Billy, our larger dog - a "Schnoodle" as it were - recently landed the final death blows upon his friend, Crazy Eyes Skunk. Crazy Eyes was a stuffed dog toy that has persisted in our family for about a year now, which is pretty amazing considering that the only thing that stuffed dog toys are used for is tug-of-war, fake neck-breaking head-whipping, and de-stuffing. Billy prefers the latter of these activities, but Crazy Eyes had crazy-strong seams and so it resisted his evisceration scheme for some time. After the skunk met its end, Billy did a funny thing with it, leaving it seemingly as an offering in the nursery inside of the baby's bathtub. He hasn't touched it now in days. The nursery was just used as storage when we first moved in, and we kept the door shut because we didn't bother to heat it. Lately, we've kept its door open and the radiator on and it is now fairly organized in there, filled with clean baby clothes and blankets, changing table and books. The dogs definitely sense that it is a peculiar place and they enter it very hesitantly, making a slow, gentle tour of sniffing its contents at least once a day. And I like to think that Billy, in his simple canine way, has just given his stamp of approval on its future inhabitant. On a related note, that baby bathtub is going to need to be resanitized.....
What a sweet gesture, dogs are so sensitive to changes, I am sure he 'knows' that someone is on the way. The relationship between dogs and babies / kids can be so beautiful, many of them take it upon themselves to protect them at all cost, I've seen that many times. Our neighbours dog (german shepard) took it upon himself to protect Johann when he was a baby, and soon our whole yard too. This had to be toned down of course, but we never had to worry about unwanted company (well any company) to get near us without our approval while that huge canine was on guard.
ReplyDeleteThat is so cute, Agusta. German Shepherds are especially maternal. Will had one growing up, and when my mom-in-law has told me very similar yard-patrol stories. Once a plumber got too close to the baby's play pen, and the dog took him by the hand and led him away, not relenting but also not breaking any skin until one of her masters told her to release. Good dog :)
ReplyDeleteBilly is just that kind of a dog--making baby girl feel welcome. Adorable story.
ReplyDelete