Visitors.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010


Visitors.

We had a geek bearing gifts the other day. Lee brought a few issues of Wired magazine when she visited. I read Wired online but there is nothing like having that nice paper copy in my hands. This is undoubtedly one of the best magazines ever. The only real complaint I have is some of the tiny type they use that is beyond the capabilities of old bifocaled eyes.

Lee also brought a good friend of hers, Julie.


Julie is now DakotaDawg’s new BFFL. They hit it off fabulously. DakotaDawg rounded up several of her toys to show off. She exhibited skills and tricks she rarely does in my presence.

One of her toys is the indestructible Kong. This is the big one, possibly the one owned by the King himself. It is bigger at one end than the other and looks a little like a red Michelin Man. I think DakotaDawg stays fascinated because when it hits the floor it never bounces twice in the same direction. It is like an odd shaped Wham-O SuperBall.

DakotaDawg pretty much wore Julie out and wanted to leave with her. I had to explain to my puppy dog today that Julie was visiting from out of town. DakotaDawg was sitting by the front door like she was expecting someone looking a lot like she was sure her BFFL would be dropping by any minute.

It makes me happy when DakotaDawg hits it off with someone and even more when they are genuinely pleased to play with my dawg.

I have a brother in law with two nephews that do not visit enough. That is the opinion of both DakotaDawg and me. When they hit the front door DakotaDawg goes nuts. She drags out the lifeless unstuffed wiener dog. They and Cocoa gave it to her too many Christmases ago to remember. It is a real mess. I keep sewing it back together and she keeps playing with it. One ear is missing and the other is in my night stand because it has some nerve damage from all the chewing. Because of the frequent surgeries this one toy has lasted far longer than the usual five minute life span of most of her other toys. DakotaDawg has had it even longer than her Kong. When it starts to get hard and smelly I sanitize it in the front loader.

One toy that DakotaDawg never tires of is ANY used tennis ball. We have a ready supply of these. She will play with them all day showing us how much better she is at keep away than fetch. Then it hits her that it would be more fun if it was in two half globes instead of its normal round shape. Once she sets her mind to dissecting the ball it has less than ten minutes left. It is then perfectly split along the seam where it was welded together before it got covered with that attractive fluorescent yellow fur coat.

All it takes to make DakotaDawg your buddy is to center your entire life on her when in her presence. Nothing else on earth can be as important as wrestling away that gooey ball and tossing it for her. If someone thinks there things more pressing, DakotaDawg will prove them wrong by constantly dropping that nasty ball on their party dress or fancy slacks.

It usually takes DakotaDawg a while to get over her barking spell announcing to us what we already know. Like someone has used the door knocker and we have a visitor. It is akin to kids yelling “Phone!” every time it rings. She then has to decide if she even wants to get to know the visitor or even let them into the living room. More often than not she just as soon they had stayed home.

This was not the case with Julie. DakotaDawg put in a special request that I email her BFFL and ask that she come spend some time in our rocker.


I will have to get that address from Lee. There are those special visitors that we like almost as much as DakotaDawg.

© 07.07.2010 steven d philbrick SR+ DakotaDawg


POSTED BY SRPLUS AT 8:13 AM 0 COMMENTS