Puppy Love: A Confession
This particular post has been sitting in the drafts folder for a few months. I've been reluctant to post it because I know it's going to get me in trouble.
*sigh*
But I'm going to have to tell him the full extent of this sooner or later...
*ahem* (girds her britches)
I may as well do it now.
You know one of the best things about springtime? Besides the slightly warmer weather and flowers coming out and all that?
BABIES.
Baby bunnies, ducklings, kittens, puppies.
Oh, yeah. Sweet fuzzy love...
I have to admit, I really enjoy animals. And baby animals are especially enjoyable (they're too young to stink—have you ever noticed that? A puppy rarely has bad breath, and a kitten is one of the softest bits of fluff ever.)
Back off the digression—> So, back in Centralia, I was friends with an uber-friendly black lab named Jojo. When she heard Jake and I walking by her house on one of our rambles, she'd run out to meet us (there is not a fence that man has built that could keep this dog in her yard) and walk with us for a long way. Usually, she would follow us back to our house and hang out in the yard. Sometimes she would go home after a little while, but sometimes I would go outside a few hours later, and she'd still be sitting on the front porch.
So I got in the habit of giving Jojo a ride home in the car just to get rid of her. (We couldn't just walk her home, because if we did, she'd follow us home again. The car ride was brilliant solution to an overly-friendly dog problem, if I do say so.)
Bonus: She loves car rides.
Wrench in the gears:
Jeff: "You've been doing what?"
Jeff didn't like me giving Jojo a ride home. I guess I can see his point: she sheds, she doesn't exactly smell like she has a bath too often, and it's pretty likely that she has fleas...okay, I get it. Don't give the dog a ride home in the car anymore. Which means, avoid dog because she will follow us home and hang out in front of the house for hours. Okay, got it.
But guess what?
Jojo had puppies.
Making her irresistible.
The good thing about this is that the puppies were too small to go anywhere, so if we went to visit her and her adorably wiggly brood, she would not follow us home. She would stay at home with them like a good mom.
Jake gettin' some puppy loveSo this past spring, we went by Jojo's a lot.
(Another thing about the home where Jojo lives: apparently, they like dogs. They have about ten of 'em: a daschund, a chocolate lab, another black dog that looks like a cross between a collie and a lab, two bulldogs, and all the puppies. And all of them are escape artists. Even the puppies had figured out how to worm their way under the fence and come meet us at the side of the road. Very convenient for us. It kept me from hopping the fence and trespassing.)
Anyway, the last time we went to Jojo's, almost all the puppies had been given away. There were only two left. But it's not like we were missing out on doggie love—all the dogs knew us at this point, and ALL the dogs would come out to get a good scratch.
When the time came to go home, we told Jojo goodbye and started to walk away.
But she followed us.
So did her two puppies, who were much older at this point, and ready for an adventure.
The chocolate lab followed us, too.
So did the black lab/collie mix.
So did the daschund.
Mercifully, the bulldogs felt like taking a nap.
What were we to do? You can't shoo them—they just laugh at you with their tongues lolling out. You can't put them back in their yard and close the gate—they just get out again. (I tried that about three times.) No owner was home to distract them. I finally shrugged and went home, hoping that they would get bored and go home.
They didn't.
It was like I was the Pied Piper or something—six dogs and one child trailing me—and I don't even line my pockets with bacon!
As soon as we got home, I loaded them all into the car to take them home again. (What else could I do?)
Once we got them back to their house, I opened the doors and let the dogs flow out into the street...and some poor guy just happened to be jogging past. His mouth dropped open, and a few of the dogs immediately ran at him and started barking. I called the dogs off, and apologized to him, and explained they weren't my dogs—at which point he decided he was dealing with a complete loony and ran away. (I suppose it must have seemed pretty funny to him watching all the dogs come out of the car like clowns in a tiny clown-car at the circus. And he must've thought I was a dog-napper. Or something.)
So we delivered the dogs safely and went home. And I did not tell Jeff about our adventures.
(Honey, if you're reading this, I can safely promise you this will NEVER happen again. See, Jojo lives in Centralia, and we live in Spokane! I'm pretty sure she's not going to follow us home anymore.)
