Homebound
I moved to North Carolina partly for what Todd calls front porch livin', and I think it's fair to say both that I've found it and that it's enveloping me. It's the kind of place that makes me want to cook four-course meals from scratch, select pretty linens and make them into curtains, raise a vegetable patch, buy obscure kitchen and wine gadgets. To be a housewife, in all truthfulness. Or at least to create a home. This desire has been fueled lately because I spent a lot of my break surrounded by animals and children, two necessary pieces of the picture, and because Todd has been actively shopping around for a kitten. And I know that My Perfect Home will have not just an Intelligent and Playful Cat, but a Great Big Tender Dog. Newfoundland. St Bernard. German Shepherd. Something big enough to be a couch when he's asleep. This is what I *thought* I wanted, anyway. Thought until I stayed with my cousin Kristen and her chocolate lab, Gus, over the Christmas holiday. Gus is intelligent and tender and playful, and I had the rare joy of sleeping in the living room, where his dog bed is, for three nights in a row. Each successive night, he was a little bolder, a litlte wilder, and a little less willing to let me sleep. By the third night, he had graduated from just walking around, collar clinking, during the night to grabbing the covers off me with his teeth; putting his face next to mine, noses touching, until I woke up; prancing and whining to go outside at 4:30am; putting his fetch toys on my stomach and growling in a low tone, waiting for the toss. Granted, Kristen had strep throat and wasn't giving Gus his usual amount of attention. And granted, he's a bit of a guard dog and wasn't used to having a house full of strangers. But it made me a little edgy. I've wanted a great big dog ever since I read a book in elementary school, Karen, about a family that had several Newfies. But, in all honesty, none of the animals in my family have ever been well-trained (our 17-year-old mutt still jumps up on company), and I've never had any animal as big and strong and willful as what I'm talking about. I know nothing about them. What am I getting myself into? Any Pohadka readers have any tips, stories, or advice about dog shopping, training, or ownership? I still *want* a Great Big Tender Dog, I just want my Perfect Home and I to be ready for him.
Comments
geez, what is it about 4:30 in the morning. sometimes when i go home to stoneville, my parent's cat, boots, sleeps with me and every time at 4:30 in the morning she wants to get up. she just meows and puts her paws under the door until i finally get up and let her out. it drives me crazy.
as for dogs, i don't really have much advice for ya. i lived with two mutt dogs last year which was totally fun, but you just have to be firm with them. train 'em early on or put them in obedience school. that seems to help them behave better. i like pound dogs the best or maybe you can find a nice dog from the independent animal rescue.
-b
Says bendte
4 Jan 2002 at 05:09 PM
If I were you, I'd haul out the red little hot-dog you got in highschool that's autographed by your friends, and call it your "pet". They are much easier to clean up after and don't require huge boarding bills when you want to hit the road. Otherwise get a Big Fat Cat that already been declawed. They can go for days without company.
Says Mom
5 Jan 2002 at 09:59 AM
way to go, Todd! now there's lemonade service on the porch! sounds like you guys will be needing my services sooner rather than later. :-)
i highly recommend Great Big Tender Dogs, especially if you like perpetually slobber-covered floors, dog hair, and hours of your time mysteriously disappearing into thin air. not just a little slobber. puddles of slobber. ...do you get along with people who incessantly play stupid? how about people that want every single thing that happens to be in your hand? or people that are ready to eat anything you even look at? (except something you might want to feed them) but after all, these are not people... they are hounds. and big tender hounds who nothing but love in their hearts. ...and every once in a very rare while... all-consuming bloodthirst.
Says andis
7 Jan 2002 at 06:53 AM
have :-)
Says andis
7 Jan 2002 at 06:55 AM
Don't judge all choc lab's personalities by Gus. I have an 8 y.o. female named (o-so-creatively) Mocha and she is the sweetest most polite doggie you'd ever want to meet. He middle name (literally) is Preciosa. The vet even said she's a "wonderful patient" (when she got hit by a car recently), which is more than they could say about me (when I got hit by a car in 1987). She does smell doggie though, and sheds in the summer, that's hard to avoid, but she takes to a bath like, well, a lab to water.
Says lee jr
8 Jan 2002 at 02:55 PM
Well, after less than a day playing with Todd's cats, as well as several trips to several shelters over the last weeks or so, I am now officially obsessed with getting an animal. I don't know where this homemaker phase came from, but I'm riding it.
And I think, when the time comes (read: when I have a house without 5 roommates and with enough space in the yard for good romps), it will be the Great Big Tender Dog, Yes, doggie smell, slobber puddles, lack of autographs and all. I almost took home a beautiful honeybrown mutt with soulful eyes from the Chapel Hill APS today. I need to find a hobby to restrain myself in the meantime...
Says Christy
8 Jan 2002 at 09:52 PM
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