Woof, my job is SO intresting! This week I innerviewed two pooches who work in a DOC-tor’s office. Madison Atwell is a (beau-duh-ful) Australian Shepherd, with a shiny black an white coat, an white polka dots on her nose. She’s 9 in human, an she’s in charge of Office Security.
Madison’s BFF is Winston Prestianni, a teensy Pomeranian, 11 months old, mostly black with some gold trim, an this happy smile on his liddle face, like, all the time. His job is Bringer of Good Cheer (an being available for consults with the doctor as needed).
We met at their office: Madison an her Mom were at the (back) door to meet us. Madison delivered a couple of (very impressive) woofs, then, soon as she saw it was us, she came right up for the Wag-an-Sniff.
“Welcome to our office, Mr. Bonzo,” she said. Did I mention she was really pretty? I unobtrusively fluffed my ears.
“Well, thank you, Miss Madison. It’s a pleasure to meet you. You can call me just plain Bonzo.”
“Well, Bonzo, you can call me Maddie. This is my Momma, Tamra. My Dad’s Robin. He’s taking care of pay-shunts. Oh, an here comes Winston.”
The smiley liddle fluffball rode into the room in his Dad’s arms. “Hi, Mr. Bonzo. It’s ME, Winston. This is my Dad Andrew. He works here, too. My Mom’s Allie.”
Winston’s Dad set him on the floor, an just like that he was on his hind legs, dancin’ around. “See, I can DANCE. I could do this all day. It’s way fun!”
“Hello, Winston. Woof, that’s Extra Crispy Dog Biscuits! I’d fall on my kazoo in two seconds if I tried that.”
“It just comes natch-rull,” he said, pawing the air with his tiny front feet.
I opened my notebook. “I’d like to know how you all found each other.”
“I’ll start,” said Maddie. “I was rescued from a farm in Okeechobee. That’s way over there in the middle.” She pointed. “There’s cows an horses and not so many houses. I was only 9 months old, and my owners just couldn’t keep me. Momma heard about me from a fren, an soon as Momma an Dad saw me it was like – ‘She’s The One!’ Thank Lassie!”
“For sure,” I agreed.
“Guess what my name was,” Maddie said. “‘Coon.’ Woof, am I glad they changed it. I mean, puh-LEEZE. I musta chased a raccoon or something when I was puppy. I don’t really remember. At first, I was a liddle skittish, cuzza moving from he country to a city. One time I ran away from Momma onna leash walk. She was chasin’ me but I’m really fast. Then some nice guys grabbed me as I zoomed by and handed me back to Momma. Pretty soon, I learned the ROOLS.
“Now I come to work with Momma an Dad every day. I keep the office working smoothly. I make sure everybody’s accounted for. From right here in my office I know when people come in the Employees Only door, like you did. If I hear the click of the time clock, I know they’re okey-dokey. But if I DON’T hear that click, THEN I do my Big, Very Serious Alert Bark.”
“That’s a very responsible job, Maddie,” I said with admiration.
“I KNOW,” she said.
“My turn now,” piped up Winston. “My Mom an Dad wanted a Big Dog, like Maddie.”
“Umm … so how did you …” I said cleverly.
“Well, see, Mom couldn’t get to sleep one night so she went ‘On the Line’ – that’s a flat boxy thing with pick-shurs, I think – anyway she saw a pick-shur of ME that my breeder had put On the Line an, well, you can imagine how cute I was back when I was liddle.”
I smiled behind my paw, since he currently weighs a whopping 5 pounds 8 ounces.
“So,” Winston continued, “Mom woke Dad up an he saw me, too, an they decided they didn’t really NEED a Big Dog, plus where they live has a 15-pound-dog-limit ROOL. It was perfect. I went to my Forever Home with my very own Mom an Dad just in time for my first Christmas. I was SO happy. An, since I’m the handy, portable size, I can go lotsa places with them.”
“When did you meet Maddie?”
“I think it was in Feb-you-wary, when Dad took me to work for the first time. I was so excited. I thought Maddie was wonderful right away, like maybe she was my pooch Mom, and I just went right to her. I guess when she realized I wasn’t just passing through, she sorta adopted me. I always feel conftubble an safe with her. I look UP to her.”
“What do you do when you’re not working?” I asked them.
“I LOVE balls,” said Maddie. “I can jump up an twirl an catch a ball in MID-AIR. An SOX. I love SOX. I don’t chew ’um up either. When Mom an Dad come back from Doing Stuff, I always greet ’em at the door with a sock. Or a shoe. See, I’m a working breed, so I always haff to have a TASK.”
“Not me,” said Winston. “I just dance an play. My favorite thing is my Ball Pen. That’s like a big fluffly pad with sides, full of lotsa liddle balls. All different colors. I just jump in and bounce around.”
“How ’bout snacks?”
“Peanut butter!” said Maddie.
“Greenies!” said Winston.
“Cat pals?” I ventured.
“Not so much,” said Maddie.
“What she said,” Winston replied.
“Other pooch pals?”
“Not that many cuz we work full time,” said Maddie. “But I do have fun with my human sister Lindsay’s dog Bella, when they visit. She’s a terrier-chihuahua.”
Heading home, I was wondering what it’d be like havin’ a Job like Madison an Winston do. Then I realized I DO have an Important Purpose: to be my best laid-back, couch-potato, slightly tubby self for my Gramma and Grampa.
Till next time,
The Bonz
