Monthly Archive:: June 2014
Who’s Your Daddy?
“What do you suppose he is?” Tom asked as we walked with Steve and Willie along the trail at the Pea Island Sanctuary in Rodanthe, NC. “I don’t know,” I said, “but his PetFinder listing described him as a ‘long-haired Chihuahua crossed with a Toy Fox Terrier’, but his adoption coordinator admitted the breed descriptions
Category: Dog
Nights in Rodanthe
Willie’s first significant road trip involved ten hours in the car on the way to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. With the consent of my friends, I brought him with me on a week-long writing retreat where Willie shared a beach cottage with the five of us. Willie snoozed on my lap or on the
Category: Dog
Dog Bed
I was leaving for a week-long writing retreat that Sunday, an annual January ritual with a handful of writer friends. We drive ten hours to a beach cottage on North Carolina’s Outer Banks and hunker down for several consecutive days of writing and camaraderie, of family meals and chilly, early morning beach walks. After dinner
Category: Dog
Calm, Submissive, and….Boring?
For the most part, Richard and I have followed the advice of the dog experts on how to keep Willie in a state of calm submission – the relaxed and easygoing state in which it’s easiest (for humans, anyway) to co-habitate with their dogs. I took this advice quite seriously, recalling the late and loveable
Category: Dog
Art Appreciation
This morning while Richard and I sipped our first cups in the kitchen we heard a faint whining in the living room – a whine that preceded a growl that preceded a single, surprising bark that startled us both. This was very unusual, as Willie is the most silent of dogs – the Marcel Marceau
Category: Dog
The Sopranos
What is it about meeting a puppy that makes people who usually speak in normal and reasonable tones suddenly begin to squeal and squeak? What is it that makes people interacting with a small, young dog head for the highest reaches of their vocal register – and even beyond, into falsetto? I’ve observed this many
Category: Dog
Slaughterhouse Daycare
Each night at bedtime, Richard or I gather up the plush toys, chew toys, and marrow bones Willie has strewn throughout the house during the day. We toss them all back into his crate in the kitchen to keep Willie company for the night — and to keep him occupied in case he wakes before
Category: Dog