This week I met two rescue pooches, easy going, laidback big sister Nala, almost 12, an zoomy, ram-BUNK-shus liddle sis Olive, not quite 1. Total opposites, but they go together like peanut budder-an-jelly.
Nala’s a hound/lab mixture, long leggedy, with a sleek black coat, gold paws and face (her Mom sometimes calls here Sugar Face cuzza some white places coming in around her muzzle).
Olive, on the other paw, lookin’ spiffy in a purple collar an pink bow, is a tidy, very busy, all-black liddle poocheroo with a zippy trot, great poss-chur, an short enough to walk under Nala without even ducking. They both welcomed me an my assistant with cordial woofs an Wag-n-Sniffs.
Nala introduced herself, her liddle sis, an their Mommy, Lynn Tracy. “Our Daddy Craig Phair’s at work. Come on in. Havva seat.”
Her Hound Nose quickly led her to my assistant’s Satchel, wherein usually resides a bag of treats. After gettin’ the OK from their Mom, Nala an Olive puh-litely accepted one each. Pencil poised, I said, “I’m eager to hear how you both found your Forver Famly.”
Nala had settled herself comftubbly on the couch. Olive was very busy sniffin’ an explorin’. “Olive’s still such a puppy.” Nala smiled a Big Sisterly smile. “She hasn’t even been in the family for a year yet. So far, her favrite thing is buryin’ stuff. Mostly her pig ear.”
“… er, pardon?”
Their Mom brought out an obviously well-worn chewy pig ear (an item I myself had not been familiar with till that very moment), then opened the slider glass door to the fenced back yard.
Olive grabbed the pig ear, which was as big as her entire face. “Vewwy impordun!” Olive mumbled, around the pig ear. “Id’s my doody! Hafta hi did! Dough look, Mr. Bodzo! Dough look, Nala. Dough look, Mobby!”
She dashed out, then scurried about, back an forth, under chairs, behind bushes, till I lost track of her.
Pretty soon she zipped back in, sans pig ear. “I did it!” She declared proudly.
Nala turned to me. “That silly liddle muffin finds great hiding places. Thing is, she doesn’t ever remember where they are. We might not find that pig ear for weeks. Months even.”
Still energized, Olive said breathlessly, “Wanna watch me play Frisbee?”
Without waitin’ for an answer, she demonstrated her considerable prowess, flying across the kitchen floor an nabbin,’ in mid-air, a big-as-her-face frisbee every single time her Mommy flung it. Then she jumped onto a nearby chair an curled up.
“Pretty Cool Kibbles, doncha think, Mr. Bonzo?”
“The coolest, Miss Olive!” I replied.
Then Nala turned to me. “Shall I begin our story now?”
“By all means,” I replied.
“I am from Maine, which is way, way far north where it gets very very cold, ’specially in FEB-you-wary, which is when I got rescued. I was a teeny puppy an had got dumped on a huge sorta field with some humans walkin’ around carryin’ funny bags an sticks an stoppin’ once inna while to swat liddle balls with the sticks. I found out later it’s called a golf course an my (fute-chur) Daddy was in charge of it. The humans with the sticks told my Daddy about me cuz they knew I’d be a Goner cuzza it bein’ so cold.
“Mommy an Daddy tried to find my owner, but no one showed up, so they ’dopted me. I sorta became the golf course mascot. I loved my new home right away. My best fren was Dooley Woem (meow spelled backwards), the Boss of the Famly. I didn’t realize at first that he wasn’t a dog like me. It didn’t matter anyway. When Dooley hadda go across the Rainbow Bridge, I was sad for a long time.
“When we moved down here, I was still sad about Dooley Woem, so Mommy started lookin’ for a liddle rescue fren for me. Gramma Phyllis and Mommy looked an looked but lotsa liddle dogs were ’dopted by humans when they hadda stay home cuzza that duh-ZEESE. Then one day they went to the Humane Society an the lady said they had this one liddle pooch who’d been returned that very day. An it was the second time she’d been returned. It was Olive. WELL, Mommy said right away, unless Olive was A BITER (which she isn’t) we’d adopt her so Olive’d never haff to go through gettin’ returned EVER AGAIN. So I got a wunnerful, goofy liddle sister, an she got ME! It was one of those Meant To Be things, ya know?
“I’M teachin’ her Important Dog Stuff,” Nala continued. “An, if I do say so, I’m a Good Egg-ZAMPLE.”
“There sure is a lotta stuff to ruh-MEM-ber,” innerjected Olive.
“So, what’s your day-to-day life like these days?”
“It’s WAY FUN!” Olive exclaimed from her cozy chair.
“Yup,” agreed Nala. “The Best! We get walks; an we snuggle with Mommy an Daddy at night; an we get yummy food, ’specially Cod Snacks. You MUST try Cod Snacks! Bailey turned us on to them. Bailey’s our BFF, he’s an Old English Sheep Dog. Then there’s the Shihtzu brothers Ace an Peter Pan. Our human Besties are Gramma Phyllis, of course; an Aunt Nancy. She gives us ice cream.”
“I couldn’t help noticing how very well groomed you ladies are.”
“Thank you Mr. Bonzo,” said Nala. “We enjoy a monthly spa day. Our stylist, Mr. Barry, always takes a photo of us all dressed up for the current holiday, an sends it to Mommy an Daddy.”
“I believe you sent one of those photos to me with your WoofMail,” I said to Nala. “You both had red-white-an-blue bandanas.”
“Oh, yes! That was for the 4th of July!” said Olive.
Heading home I was thinkin’ about cod snacks an pig ears, neither of which had previously been on my Snack Radar. Not being a culinary adventurer, however, I decided I was totally happy to stick with my lovely evening dish of yoghurt.
