WHAT A WATCH DOG!

Happy, my American Cocker Spaniel, a beautiful dog, is one terrific watchdog. So far she has perfected the art of watching me eat, which I’m sure some of you are thinking, “It must be an all day affair.”

Well smarty-pants it’s not! However she has also taken on the mantle of Momma as she now will not come into our bedroom until #2 Son or TLW (The Little Woman) or myself are all home. What she does is lay at the top of the staircase and watches the front door waiting for whoever is not home yet to return. Once that happens, she will nudge the bedroom door open and come in to sleep.

This is a smart intelligent animal, who really hates people, yet loves us. She will not warm up to strangers and most relatives. The only outsiders she will not bark at are my Mother and my Nephew The Macaroni Man who comes over every Sunday to watch the game with me. We have to eat macaroni every Sunday because he loves it, and TLW refuses to make him anything else!

Getting back to Happy, her position in the household is secure, as with a sleepy demeanor and her head resting on her assigned chair in the den, she rests the day away, or charges the front door to bark at passer-byers and neighbors from across the street.

Wintertime you will find her as a fury mass curled up on her chair or her oversized pillow, and in the summer on the cool tile floor. When I get up to go to the kitchen, be it to put something away or to cook, she is right there waiting to see if I will give her some food.

Every day at 4:30 Happy will get excited and jump up and down and run at me and bark as she tells me it’s time to make the salad and give her some lettuce. When she sees me bring out my Jack Daniels bottle she starts to run up and down the length of the kitchen and gets all excited knowing the lettuce can’t be far behind.

Being sly as fox, Happy has gone to the extreme of hitting the little bell in the den by the sliding door that leads to the back yard. That little bell is her signal to tell us that she needs to go out to do her business. When she goes out and returns she gets a treat. Sometimes this little maneuver is enacted two or three times within minutes to solicit more than one treat.