A Christmas gift

My cat brother Adric and I have a prickly relationship - I relate and Adric prickles. And he is loaded with pricklers - in his mouth, on all four fur feet....it is like living with a little saber-toothed tiger. Well, "little" would be the wrong adjective. Adric is pretty big.

But the other day I thought we had reached a new level of friendship. I thought that Adric had prepared the best ever Holiday gift for me. After all, I've been pretty good lately. As good as dogs get that is. I thought he made me a cat punching bag! Out of himself!

It started like this. Adric was in the kitchen, jumping up on the counter and scouting food as usual. This accounts for the not-so-little aspect of Adric. My Person was busy being busy, or as I think of it, wasting time that could be spent playing with me. Suddenly a hideous commotion broke out in the kitchen: cat screams and hisses and growls. I ran right on in as any dog would. There, suspended by his skinny ankle from a drawer pull, hung big ol' Adric. I was beside myself with joy and started punching away at him. It seems he liked this even less than being suspended. The level of noise increased though that didn't seem possible.

My Person ran through the house, wailing (her usual response to surprises), ran to the kitchen, ceased wailing and commenced screaming, joining right in there with Adric. (My Person has been in a choir lately and I believe she was doing an alto accompaniment to Adric's mixed soprano and bass.) She lifted him up and out of the drawer pull and Adric rolled and stumbled down the basement stairs, hissing and spitting, and then my Person rounded on me like it was my fault for taking advantage of the moment and what I thought was an amusement arranged especially for me. "Back!" she hissed like a snake in full fury, and then she sailed down the basement stairs after Adric.

Well, a long time and a lot of mushy kissy noises and poor kitties and sweet adrics later, up the basement stairs came my Person holding one wounded Adric. And off to the Emergency Vet they went. I realized then that Adric hadn't made me a nice punching bag but had gotten himself in a dangerous fix. I too have been to the Emergency Vet recently and the thought of it still makes me shudder.

Well, the long and short of it is Adric broke his ankle bone and is taking some mighty powerful painkillers and is spending his time in MY little nap bed in the bathroom, all toasty and warm and with dilated eyes and purring and singing little cat songs to himself.

And I am down one Christmas present and a little bit in the dog house but I am getting pretty used to that.

So remember, always look a gift horse in the mouth because maybe it isn't really a gift and maybe you are headed for some trouble if you think it is!

Triple-walled dog house

That's where I live. Lately.

I admit. I've been bad. But it isn't really my fault.

First, my Person foolishly left the grocery bag up on the table where I am not suppose to go and I sort of got inside and pulled a quart container pack of organic chicken broth out from under a giant heavy winter squash and carried it into the living room and ripped it open and slurped up most of it except for a little puddle by the bookcase I forgot about until it was too late.

Second, my Person foolishly left a sealed box of bird seed by the back door that I happened to pull open and dump upside down and sample a good deal of before she surprised me by coming in that very back door without knocking first.

Third, I ate a pan of almond bars that my Person made for her Friend and left to cool on top of the stove. She didn't even yell at me or call me a bad dog after that one. She just gave me a steely look and said "You know what kind of dog you are," and I cowered and shrank and glued my ears to the back of my head and gave a gulp and unfortunately I also burped. She ignore me then and strode out of the room to lie down on the couch and read. And that was very bad because I had hidden some of the almond bars under the couch throw. And then she went to bed to read and that was very bad too because I had hidden some more almond bars under the blankets. "What are you?" she roared. "A grizzly bear making food caches?" Then she laughed but it was a grim sort of laugh and I found some other place that wasn't the couch or the bed to sleep that night.

Lucky

I am taking a moment to reflect. (Actually I was napping.)

But now that I am awake it is good to reflect. It is almost Thanksgiving and my Best Friend is visiting me and I have been invited to at least one holiday meal (though rumor is I am banned from another). The sun shines every few days and the river still hasn't frozen up so there is still outdoor swimming for intrepid red dogs. These all go into the category of things I am thankful for.

Also in that category: new liver treats, kicking up my white heels walking in the oak leaf drifts, chasing squirrels, going to the dogpark with Tasha and her Bark, riding in the car and sleeping on the couch.

It would seem that I am thankful for companionship, adventure and purpose (and food). And I am lucky to have all of those things. And that is why my full name is Lucky Finnegan!

Sharing

Today I turned up my nose at walking around the lake in one of my city's finer zip codes and decided to stick to basics: sun, sand and surf in my own neighborhood. And I invited my best frenemy to join me.

Tasha the Barking Sheltie headed down to the Mighty Mississippi with me. You might think I am a wild one but get a load of this walking hairdo of a dog!

If I had hair like that I'd probably bark more too. Think of how frilly and whirly and swirly Tasha's whole body must feel. Every part of her is blowing in the wind, my friend.

I am more of a close cropped, no fuss no muss kind of guy. A fine coat like Tasha's would trip me up on my adventures and clog up with debris. And I am sure I am more aerodynamic than that furry girl. I don't need any additional turbulence when I head into adventures - I make enough of my own and sure don't need my fur doing it for me. Speaking of adventures, looks like I'm into one now!

Artless

Being a companion animal to my Person isn't easy. I spend a lot of time sitting on my heels waiting for something interesting to happen.

And even then, my Person's idea of interesting is not really very interesting to a little red dog. Reading is not interesting to me. One would be better off asleep and in fact when reading is going on you can count on my having a snooze.

Painting is not very interesting either except for when my Person is eating and painting at the same time and I end up with most of her snack because she drops it when she switches paint brushes.

Being told it is super supper time and then having to wait while my Person dithers around making her own supper or just plain forgets about me and goes back to painting instead is really not interesting.

I am trying all my best heart string plucking plaintive expressions. Do I hear the sounds of kibble in my dish? No, just the swirl of turpentine and clatter of brushes. Maybe I need to brush up on the art of making myself more interesting!

Trick or treat

The season of holidays has begun. First the world turns yellow and orange and then the leaves fall and the cold rains come and before you know it Halloween is upon us. Next up are some other holidays which interest me only because a lot of good food is served and my human cousins drop a lot of it on the floor under their chairs.

But Halloween is most compelling for a dog. On Halloween night the children of the neighborhood swap their jeans and t-shirts for costumes and show up right at your door in the dark, yelling and laughing and asking for treats.

This is my territory!! I am supposed to be performing for treats. And I am supposed to guard my house against incursions by ghosts, princesses and knights. So what happens on this special night? I get tethered to a chair in the kitchen and told to be quiet!! I don't get to charge the door. I don't get to scare the vampires and skeletons and ghost brides. I have to stay in the kitchen, alone, while Adric patrols and gets first crack at household defense.

What a horrid night. It was no treat for me, just a terrible trick.

One of these things is not like the others

This is kind of like an IQ test. It will judge your ability to see relationships between things, to recognize sets. So, which one of these four things does not belong:
1) red dog
2) snow
3) green grass
4) warm sunshine

Are you done? This one should be pretty easy. Red dogs go with everything but warm sun and green grass and - here's the odd one out - snow are the Axis of Unrelatedness. Here I was, happily in the midst of a bit of late summer easing into fall reverie and I get dumped on with snow! This is just too much for me to process. I wouldn't know what to wear but I never change clothes much. Or bathe. Good thing I don't need to, being naturally clean.

Well, I got in a bit of a river swim anyway and ate lots of grass and skipped ahead pretty fast whenever a snow clump slid off a branch and landed near me. I ended up with muddy feet and a wet belly and my breath came out in frosty clouds as I blinked in the sunlight and watched runners go passed in shorts and winter caps. It is the change of seasons - we just don't know what the season is changing to!