Hubbie here.
Those of you who are very observant may have noticed the dog lying at Lewy’s feet in the picture. They are both watching something. We don’t know what. To be fair witness (something we may discuss at a future time) we don’t know for a fact that they are watching the same thing. But the dog is Tweak. She is Lewy’s buddy. I’m betting that they are watching the same thing.
Tweak arrived as a puppy three or four years after Daddy came to live with us. Pauline could tell you for sure, I’m lousy with dates and anything else that requires a memory. She is named after a Southpark character, a young man named Tweek whose parents run a coffee shop. He drinks lots of coffee and therefore twitches a lot. Pauline and I are either charmed or lucky because very often the names we choose for pets turn out to be very accurate and descriptive. Miss Kitty was bossy little cat who had to have her own way. Mr. Dillon was an old fart who tolerated no one except Miss Kitty, who would kick his ass. Festus is the old fart of a cat still limping around here. Festus never met a critter he didn’t like. Like Lewy, Festus sleeps 90% of the day, but when he is awake you need to be tending to him. He howls and if you don’t pay attention to him, if you don’t let him out to pee, then he will pee in the house. Just like Lewy. As for Tweak………….well………….she tweaks. You know that weird little spasm/jump you sometimes get when you are just about to fall asleep? Well. She does that…………..she tweaks. When she is lying in your lap and you are stroking clean soft fur it is cute; in bed at 2:00 AM it ain’t cute.
Tweak is part long haired dachshund and all mutt. Mutts are the best dogs; I’ll debate you on that question any day. The fun-fact-to-know-and-tell about dachshunds is that they watch things and they notice when something is different. It sounds weird but it appears to be true. Tweak knows both our cars and the truck; still, if we leave a car parked in the drive instead of in the garage where it should be, she goes nuts. (Hey, we’re American’s…..three people………three vehicles………it’s the law……..so what if Lewy shouldn’t drive……….he still has a license!!)………..Where was I?.........Oh yeah………….It seems that Tweak is smart enough to recognize the car when we arrive home but dumb enough to perceive the same car as a threat if we leave it in the driveway. This trait made for an interesting event.
We have had a lot of stormy/windy weather of late. During one of the storms about a month ago a large blue tarpaulin that had been on the carport blew out into the field. Combine my natural laziness with Pauline’s preoccupation of late and ……….well…………..we didn’t retrieve it. A few more windy days and the tarp blew into the woods.
I informed Pauline that the tarp had gone on vacation. Problem solved.
Turned out I was right, it was just a vacation. A few windy days later the tarp reappeared in the field. Then it blew into the flower bed in front of the house. It blew close enough for a small dog to see.………………….Tweak went nuts……………………and it wasn’t like greeting an old friend………….it was like “OMG!! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!!”
Lewy was good news and bad news to Tweak. The good news was they became best buddies. The bonding did not happen though until Tweak got big enough to jump up in Lewy’s lap. As soon as she learned that little trick, Lewy became the “safe zone”. If she did something deserving of punishment and we caught her, she ran straight to Lewy and the safety of his lap. Then they would both give you that “Who me?” look.
“Yes. I see that you are angered at the pile of poo in the floor but as you can see that I am now under the protection of Lewy.”
“Ugh……mmm……..What?........I was sleeping!............What’s the matter?............Dog?............This dog?...........She is just here keeping me warm……….What?...................Well it could have been that dog that lives in the elevator.”
As is most always the case in life the equation had to be balanced.
While a twenty-five pound dog leaping from your lap to challenge a marauding tarpaulin might be of no consequence to a young highly toned person like yourself, when your skin is in its late seventies the claws tend to be an issue. Tweak was leaving significant holes in Lewy’s arms even as she attempted to protect him from all evils. And so it was that we took Tweak to Doc Coles to have her claws removed. There are pros and cons to this procedure and we shall not debate them here. A wonderful friend, who, because she is a wonderful friend, shall remain nameless, spent a drunken hour one night berating Pauline about the declawfication. Yes, if Tweak was a human it would be cruel…………but she is not………she is better. Anyway, without her claws, she did not hurt her friend and protector Lewy as she strove to protect him. She might leap out at the Giant Blue Tarp Monster but, with only fur on her feet, Lewy’s arms remained undamaged. That way he could keep her in his lap. That way they could stay buddies. Put Lewy in his recliner, a blanket on top of him, flip the lever to raise his feet and lean back. Do all that and Tweak will be right there. She’d jump up in his lap and they would both snooze away. Some times he’d pet her. Sometimes she’d lick his hand. Sometimes she kept watch while he slept. Sometimes he watched TV while she slept. Mostly they just cuddled and slept.
So I watched closely the other day when Lewy made it home from the hospital. We put the dogs on the back porch so that they would not be underfoot while we were getting Lewy settled. The ambulance drivers brought Lewy in. The new hospital bed was not here yet so we had to put Lewy in his recliner. Pauline has told you the story. The doctors had Lewy pretty much “downed out” (“drugged up” if you prefer) for the trip home. We thank them for that kindness. After we got Lewy cleaned and settled, Pauline went to walk among her flowers. I sat down to see what Alton Brown was going to teach me.
Tweak came in and looked up at Lewy in his chair. She seemed to know that something was different. She didn’t run and jump in his lap. Lewy reached out his hand and Tweak walked over and put her head in his hand. His arm was stiff and awkward but he managed to pat her on the head. She licked his hand and then curled up at his feet, sharing the blanket that spread over the floor beneath his chair.
If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. -Will Rogers
2 comments:
3rd Wife said...
If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. -Will Rogers
Me too.
oldfriend said...
oh, I'm believing there are dogs in heaven, Hubbie,and I don't even like dogs...it's the cats I'll be glad are there!