Once in a while I get puppy fever – I admit…especially when I can pick them up, snuggle them and sniff that puppy smell.  Then I remember…..

And friends who love me and want the best for me offered the advice that “you need a puppy” when I was going to be spending time at home. Then I remember……

Excerpts of a letter I sent my Dad in August of 2003 when Benjamin our lab, was a puppy. Then I remember…..

Hi Dad,

Well, I don’t really have pretty pots of flowers on my big deck this year as Benjamin thought he should pull the flowers out for me.  He seems to leave the ones hanging down in the baskets alone, probably hasn’t noticed he can reach them, but he’s such a little doorknob about other stuff.  It’s like he looks around for trouble to get into.  

For the most part he’s quit trying to swim in his water bowl on the deck so we don’t have to have it in the big turtle pool.  (Talk about living like a red-neck), but he still flings grumblies to the far corner when he eats.  The deck is 640 square feet, and he can fling grumblies to the far corners when he eats! I tried big grumblies – they still fell out of his mouth.  Small grumblies are worse. I checked and he has teeth on each side up and down of his mouth, and his lips are certainly big enough, but the grumblies just seem to fly out when he eats.  That and the fact that he wanders around smiling with his mouth full spreads them around pretty good.  I NEVER feed him in the house.  I bought a bowl big enough to sleep in – to no avail.  Walking around on the deck in bare feet is like walking in a minefield. I sweep twice a day and put it back in his dish.

He is such a little pig.  I could never have real people visit me….he runs hell-bent for the dishwasher and dives right in to lick the dishes, and he still gets in the bathtub every chance he gets.  

All our friends treat us like we have a special child needy of special attention and that about sums it up. He was running around the coffee table with my bra in his mouth this morning like a treasure from the clothes hamper. And at obedience class he is perfect……go figure. Love that crazy little critter.

Talk to you later  – I can hear him swimming in his water – guess I spoke too soon about that.

Sue

Postscript:  We have always called dog kibble grumblies…. and Benjamin grew up into the most amazing dog ever..in time.