It’s always fun meetin’ fellow pets with happy inter-SPEE-cees relationships. It helps me broaden my, you know, hu-RYE-rizons, an reminds me how much alike we all are under the fur an feathers (an, occasionally, scales). It’s a Learning Ex-peery-ence, PLUS, it’s usually FUN! Like this week was.
Me an my assistant arrived at the home of Boomer Coffin, a Dog, and his sister, Lily Coffin, a Cat. Boomer anna Nice Lady met us at the pool courtyard gate. Boomer came right up for the Wag-an-Sniff. He’s still mostly a puppy (just had his first birthday Oct. 15), and he was TRAY happy an affectionate, speshully with my assistant, who poked around in The Satchel for Dog Treats, which quickly vanished.
Boomer’s a hansome liddle Havanese, curly white hair with brown patches on his caboose, ears, back, his liddle beard, an around his big bright eyes, which, I’m pretty sure, are magical. No Woof! They are PEEPLE Eyes: White with light blue-green in the middle. The color’s called Celadon. (I Googled). A-MAZE-ing.
After an impressive bunch of barkin’, the liddle pooch greeted us. “Hello! I’m Boomer Coffin! THIS is my Mom, Susan. My Big Sister’s around here somewhere. She’s Lily. She’s SIX! She’s a sigh-uh-MEESE! (That’s a CAT, ya know.) She says she should tell her story first, cuzza bein’ older. LILY!!!!”
As we got settled in by the pool, a small, graceful an X-odd-ic cat appeared, gave Boomer a frenly liddle nudge, then confidently approached me. “Welcome, welcome, Mr. Bonzo. I am Lily Coffin.
You’ve met my goofy liddle brother. He’s a dear, really.”
After a brief pause while my assistant retrieved Cat Snacks from The Satchel, an Lily accepted them, then daintly licked her paws, she said, “I can begin my part of the Tail first, so your story will FLOW.”
“Good idea,” I agreed, opening my notebook. “Whenever you’re ready.”
“Well then, I was still a kitten when Mom acquired me for Dad, Dave, who was sick. I loved him right away, he was my Total Best Fren. When he had to go to Heaven, I was very, very sad. I still miss him. I love Mom, too, of course. We’ve travelled a lot together. It’s called Flyin’. It’s TRAY Cool Catnip.
“I was totally fine bein’ the Only Pet. It was basically purr-fect. But THEN, THIS silly liddle goofball came along.”
Lily gave Boomer an affectionate swat.
“K!” Boomer said. “MY turn! Right?” He twirled around a few times, excitedly. I was impressed.
“I’m right here if you forget anything,” Lily said helpfully, and curled up on the patio table.
Boomer jumped into my assistant’s lap, delivered several happy puppy kisses, then jumped down.
“Mom was NOT lookin’ for a dog,” he began. “But then, one day, she saw a neighbor with this adorable liddle pupper, an she was like, ‘WHERE DID YOU GET THAT DOG?? I LOVE IT! I HAFF TO HAVE ONE!!’
“The neighbor told Mom the liddle pooch was from a breeder down near my-AM-ee, so Mom went down an met me in the Fur an that was that. I just turned 1 (in peeple years) in October.”
“Totally Cool Kibbles,” I exclaimed. “So, what was it like in your new home at first: meeting Miss Lily an all?”
At that point, Miss Lily innerjected: “Soon as Mom brought him in (he was this wiggly little fluffball) I’m like, ‘For ME? Pawsome! Thanks Mom!’ I had my very own liddle brother! Of course, he occasionally chews my leg – that’s what puppers do – then I haff to swat him. It’s no biggie.”
“It an IN-stink!” Boomer explained helpfully.
“I’m still gonna swat you!” Lily said, with a grin.
“So, what’s life like now? Any speshul frens? Famly? Do you travel? What are your sleepin’ arrangements? Exercise? Foodstuffs?”
“Lemme see. My pooch pals, umm, there’s Finley, my BFF, he’s a liddle smaller than me. When me an Mom an her frens do laps around the lake (usually about 3 miles, sometimes less if I get pooped), I go up to his gate to see if he’s around. An there’s a new Havanese in the neighborhood I haven’t met yet. There WAS my pal Duffy, but he moved to Collar-RAH-do. Me an Lily havva sister up in Rhode Island, anna brother, Peter. They’re hoomans.
“Probly my hooman bestie is Mr. Bill. He’s whatcha call a SHOW-fur. When we go back-an-forth from Rhode EYE-land, Mom flies with Lily, an (cuz I’m too big to stuff under the seat anymore) Mr. Bill SHOW-furs me in our car. It’s Cool Kibbles! Just us guys!!
“Me an Lily chase each other around a lot. We nap together a lot, too. We eat mostly plain ol’ kibbles, an, for a speshul treat once inna while, we get scrambled EGGS.”
“YOU do,” innerjected Lily. “I don’t like ’em, an THEY don’t like me.”
“Mom hasta keep the cat food WAY UP HIGH, cuz,” Boomer admitted, “I guess I tend to, you know, EAT it. I have my fluffy floor bed here,” Boomer indicated a very comfy lookin’ pet bed. “I also have one in black. But we usually end up sleepin’ with Mom. We each have our own pillow.”
“Do you swim? Do you like the beach?” I inquired, gazing at their beautiful pool. (As a SPAN-yull, I totally LOVE swimmin’.)
“Naw, not so much,” admitted Boomer. “The beach is cool, I guess. I do run around on the sand.
But NOT in those whatchamacallits – WAVES. I mean, if they just weren’t so – WET. When I DO get wet, I dry off really fast cuz, Mom says, I have HAIR instead of FUR.”
As we said our goodbye-an-thanks an departed, the pair began happily chasin’ each other around the pool again. Headin’ home, I was thinkin’ about their relationship an smilin’. I mean, even though maybe they don’t both like scrambled eggs, an she hasta swat him for occasionally chewin’ her leg, bottom line is – they love each other.
