How many of you know some of those crazy dog people?
What you cannot see right now is that I am raising my hand and pointing frantically at myself because I AM one of those crazy dog people. Yep- we have no kids, so our dogs have taken over that part of our lives. We send the traditional family photo Christmas card, with our dogs in the pic in place of kids. I even considered getting those tacky little family stick figure window stickers for my car, using a man, a woman, and two dogs (maybe we’d even stick the cat on there, but she prefers to be left out of everything). We pretend we know what the dogs would say if they could speak and speak for them, and we call each other Mommy and Daddy when the dogs refer to us. “Aw, MJ just loves her daddy!”
I didn’t start out as a crazy dog person. In fact, I grew up as a cat lover and was a bit scared of dogs over 30 lbs, but my husband wanted to be able to get a dog once we had a house, and I was ready to give it a try. We researched breeds and kept coming back to Australian shepherds, which are not Australian, by the way. This is an active breed, an intelligent breed, and a fluffy breed (our Dyson has been a great investment). They were primarily bred in America for the purpose of herding cattle, instincts that apparently carry over to girl scouts (it’s ok- nobody was hurt). Because tails could get in the way, causing injury or infection, the breed standard is also to have their tails docked when they are puppies, for which my belongings and I are ever grateful.
This seems to have led to various degrees of “the wiggle.” The wiggle encompasses everything from a slight movement of the “nub,” to a full on body-bent-in-half-at-the-waist wiggle, to “the Shakira” in which MJ’s hips move so quickly you can feel a breeze if you’re standing close. With the last two types there are also often happy snarls and sneezes (we read somewhere that these sneezes are a sort of dog laughter).
In Dylan’s case, the docked tail has also lead to what we call the “Donald Rump.” I’m sure you can see why.
If it’s true that pets can add years to one’s life, I am certain Robert and I will live at least till 100, and so to return the favor, I am dedicating a blog post each day this week to my Awesome Aussies, Sir Dylan (we never call him Sir, as we’re afraid it will go to his head- he’s already quite the alpha dog) and Mara Jade (she’s named after Luke Skywalker’s redheaded wife).
If you stay tuned, you’ll get the girl scout story.
For today, I’ll leave you with this thought:
“My goal in life is to be as good of a person as my dog already thinks I am.” ~Author Unknown
caverns of my mind 