Positive Spin

Maybe having a baby around won't be so bad. She is a human baby so at least she will not be following me around jumping up and down and trying to kiss me on the mouth the way a puppy would.

Perhaps her eating habits will make up for the loss of attention I will suffer. A messy eater is a comfort to a neglected dog.

Demoted

There has been a shift in the balance and order of the universe. I, Poppy, have been demoted.

Last night my Aunt Sarah had a baby, so I am not the baby of the family. I fear that I am no longer Grandma's favorite. I am afraid of what this turn of events will do to what I have come to think of as the normal rate and volume of doting and treat disbursement.

I know that this means that I will have to start facing up to the responsibilities and obligations of being an older cousin that I eschewed even though Lucy and Bear are younger than I.

I know this is expected of me. But I prefer not to.

Roomba

There is a new pet in our house. It is called Roomba. Every morning Mommy lets it loose to dust the floors. But mostly it sits in its dock and bothers no one. Duncan and I treat it the way we treat each other. Mostly, we ignore it.

Sometimes it comes straight towards us. It doesn't really like to go around things until it bumps into them. Such behavior is no problem for me because I am a little dog and I spend approximately 25% of my time avoiding getting stepped on or run in to. I am quite agile as a result.

Duncan is a big dog so he doesn't worry about being stepped on. He takes it for granted that people will move around him. He is very stubborn that way. Sometimes, even when asked to move, he won't, so Mommy and the Big Guy have to drag him out of the way. I either step on him or jump over him.

Occasionally, Roomba will bump into Duncan causing him great surprise. He is so surprised that he will look at Roomba with wonder but will not move. Roomba will back up but it is stubborn, too. It will bump into him again. By this time Duncan will be struggling to get up. He is all legs and on a wood floor he looks like Bambi on ice. Roomba will back up one more time, but it really wants to continue going forward, so it does. Duncan is big, and does not move quickly. Roomba will bump into his foot and Duncan will trip out of its way.

Mommy likes Roomba because it is productive. It picks up a lot of hair. But I am not jealous. I think, who is really the true producer? The pet who picks up the hair or the pet who creates it?

Got Hope?

Where is Mommy going?

She is walking toward the closet where she keeps my leash. I am so curious that I stand there behind her with my right paw raised in a gesture of expectation. Dare I hope? I am wearing my as-soon-as-Mommy-says-the-word-"ready"-I-will-express-the-sweetest-joy-with-shrill-and-unsupressable-yelping face. This face is much like my your-actions-have-caught-me-by-surprise-and-they-would-fascinate-me-if-only-my-mind-were-not-such-a-complete-blank face, only I tilt my chin just slightly higher for the former.

Mommy reaches into the closet. The suspense lasts for maybe a second but it seems to me like a lifetime.

Disappointment. Mommy keeps my leash in the same closet as the vacuum.

The closet gives and the closet takes away.

Sympathy

On the Internet there are pictures of birds getting baths. They have been covered with oil from the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. If I understood what was going on I would be very sad for the birds and other animals who have been and will be injured by the oil. I, Poppy, am a sensitive pug.

Notwithstanding my sensitivity, I do not understand oil spills. I do, however, understand baths. The birds in the pictures look about as excited as I do when I get a bath. Today, when I take my bath, it will be a solidarity bath. I will express my solidarity with the injured animals by looking like the most oppressed pug ever born. I will frown and hang my tail down behind me.

DSD

Picture yourself in a garden with compost.
Moldy vegetables make neurotoxins.
Duncan in the sky with diamonds!
Duncan in the sky with diamonds!
Duncan in the sky with diamonds!
Ahhhh....

I Do Stairs Better Than Scarlett O'Hara

I do stairs better than Scarlett O'Hara.

I have much the same survival instinct as the aforementioned cinematic heroine.* We both are very demanding and use our charms to get what we want. I, Poppy, am very flirtatious.

In the movie, Miss Scarlett is always on the stairs. You could say that the stairs are the setting to so many of the dramas of her life.**

Unlike Miss Scarlett I do not hang out on stairs. This is how my dramatic expression trumps hers.

In my life, stairs are a conduit of action -- especially of downward action. What happens at the top of the stairs is more important that what happens on them. They and gravity exist only to punctuate my emotions.

You could say that the stairs in my life are like the stairs in The Red Shoes.***

For example, today I remembered that I left a chewie in the bedroom. I went up to get it. My audience was in the dining room at the bottom of the stairs and unsure as to why I went up. I made some noises to add to the suspense. At just the right moment, I appeared at the top of the stairs, my eyes wide and full of fire, and with the very large chewie in my mouth. I paused just long enough to let the potential energy of my excitement and triumph settle on the audience, and then I ran at full speed down the stairs toward them.

It got their attention. Just what I wanted.



*I call her a cinematic heroine because I have not read the book. I have only seen the movie. I do not read.

**At this very moment, my mommy is urging me to discourse on the topic of stairs as a device in Gone With the Wind. I refuse. This blog is about me.

***Miss Vicky is a match for Miss Scarlett any day in the drama department.