The Toy Did It

When we were first married we had a part Lab pup named Pylon who was a terror. She ate half our furniture, stripped the wallpaper off the kitchen wall, regularly raided Rob's gym bag to eat goggles and soap and loved to eat the insides out of shoes and gloves.

Pylon was very difficult to housebreak. She would hide her accidents in dark corners or behind furniture. Rob was very adept at finding these little offerings with his bare feet, which he didn't really enjoy and the more he yelled, the better Py became at hiding her poops.

One morning as I was coming down the stairs to fix breakfast, I passed Py's toy frog on the stairs. I walked by it, then stopped and went back for a second look. Something didn't seem right. I started laughing and called Rob to come take a look. Py had pooped on the stairs and set her toy frog on top of the pile of poop. How could we yell at her when obviously the frog had done it. She got away with that one.


This morning as I was walking thru the garage I noticed that this doggy toy was sitting in a puddle and had obviously had an accident. Since there were no dogs around I didn't know who was at fault, I just laughed and removed the toy. As it turned out Rob was present when this incident took place and the puddle is just water spilled from the drinking bucket, not what it appears to be. One of the dogs did place the toy there, so who says these dogs don't have a sense of humor?


Speaking of toys, aren't these cute? They're the Beanie version of BoObama. I think however, they look just like Gracie, our pup that went to live with J and Splash. We saw these the other day when we were out and about and Rob bought one for me and one for J.


This is the real Gracie. Notice a resemblance to a famous political dog?

As long as I'm on the topic of politics, even though I try to stay clear of politics on this blog, I must mention the death of Ted Kennedy. No matter where you land on the political spectrum or how you feel about the Kennedys, you must admit that Ted Kennedy loved his dogs.


He took them to work with him most days and was often seen on the mall throwing tennis balls for them to chase. He took them sailing and walking on the beach. Believe me, that is a great life for a PWD.


Senator and Mrs. Kennedy were fellow members of the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America and they did much to promote this special breed that I love so much. We in the PWD community will miss Ted for the loving attention he brought to our breed.


A couple years ago Senator Kennedy wrote a book from his dog Splash's point of view. Shortly after it's publication, my Samba began an e-mail correspondence with Splash and I will treasure those emails.


Don't these two look a lot alike? These are Norma Jean and Noah. One postscript to yesterday's blog about names. I like the name Noah, but if you plan to name your dog that, be aware that there is a problem.

When young creatures, human or canine begin to learn the language and how to live with others, one of the first words they must learn is the word 'no'. Without this word there could be all sorts of problems. If a dog or for that matter a child is named Noah, you find yourself saying "No, no, Noah" rather frequently. I discovered that my puppy just thought I spoke with a stutter and had a harder time than his siblings learning the meaning of the word no. It's just something to think about.


Norma Jean loves to give big wet sloppy kisses.