Bentley – Master of the House
We’ve got this tiny six pound dog, a Maltese….just a bit bigger than a bag of sugar or potatoes, yet, literally, the power of a dictator. How many of you have such an animal; one that wields so much power that everything revolves around him or her. Animals are smart; I think sometimes, smarter than we are…and he knows that! He sleeps with us, and as little as he is, he monopolizes almost the whole bed; and has the nerve if one of us moves a pillow to groan or growl. He will even snap if you go too far in an attempt to make yourself more comfortable. He knows to play us with this little droopy thing he does where he’ll just sit in the middle of the living room floor with his head down, and stare at the carpet. This is him asking for something, but he makes us guess what, and quite often, it ends up being nothing but a plea for attention. He knows my schedule, and almost precisely a half hour before it’s time for me to come home, he sits on the couch, perched, waiting and anxious. Here’s the kicker though; we have a yard full of critters, most of them harmless, except the possoms and skunks which I think there is a whole family nesting under the deck. He’s been sprayed by skunks more times than we can count, and yet, every time he encounters one, he still goes after them (he’ll go after possums three times his size too). One time he got sprayed so severely, he was frothing at the mouth and no doubt, nearly blinded, permanently. A paradox, to be sure, that a little being who is so smart can be so clueless when it comes to these damn skunks; it makes no sense, and when he gets sprayed, it pretty much ruins our day or night. Before we put his big sister, Echo, a golden lab, to sleep….she was right beside him getting sprayed too; that was great fun, having both of them sprayed at the same time. Oh, the joys of being a pet lover…..
