Cocoa Beans Pope is a Sweet, Funny, Frenly poocheroo, livin’ her Best Life (after a kinda scary start). She’s also Very Tall – legs up to HERE!
A nice lady escorted us inside, to a Dog Gate, where Cocoa was waiting, rockin’ a pretty pink collar. The lady let Cocoa through, then closed the gate.
Cocoa trotted gracefully up for the Wag-an-Sniff, taking care to not topple me over, which I really uh-PREE-she-ated.
“Good afternoon, Miss Cocoa! I’m Bonzo and this is my assistant.”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Bonzo,” she replied, looking (way) down at me with a happy smile. “I’m Cocoa Beans Pope. You can call me Cocoa. An this is my Mom, Michele. Let’s sit over HERE.”
We did.
Cocoa’s a Giant Schnauzer: Pepper-an-Salt color, a bit intimidatin’ at first cuzza her large-ness, but also TRAY Frenly (she spent lotsa time givin’ my assistant slurps an nuzzles which, of course, my assistant loved, an responded with Nose Boops, Friffles an duhlishus snacks from The Satchel).
“I’m eee-ger to hear your tail, Miss Cocoa,” I said.
“It all happened cuz my Mom had ALL-ways had Giant Schnauzers,” she began. “Just buh’for me, Mom had Kayla, who hadda go to Dog Heaven in twenny-eighteen. Then, in April twenny-nineteen, Mom gotta call from a fren, who told her about a Giant Schnauzer Rescue place in Miami with a pupper they had to find another home for cuz it kept escapin’. ME.
“So Mom drove down to this ji-NOR-muss MAN-shun with a ’lectric GATE! There I was outside, by myself inna concrete pen with no roof. Well, Mom opened the pen gate an walked IN. The hoomans were hollarin’ cuz they thought I was gonna run away. But I just ran straight to Mom an jumped up to give her HUGS an KISSES! I KNEW she was my Furever Mom. She knew, too. So off we drove to my Furever Home!!”
“PAWSOME, Miss Cocoa! What was it like at first?”
“I was havin’ FUN, flyin’ all over the house, knockin’ things over, chairs an stuff like that. See, I hadn’t had ANY trainin’ whatsoEVER. Mom took me to Day Care, but they threw me out cuzza me bein’ TOO ram-BUNK-shus. Same with Training Classes. An the Groomer.
“At the beach, I usta chase those itsy liddle CRABS (just CHASIN’ ’em, not CATCHIN’ ’em), till one time I accidently DID catch one an, buhfore I could pee-tooie it out, it bit my nose. Now I don’t chase ’em.
“Mom says I was a LOONA-Tick. But she didn’t boot me out, Thank Lassie. She worked Very Hard teachin’ me how to be a Proper Pooch.
“When I got a liddle older, an stopped bein’ so wild-an-crazy, I ackshully earned my AKC Canine Good Citizen Certificate AN the AKC Trick Dog Advanced title.”
“Woof, Miss Cocoa, that’s PAWSOME!”
“Thank you, Mr. Bonzo. Mom even turned her bedroom into a dog groomin’ suh-lahn. Come’on, I’ll show you!”
It was uh-MAY-zing: speshul groomin’ stuff, one of those fancy tables, an lotsa pooch pickchurs.
“This is Super Cool Kibbles!”
“I KNOW right?” she replied happily. Just as we sat back down, I heard a rustling sound by the hallway gate, anna deep pooch voice: “Hey, Cocoa, aren’t you gonna innerduce me?”
Cocoa’s Mom opened the gate an this HUGE black pooch, another Giant Schnauzer, trotted over. He was very dapper an even taller than Cocoa.
“Of course,” said Cocoa. “Mr. Bonzo, this is my BFF Steel, also a rescue. We never met buh-for, but we bonded instantly. We’re about the same age, too. An you won’t buh-LEEVE this: When Mom was goin’ through our papers, she found out that HIS Momma is MY gramma. So he’s my UNCLE. PAWSOME, right?”
“A-MAZE-ing!” I replied.
“I just popped in to say hello, Mr. Bonzo,” Steel said. “A pleasure to meet you!”
“Likewise, Steel. What a Cool Kibbles story.”
Steel trotted back to his room, an Cocoa continued. “He’s SO sophisticated. He’d NEVER chase a crab. I think he’s wonderful!”
“You have such a great blended family,” I told her.
“I know! I’m SO lucky! When I first arrived, Mom had two other rescue pooches, George an Emmy. I loved them. They made me feel at home right away. But they were lots older than me an, when I’d been here for two years, they hadda go to Dog Heaven, an alluva sudden I was an Only Child. I was very sad an droopy an, for a very long time, I didn’t feel like runnin’ an playin’.
“But now I have Uncle Steel, an I’m Princess of the House. I have beautiful ‘jeweled’ collars for all occasions. But,” she smiled, “I still love Runnin’ FAST, speshully at South Beach.
“Once I spotted this big, soggy pile of seaweed. It smelled duh-lightful, very fishy, so I decided to roll around in it. But Mom said it, an ME, were STINKY. It lasted quite a while, too.
“Another time, on the beach, we saw teeny liddle turtle babies tryin’ to get to the O-shun. There wasn’t one of those triangle marker thingies but all these burds were grabbin’ um UP, so Mom told me to SIT! STAY! while she was runnin’ all over chasin’ the burds away.
“Me an Mom do lotsa stuff together: like goin’ to Chelsea’s. We always share a duh-lishus Smoothies Bowl. It’s got BLOO-berries an STRAW-berries an other froot, an honey.
“One time, Mom took me kayaking, my Maiden Voyage. Grampa Paul was with us, by the shore. I was jus sittin’ on the kayak (with my lifejacket on), an Mom began paddlin’ toward the river.
Then, for some reason, I JUMPED IN! Mom jumped in after me an the kayak floated off, so Mom grabbed me by my lifejacket an nabbed the kayak with her other arm just in time, Grampa helped an we all got back to shore. An I learned an Important ROOL: ‘We Do NOT Jump Out Of the Kayak.’”
Headin’ home, I was marvelin’ at all Cocoa’s fascinatin’ tails, an wonderin’ what life’d be like if I wasn’t a Happy Bachelor. Sigh. AN thinkin’ about my Evening Dish of yoghurt, waitin’ for me in the fridge.
Till next time,