21 comments:
It's your animal magnetism!! You are simply irresistible!
When is your blog gonna go all Halloween-ie??
I was completely ready to read that you kidnapped one of those puppies and brought it to your new home.
I love dogs, from afar. Jeff and I think the exact same way--fur, fleas, mud, poop duty.
I for sure thought you were going to say you adopted one of the puppies and Jojo's legacy lives on in Spokane. Jake was so cute with that little smile on his face as he watched the doggie mayhem.
Like the Pied Piper or one of those Incredible Adventure stories.
Now, are those the real dogs' names or did you name them? ;)
What do you mean, you don't line your pockets with bacon????
Puppies' breath smells like burnt toast. Have you ever noticed that?
:)
you should totally adopt a puppy then teach it that being cute gets treats...
sounds like my Penny.
good times
So did your husband read this?
Is he getting you a puppy for your birthday?
melissa--I'm trying to hold off on the Halloween until we're a little closer to October. Stop trying to tempt me!
eliz-w--nah. I really love animals, but I'm not stupid. I don't really want the poop duty, the washing duty, training the poor thing that it isn't allowed to chew on shoes and get upset when it piddles on something I value...I love the puppies. But I prefer to visit, not own. (And Jeff is Anti-Dog, all the way.)
annie--nope. No adopting. And Jake said he'd rather have a little dog, like the daschund, and I'd rather have a bigger dog, like a lab. But it's not going to happen. We have two cats--isn't that enough?
NCS--Those were the dogs' actual names. (Perhaps I should have given them code names for their protection?) We hung out at that house enough to get to know the owners, as well, and they told me the names of all the dogs. (Oddly enough, they didn't seem to mind us hanging out with their dogs.)
Millie--hmm. Thinking. I don't know if I ever noticed the burnt toast smell. Mostly just milky...next time I have a puppy around, I'll get in his face and take a deep whiff, just for you.
dread pirate darling--yes, yes. I wish, but no.
jean knee--Has Penny ever had puppies?
NCS--He'll most likely read this in a few weeks' time. And, no, I seriously doubt there will be any puppies in my future.
I wonder who Jojo is hanging out with nowadays.
In a totally unrelated note: I feel espeshual.
Hee hee! I can just picture it!
That is the FUNNIEST--and the pictures just make it!
I love that when I go to your blog, I am guaranteed two things:
1. to be surprised
2. to laugh
you're the best. I miss you.
I'm still disappointed that you don't really line your pockets with bacon. I've been doing it for years and thought I'd found true love...
millie--wait--you thought you'd found true love? Because some guy followed you home because you lined your pockets with bacon? Then what? He ate the bacon out of your pockets and went home? And then you knew it wasn't true love?
That's a sad story.
NCS--that's because you ARE espeschul. (Though I don't know how to spell that.)
2(kimberly)--glad you enjoyed it. (Did you guys coordinate that, or what? One kimberly right after another...)
shar--yeah, me too. (About the missing part.) Why don't we live in the same state again? And in the same town within that same state? And the same neighborhood within the same town? Boo on you, Fates!
Jack looks like my demon-eyed Reagan!!!!
We harbored a Husky last week. She laid around our front door howling. Who can blame her? She's a freakin snow dog living in a 100 degree tropical climate. So we gave her water and a bit of food and tried to figure out what to do with her. And then she left on her own accord......and then the very next day we saw the sign for her offering a BIG REWARD. Crap.
The route my Papi used to deliver was full of wayward dogs and oodles of puppies running everywhere on the road making them nearly impassable. He affectionately called them "Furry Speedbumps."
I thought I already left a comment on this one, but apparently I'm going senile.
I love this story, for if I were a dog, I would surely follow you around, no bacon required. It's easier to be a shameless Wynne groupie when you're a dog. Dogs are supposed to fawn.
And then I could live in your yard, and chase your cats, and not have to go to work. Yeaaaah. Being Wynne's doggie admirer -- that's the life.
I love this picture, it completely reminds me of the unexpected daily adventures you would get into. I am sure that Jake loves having a Mom that makes life so colorful.
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