This week’s innerviewee has The Perfect Name! Smiley Taylor is a rescue, purebred Staffordshire Terrier. Her short black-an-brindle coat an Cool Kibbles black spots on pretty pink skin are SO On Trend. But the coolest thing is her Huge, Frenly, LIT-trully Ear-to-Ear Smile. The only smile I’ve ever seen that was bigger was onna Cow. If there were Smile Olympics, she’d grab the gold, paws down.
Anyway, Smiley an her big sis Gabby (a longtime pooch pal of mine), an their Mom Debra met me an my assistant at the door. Following Wag-an-Sniffs and greetings, we got settled on the pool padio. Smiley explained their PopPop Scott was at work.
“A pleasure meeting you, Miss Smiley, an seeing you again, Miss Gabby!” I said, remembring the liddle bit of a crush I had on Gabby back in The Day. Sigh.
I opened my notebook. “I’m ready to hear how you joined your Forever Famly,” I told Smiley, who flashed her big happy smile an began.
“First off, our Mom is a Big Ol’ Softy when it comes to pooches, ’speshully Pooches In Need, an ’speshully Bullys, which is what dogs like us are sometimes called. So Mom was On The Line, casually browsin’ through pickshurs from the rescue place, Furever Bully Love, which is in that Mouse Town and where she found Gabby. Well, guess what? There was a viddy-o of ME. I’d been dumped on a street in My-Ammy, and I was huddled under a car, totally terrified, an two humans from The Pound were draggin’ me out. They were bein’ careful, but I was still scared out of my fur. Here, look!”
I watched the viddy-o on Smiley’s Mom’s CELL-you-ler. I was uh-GASSED! There Smiley was, being dragged out from under this car. The humans weren’t bein’ rough or anything, but poor liddle Smiley.
“Oh, Woof! Smiley!”
“I KNOW. I thought I was DOOMED. But I WASN’T. The Furever Bully Love humans rescued me from The Pound, an that’s how Mom found me. So Mom and PopPop an Gabby drove to Mouse Town to see me. They wanted to be sure me an Gabby would get along an, evenshully, we did. It didn’t take me long to ree-lize I was Safe an Suh-CURE.”
Gabby spoke up. “We kinda ignored each other for a while, till I ree-lized it was Cool Kibbles havin’ a Liddle Sis, AN bein’ a Big Sis, which means I’m In Charge. So then I was, ‘Oh. OK!’ I must say, she was under my paws all the time, sometimes still is. Like, she always wants what I have. Sometimes I hafta set her straight.” Gabby gave Smiley a sisterly nose-bump an Smiley responded with a Huge Smile.
“I have The Best Life, Mr. Bonzo! I love snugglin’ with my famly. I might possibly be just a teeny bit needy, but Mom says it’s cuzza my scary puppy days, and she loves cuddlin,’ too.
When Mom takes a bath, I sit right there on the mat with my paws an chin on the side of the tub just to be sure she’s OkeyDokey. Mom says I don’t get the concept of Personal Space.
I’m pretty sure that’s a human thing.
“Then, about a year-anna-haff ago, Mom found out she has that scary human duh-sees she calls Big C. She goes back an forth to a hoss-piddle called Muffin or something, an sayin’ goodbye so offen is Dismal Dog Biscuits. Gabby agrees. When Mom’s home, I wanna be right next to her. Plus, she gives me The Best Tummy Rubs Ever. I always go into The Zone.”
In between talkin’, Smiley had been playin’ with a Green Ball with holes in it. It was way too big for most pooches, includin’ me, to wrap our mouths around, but Miss Smiley had no problem whatsoever. All I could see above the ball were her eyes.
“Is that your favrite toy?”
“Yeb! I habba lobba toiz, bud thiff id by FABE!”
“Do you swim? Any BFFs? Whaddya do for fun. An exercise?”
She peetooied the ball out and replied. “Swim? No! I don’t like the water. At. All. My Kong’s cool. So are my stuffies, but they don’t last that long. I love hangin’ with my human brother Brad, ’specially at mealtime cuz he drops stuff on the floor for us. Then there’s Miss Debbie.
She takes care of Brad. She’s sorta like a sister. An Granny Janette, an our neece an neff-yew Haley an Jarrod. We love their visits.
“We don’t do the dog park cuz Mom knows some humans are nervous around ‘Dogs Like Us,’ whatever that ackshully means, but me an Gabby do lotsa other fun stuff. Like the beach. An goin’ to Home Depot. An leash walks, when we greet our neighbors.”
“Well, you an Miss Gabby are very stylish an FEM-uh-nun,” I replied. “I couldn’t help noticin’ your bright red toenails.”
Full disclosure: I had noticed them when we arrived but, being an occasionally dorky guy, I decided not to risk a fox paw and mention it right then.
“Why thank you, Mr. Bonzo!” Smiley smiled sweetly. An largely. “We started getting mani-pedis last year. We try to be Fashion Forward.”
“Where do you sleep?”
“We have beds in Mom an PopPop’s room. But I sneak onto their bed a lot. Just for comfort.
I’m still scared sometimes. Of sharp noises. An brooms. I don’t think they’d even notice me if I didn’t snore. Real Loud, Gabby says. I just wanna be close to my Mom, you know?”
Heading home, I was thinking about how sweet Smiley just wants to be near her Mom as much as possible. I always felt the very same about my Mom, and I’m pretty sure most of you Fellow Poocheroos can say the same thing about your human BFF. It’s in our DogNA.
Till next time,
