“There is no greater agony than bearing
an untold story inside you.” Maya Angelou
This blog will be about the life stories I have written over many years. Most are little bits of my life and some are fiction or a mixture of both. They should when they build up on here, give you a good idea of what I am about
Will start with one of my favorite subjects our pets in particular dogs.
“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.”
Roger Cara
Animal
Tails
For at
least 40 years of our married life there has been a dog in the family. All six
have special places in my heart but some get in there deeper than others.
Following
is true stories about one of those family members.
Teddy Muggins Montford Antics
Feb 2007 One
day I mentioned to someone I had a book’s worth of Teddy, our male cocker
spaniel stories to write. My sweet lovable twelve year old dog, the son of
show dogs, added to them the very next day.
In the
morning came in from doing errands to find he’d been in the kitchen garage and
had devoured anything that was eatable and maybe some that wasn’t. The remains
were spread out over the floor… That was a first or while we’ve been out of the
house…
Later
that day as I walked into the room across from our bedroom I heard a crunching
sound, going to investigate found my pouch chewing of all things, a disposable
razor he’d taken out of the bathroom trash. How he didn’t cut his mouth is a
wonder because the blade was exposed in a section where he’d chewed the plastic
off of it. That too was a first.
It didn’t
end there - he went for another first later that night and got into the compost
bin under the kitchen sink. Once again the kitchen floor had to be cleaned and
Teddy scolded for the third time in one day.
What was
this old man dog of mine, a purebred, becoming?
My very favorite Teddy story though
happened when he was much younger.
SAVING
THE SUET
Anyone
that knows anything about cocker spaniels knows one of their feats in life is
to eat. AND many have a bad habit of stealing food!
One day
in late winter when Teddy was a young dog, I decided to clean up the paths in
the back yard before refilling bird feeders. Teddy my shadow wanted to come out
with me and was very interested in what I was up to especially as it involved
food.
It was a
mild, thawing day and the back of the yard where most of the feeders were, was
very moist - something Teddy did not particularly like: webbed feet or not.
This is
why:
The
10-week ball of fur puppy came home with us in late November 1995 during a
blizzard at that. . We’d already had a good amount of snow that year. But he’d never been outside other than to go
have his tail docked and to be checked over by a Vet.
Thus his
introduction to the great outdoors was to hard packed snow paths, and potty
training of, “Do what you have to and let’s get back indoors!” as I shived over in Pooh Corner waiting for him to do just
that . Thus moist, soggy ground to Teddy was something to get away from as he
didn’t experience it until he was a few months old.
In the
spring he’s look like a mountain goat, which make me smile, because he would
stay on the edges or as high as he could get on snow rather than walk on the
wet grass.
Back to
that wet spring day:
While I
sloshed around shoveling, Teddy stayed on the deck until it was time to fill
the feeders, and his stomach got the better of him. Even the soggy areas around
the feeders didn’t keep him far from me.
At one
point I went into the house to change my socks and put some protection on my feet
because my sloppy old boots were water logged. On my way out, I picked up the
block of suet I’d forgotten when we’d gone out the first time.
Teddy was
waiting at the back door for me to come out and instantly his nose picked up
the scent of the suet - he was stuck to me like glue. As I went down the
stairs, the suet fell out of my hand and Teddy was on it in a flash. Picking it up he took off down one of the
paths, moisture and all. Yelling “Drop
that you little beggar”, the chase was on.
Having four legs he was much faster than me in my soggy boots, he turned
to face me set to defend his treasure. Or so he thought. All of a sudden I couldn’t move I was abruptly stopped in mid sprint. Down I went
with a thud, landing on my belly, nose to nose with the thief and started to
laugh uncontrollably, when I’d realized what had tripped me up.
I’d been shackled by the protection I’d put on my feet. In my haste the handles of the plastic
grocery bags had not been tucked into my boots and my right foot had gone
through a handle of the bag on my left foot.
In the
meantime, Teddy who I likely startled had dropped the suet, which I pulled in
under me.
The game was over
I won the prize that
day.
HURRY UP POTTY TRAINING
There was an after effect to his Hurry Up potty training in the cold of
winter.
Teddy like most dogs liked to chase squirrels and as there
were bird feeders out back they were attracted to our yard. When he was put out
if there was a squirrel around I’d tell him and he’s charge out but squat to do
what he had to before going after the squirrel who had gone up the telephone pole and run along the lines was likely a couple of yards away by the time
Teddy got to it.
Towards the end of his life he was deaf and didn’t see well
either so the squirrels didn’t go very far away when Teddy was out in fact I am sure they teased the poor animal for all the years he had chased them – guess by
then they felt safe as he seems to be off somewhere else unaware of the fuzzy tail rats…
(photo from a dog food pamphlet is of his grandmother and an aunt)
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