It’s always fun doin’ an innerview at Sea Oaks. It’s VERY VERY Pooch Frenly: lotsa paths for leash walkin’; lotsa trees an other sniffable plants an stuff. An, of course, NOO-mer-us pooches!
This week, I made a new Sea Oaks pooch pal, Elmo Keller-Williams Jr., a jaunty liddle extrovert, and a Crispy Biscuits mix-chur of Mini-Pinscher, Mini-Jack Russell an (already mini) Chihuahua. We met on a nice padio near the tennis courts. (That’s where humans run around bopping tennis balls back an forth over a net, with a funny bopper called a RACK-ut. It’s kinda huh-LARRY-us, but us pooches are NOT ALLOWED to paw-ticipate.
Altho most of us love playin’ catch with a tennis ball under appropriate circumstances.)
But I digress.
Elmo an his human were sittin’ atta table in the shade an he pranced right over for the Wag-an-Sniff, super spiffy in a (bran new, he proudly told me) red harness.
“Hi, Mr. Bonzo! I’m Elmo! You can call me Elmo. I’m named for a pree-vious Elmo an also for Elmo on ‘Sesame Street,’ cuz we’re both liddle an happy and sorta the same age.
He’s 3-anna-haff an I’m gonna be 3 this very month! This is my Mommy, Mer. My Daddy Ray’s elsewhere.”
Right away, an free-quently during the innerview, Elmo’d paws to greet passing humans an pooches, who’d call, “Hey, Elmo! “Hi, Elmo! “’Sup, Elmo?” Everybuddy knew Elmo!
“A pleasure,” I replied. “You can call me Bonz. Woof, you sure are pupular!”
“I have tons of frens!” he replied happily.
“So, how’d you find your Furever Famly?”
“OK, SO, Mommy an Daddy use to dog-sit for a pooch also named Elmo who’d been owned by a human up in DeeCee who couldn’t keep him cuz he didn’t have any place to live: He was sittin’ in front of a big bank building holding Elmo an feeling Very Sad an Concerned. He finally decided the right thing to do was give Elmo to somebuddy who could give him proper care. So he gave Elmo to a human at the bank, who brought Elmo to a shelter.”
“Woof!” I exclaimed as Elmo took a breath.
“I KNOW, right?” he said. “Anyway, Elmo’s phodo got put on the shelter Website and two ladies wanted him, so they went to the shelter and had three-hour innerviews to be sure they’d be good pooch parents. The lady who got him had an apartment in DeeCee, but Elmo got bored stayin’ in it all day while she was at work. So he went down here to Flori-duh to live with HER mom an dad in a very fancy place called Palm Beach Gardens. It was a Rag-to-Riches sit-chew-WAY-shun fur sure! That’s where MY Mommy an Daddy started Dog Sittin’ him an became Very Attached! When he died, they cried an cried an decided they NEVER wanted another pooch!”
“Understandable,” I remarked.
“But THEN … (an, honestly Mr. Bonzo, I ackshully think that somehow the first Elmo picked ME ’speshully for THEM: I’m almost exactly like him. I look just like him an I have the same outgoing pupanality. I saw his phodo and it’s TROO!) … THEN a fren of a fren of Mommy’s posted on Facebook (which I totally don’t understand) that she had one more puppy left from a litter (me) and hadda find it a home pronto!”
“Mommy’s fren suggested me to Mommy an Daddy and they said, ‘NO! NO PUPPY!
NEVER! ABSOLUTELY NOT!’
“Until they decided to meet me. When the lady put liddle fluff ball me into Mommy’s arms it was what humans call Love At First Sight. I Totally KNEW I’d found my Furever Famly.”
“Understandable!”
“Truth be told, Mommy sorta spoils me. She says I’m FABulous! Altho, as a pupper, probably not so much. I LOVED chewin’! (Bein’ a pupper, it’s kinda our JOB!) The furniture was COVERED with munch marks, so Mommy got Magic Markers an colored over them. Also, I ate a record six remotes! An Mommy’s best pair of shoes (proving I have good taste like Mommy, right?). Now there’s a hook on the closet door.”
Prudently changing the subject, I asked, “What’s your typical day like?”
“Mommy’s my Short Order Cook, cuz they only eat veg-tubbles. I sleep snuggled with Mommy until she accidently bops me with her feet, then I sleep on Daddy. I get along grrreat with humans: They love me at the vet’s. So do Mommy’s tennis pals. Their coach Mr. Marco pats me an plays with me, AN he’s teachin’ me Spanish. I call him Tio Marco.
(I don’t really swim, ’cept one time I went to the lagoon with Tio Marco.)
“I LOVE the beach. Just not the water. One time I ate so much sand tryin’ to pick up my Frizbee I got sick. Now there’re Frizbees attached to ropes so us pooches can grab ’em without gettin’ a mouth fulla sand.
“I know pretty much every Sea Oaks pooch. My BFF’s Tio Marco’s dog, Luneta, an Molly an Ollie are a couple of leash walk pals. Me an my pooch niece Silver, she’s about my size, have a blast over at the Dog Park.
“I have lotsa toys. My newest one’s a speshully knitted stuffed carrot! Totally Pawsome!
“Mommy always carries blue poop bags Cuz You Never Know, an sometimes, she lets me chew one to bits. It’s a great stress reliever and I NEVER swallow the pieces.”
“Do you travel?”
“Woof, yes! I’ve been back and forth to Boston an MICHI-gan. I snooze in the back on my speshull blanket. I also enjoy going to rest-runts with Mommy an Daddy. At one place, I get to order off the liddle kids’ menu an the restaurant human even cuts up my burgurr for me! Woof, do I feel speshull!”
Sittin’ in the shade yappin’ with amiable Elmo, the hour had zoomed by. Headin’ home I was thinkin’ about his First Elmo tale an how, time after time, pooches find their Purpose in the most speshull and mysterious ways.
Till next time,