Woof! You pooches have So Many intresting stories, an I’m so FOR-chu-nut to get to hear ’em an share ’em. Like, this week I innerviewed Coco Franzone, who’s from CHI-nah. Coco looks like a tiny Teddy Bear. Soon as I saw her, I remembered another pooch from CHI-na, George Beaver, who looked just like her. Maybe a liddle bigger. Wait till you hear about all her ad-VEN-chures!
Coco came right up for the Wag-an-Sniff, then headed directly for my assistant, who was all, “Oooooo, she’s a-DOR-ubble,” like humans do. Coco definitely IS a-dor-ubble. Also ex-ZOO-buh-rent an full of life. An she has the biggest, happiest smile I’ve ever seen; fluffy, curly red hair, big dark eyes, and her ears an kinda blond topknot looks like three fluffy tennis balls.
“HI! I’m Coco! This is my Mommy an Daddy, Ro an John! Is that your notebook where you’re gonna write about ME? I hope there’s lotsa PAY-juz cuz I gotta Cool Kibbles story.”
“A pleasure. Yep, I’ve got plenty of pay-juz. An pencils.”
Coco snuggled on the chair next to my assistant an began.
“I started out with a breeder in CHI-nah. (That’s as far from here as you can get, before you hafta start coming back around.) Well, I didn’t have the right purebred look. I looked sorta like a crazed red dandy-lion, with googly eyes anna blond topknot that stood straight up in lotsa directions (Mom says I looked like Rod Stewart), so I was DOOMED. Headed for the meat market.”
“OH, Woof! Coco, that’s HOR-ubble!!”
“I KNOW! But, Thank Lassie, there are humans in CHI-nah who help pooches like me, an they rescued me. As it happened, another group of humans called Elite Greyhound Rescue had just saved a whole buncha greyhounds who were headed for the same place I was, an they were gettin’ ready to fly ‘em to the You-ny-ded States. They let me hitch a ride. We all hadda have passports an health cer-TIFFUH-cuts.”
Coco showed me her passport, red with gold letters, all in Chinese. Cool Kibbles.
“Then, on Jan. 28, 2020, 8-pound me an about 30 greyhounds flew from Beijing to New York. We knew we were lucky, but didn’t ree-lize HOW lucky till later: We’d made it out of CHI-nah just before that duh-ZEES started making humans sick an everybody hadda stay HOME and all the Greyhound Rescue flights stopped. We were the last plane out.”
“Un-buh-LEAVE-ubble!” I managed.
“The greyhounds were so frenly. It was a Really Long Trip, an we mostly dozed an talked about what our Forever Families might be like. Finally we made it to the Greyhound Rescue place in Florida with a funny name: Lotsa-HATCH-eeee. Isn’t that weird?”
“Very!”
“Here’s the Pawsome Part,” Coco continued. “My Forever Mommy an Daddy had just moved to Vero an recently lost their Yorkiepoo, Lily, an decided ‘No More Dogs.’ Mommy’s fren knew that, but she called anyway, told Mommy an Daddy about me an sent my pick-shur. I guess they really liked Rod Stewart cuz they drove down to meet me. Cuzza how much the paperwork an the flight were, I cost $500. Even though I was expensive an looked like a crazed dandelion, I gave them my Best Gigantic Smile and they paid for me an took me home. Now they say they hit the pooch jackpot.”
“That’s Exceedingly Crispy Dog Biscuits! What’s life like these days?
“I’m Very Happy. I love humans an fellow pets. An playin! An Cottage Cheese! My first night, Mommy an Daddy put me in a comfy crate. I was Not Happy. They let me out an I leaped (I’m a great leaper) up on their bed. That’s where I always sleep now. I do have what humans call sep-er-RAY-shun Ang-ZI-utty. I stay awake an alert all day to make sure Mommy an Daddy don’t leave without me. Then I sleep right between ‘em all night. My doctor has me takin’ a teensy pill thingy, so I can be calm enuf to not freak out when Mommy an Daddy go for a coupla hours. It’s a process.
“I’ve only been here a year, an already I’ve made lots of pawsome pooch pals: at the dog park there’s Pipa, a Maltese; BoBo, a Yorkiepoo; an Remi, a liddle something-or-other. Here at home, I leash-walk with Sherlock, a Wheaton, and Cody, a Sheltie.
“I’m still learning about toys. I didn’t even know what they were till I got here. AN, I’ve discovered Squirrels! I leash chase ‘em, but haven’t caught one yet. Which, to tell the truth, is OK with me. One morning early, me an Mommy were alone in the neighborhood dog park. Alluva sudden, Mommy stops an stares at something outside the fence. It was this big, dark, shadowy thing. Looked like a huge cat to me. I zoomed right up to the fence to let it know it bedder not mess with US. Well, before I could give it What-For, Mommy grabbed me an ran home. She Googled an found out it was a Bob Cat. An also found out they like to snack on Liddle Dogs.”
“Oh, Coco, you’d have been that Bobcat’s Breakfast!”
“Poo,” she said. “I don’t care WHAT his name is. He hasn’t met ME yet!”
I quickly changed the subject. “You’re so put together. Who’s your groomer.”
“Bernadette! She’s grreat. An me an Mommy have our nightly beauty routine. She removes her makeup, then she gently wipes my eyes and face. Then she brushes her teeth an my teeth. I have my own liddle finger toothbrush. Dental hygiene is So Im-POR-tent. Then we go to bed an watch TV.”
All the way home, I was picksurin’ Coco’s big, wide grin an her wonderful, happy outlook, even after all she’d been through. It reminded me how important it is to live in the moment like she does, and not be all Dismal Dog Biscuits about past stuff, or hide under the bed worryin’ about the future.
Till next time,
