looked back. Cisco had reached a paw through the chain link and placed it on my arm. He was still smiling, still wagging his tail. "All right," I said, "you've got me."

How did your dog choose you?

PS - Cynthia has left a comment about the needs of big black dogs. When I picked out Cisco in 1974 , I was a novice with dogs, and not aware of the bias against big black dogs. In recent years, especially after REO, our black lab, joined our family, I have learned a lot more. Five big black dogs now are part of our family (& one non-black dog, too!) Big black dogs are the least likely dogs to be adopted from a shelter - they need our help. Check out this very cool website about Big Black Dogs: http://www.blackpearldogs.com/ to learn what you can do.

Something smells good....

Our dog Rocky doesn't beg at the table. Instead, he just snatches the food from the fork as it travels from the plate to your mouth. It's like a frog or lizard snapping up a fly - zap!

What's the most spectacular act of food thievery your dog has committed?
(In dog-speak, that would be a "bold and clever survival tactic".)

Dog names

I once read a short story about a vicar who, when he was drunk, told stories about his previous life as a dog. He had a dog friend, and every night the two dogs would go roaming. The two dogs had names of course, names their humans had bestowed on them, but dogs have their own names, names they give themselves. These two dogs had named themselves Moon Chaser and Lion Hunter (or was it Moon Hunter and Lion Chaser?)

What name do you think your dog would call himself or herself, and why?

(and has anybody else ever read this story and remember the title or author?)