He Sits!
I barely recognised the little bastard, sitting up straight there on the footpath. It looked like Harry, but the Harry I knew never sat still like that.
But it was Harry, and apparently these days if you ask him to sit, he will sit. And he shakes paws. And he swims in the lake. For about five minutes til he has some sort of canine panic attack and thrashes his paws wildly.
He didn't recognise me at first, maybe it was the stupid blonde in the hair (hey, Jen didn't recognise me at first last night, ha ha) but then he came bounding over in his idiotic way.
His New Mum told me proudly about all the training she's done with him, how far he's come, how he doesn't jump in the car unless he's told to anymore. Hmmph. She may as well have said, "I am making up for the years of indulgence and gross neglect when he lived with YOU!".
But being in my presence, he instantly reverted back to his old brattish behaviour, the wacky hound that used gnaw on my friends or threaten to pee on the couch if you tried kick him off. New Mum asked him to sit, asked him to shake, but he barrelled around, nosed through puddles then sat on my feet, leaning his head on my knee like he used to.
It was all I could do not to start blubbering, That's my disobedient boy! But I was off to Electric Shadows to watch some insane anime (chicks that turn into cars... cool!). I said goodbye and walked off. New Mum commanded Harry to sit but Harry came bounding after me, just like in the movies! Except it was a grotty petrol station instead of an open meadow. I must admit I got a lot of satisfaction from the fact that he disobeyed New Mum. Sure she adores him and is wonderful for taking him when he needed a new home, but he still loves ME dammit.
Finally he got into her car and she put on his little doggie seatbelt and he stared out the window with his trademark goofy expression and slobbery tounge. Blink blink. Like a goldfish, you could tell he'd already forgotten he'd seen me.
That's all anyone ever wants, isn't it? Not to be forgotten? If you can't be with someone, whether it be man, woman or a dumbass little dog, you just want them to miss you, to wish sometimes you could still be around.
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Post the relationship, it's always okay if you don't love them, but they have to love you.
harry still loves you, in his own forgetful goofy-dog way!
exactly, scotty.
but i do still love that dumb dog. hehe.
Aw how sweet! He forgot all his traing when he saw you. Now if that isn't love I don't know what is!
"nosing through puddles at my feet" ?!
since there is an almighty great drought happening, puddles of what? Did you wet yourself at the sight of him, or has Mike Bailey been lying to us? Is it raining in Canberra?
I'm sure the doggy still loves you
there were no puddles at my feet. he nosed through a puddle of water that someone had left behind from washing their windscreen.
...
Sweet.
Oh, poor Harry! Being obedience-trained to death! I know if I were being taught to sit and shake, I'd like some puddle-nosing too.
Awww, that's wonderful :-) He still loves you :-)
Harry not recognising you at first reminds me of many years ago when my brother and I had new coats. We went out into the back garden to show Ben and Lara (our cats) our new coats. They were wary of us, as if they didn't know us. They just didn't recognise us! We had to go back indoors and take our coats off so they'd recognise us, and then put our new coats back on as they watched.
Hmmm, Ben hasn't visited me in awhile. I wonder what he's up to? And Lara, too. I think she's only visited me once in the last decade. But she always tended to keep herself to herself in this mortal world, too.
Anyway... :-)
You know, when I lopped off my hair and dyed it red, Lovecraft wouldn't come near me for a couple of days. Animals are very particular about this sort of thing, methinks.
Awww...Good dog, Harry!
Perhaps a dog's behavior has everything to do with his/her name. There may be direct associative possibilities between the titular and the psychological. At least to the dog's mind.
Certainly, if an animal personified a great horror author, he'd be responsible for staying as far away from the owner as possible, if only to delineate the difference between human and nonhuman. But the advantage of naming a dog named Lovecraft is that he may bark when the rats scamper within the walls.
I'm wondering if Harry's behavior has something to do with this. Unless the streak of blonde in Shauny's new do is of an indefatigable hue, it's doubtful that Harry, being color-blind like other dogs, would cower in fear from owner, if only for a brief time.
The blinking, on the other hand, is a good sign. Here, we should consider the great 19th Century Italian veterinarian Joseph Thrombito II opined that:
"Because the canine's tongue is prone to circuitous motion within the skull, its eyelids are prone to frequent fluttering. This is not a recurring condition. It serves to affirm a dog's acknowledgment of its master, in a decidedly less lascivious way than the manner in which a canine's forelegs clamber up breeches."
So count your blessings, Shauny. Harry needed time to react and affirm.
Ed. Woah.
and shauny, nice that you got to see harry again. and that he recognises you as his owner.
Hoooray!