SHE’S THE BOSS

Sometimes I think I was sentenced to a life of servitude! It seems to me that she is always watching me, scrutinizing my every move. If I stir in my recliner, she looks over at me, studying my disposition.

There are days that I swear I can’t move without her following me, almost directing my every move! If I dare go too far, no matter were she is in the house, she will come over to see what I’m up to.

It seems our routines are now interwoven. Like a married couple should, she knows what I’m thinking, especially at certain times of the day! I guess we live for each other. I know she has me well trained!

I’m talking about my dog of course. And like the other women in my house, they all tell me what to do and even where to go. There is never a mystery as to what and who I am, and where I stand.

At 3:30 every afternoon, Happy, the white and buff American cocker spaniel I love to hate, and hate to love, mainly because she is very cute, and gets away with every infraction imaginable, begins her vigil of the refrigerator door. She stands in front of my chair and looks at me, wondering: “So when are you getting off your duff and getting me my lettuce, you old flea-bitten monkey?”

After that, she patrols the floor while I make supper, hoping for a few crumbs that somehow get away from me. Sometimes it’s a piece of tomato, or an olive, once in a while a cucumber or celery or carrot stick that ‘fell’ from the counter.

Then, while I eat and talk to TLW (The Little Woman) she sits on her hind legs and stares up at me and waits for more to happen to fall.

Finally at night, and precisely at 9:00 pm, she saunters over to the sliding den door, and waits for me to open it. She goes out and does her business, then comes in and looks for her treat.

We walk over to the stair-case, and she waits for me to carry her upstairs, since she can’t negotiate the high polished steps any more. Once I put her down at the top of the landing, she heads to my office because she knows I have a treat there for her. She crosses over the entry, stops, looks back at me and continues in. I give her a treat, and off she goes to sleep in my bedroom!

I know my place, and she knows hers.