Last Updated on: 4th May 2016, 12:35 pm
I’ve been meaning to write a little dog post for a while now.
The apartment building is getting a whole new carpet on all the floors. So, they have completely ripped up the carpet in the hall. They’re fast for sure, they’re already laying underpad today. I wasn’t sure what Trix would think of the bare floor, and was expecting a minor sniffathon. But she didn’t seem phased by it at all.
I, on the other hand, was weirded out almost every time I went out. It’s amazing how much something like floor surface can change the way a space feels. I have lived hear for 3 and a half years, but without that carpet, I felt disoriented. I kept thinking the hall was ending sooner than it was, because it felt like the end of the hall was coming and I was for sure going to bump into a wall. Walking to the garbage, I kept thinking I’d walked too far. Shadows seemed to jump out at me from everywhere, and doors seemed far more pronounced. It was as if it wasn’t even the same hall at all.
Now, today, as they lay down underpad, Trix seemed interested in that stuff. Blech! It smells. I think I gave the poor carpet man a heart attack. I was standing at the elevator, and he was laying the stuff. I loudly said, “Good girl.” in the hopes that he would hear me and warn me about any big hazards I should know about. I’ve never had a pooch when someone’s laying carpet. I don’t know what kind of chemicals are involved and whether any of them are dangerous for doggy paws. But he just kept on going. Then, suddenly, he saw me, and started sputtering, “Oh hi. I have all my stuff there! Oh, there are trip hazards, trip hazards everywhere!” I told him it’s ok, we made it, we should be fine, I’m just waiting for the elevator. But the poor man was all freaked out for a minute. Poor fellow. I wouldn’t want to have to lay carpet all through an apartment building.
It’s a new year, so Trixie got a new dog tag, or doggy bling as Huppy’s mom calls it. I’m such a sap. I have kept all of Trixie’s doggy bling from all the years I’ve had her. I’m probably going to put them in a little envelope and label it Trixie when, god forbid, she’s gone for whatever reason. God it was hard to write that sentence. But I think it’ll be a long time before I have to think about that stuff. I’m pretty sure we’ll have lots more bling to add to the envelope.
Every winter, I see new things that she develops a disdain for. The first winter, it was mud at the edges of sidewalks, last winter, it was gushy yucky mud in the relieving area, and this year, it’s two things: ice where she relieves, and big puddles at street corners.
I guess she always had trouble with the ice, but usually there’s enough snow for her to be a mountain goat. Not this year. So she’d get going all fast, then see me skidding, then stop thinking about peeing and just stand there. Poor dog. She was driving me batty because we’d find a bit of grass showing through, but she’d decide the patch wasn’t big enough, and we’d end up back on ice again. God, that was a long couple of days.
Then there’s the hate she’s got for puddles. I mentioned it briefly yesterday, but it needs more time. On the sidewalk, she tries to avoid puddles at all cost. Sometimes I walk through them while she avoids them, sometimes, she does this little hippedy dippedy hop skip dance so she manages to sort of jump over them, but when they’re at street corners, man alive, things get tricky.
I don’t know how to get her over it. I can coax her through them when we’re on the sidewalk, but I really don’t want to get into coaxing her into the street. If there’s something she’s saving me from, I’d like her to do that, thank ya very much.
Part of me thinks she was really avoiding the puddles yesterday because she didn’t think she had to go pee when I gave her the chance, and then we got walking, and maybe she realized gee, I do have to go, and thought if she walked through the water, she’d have an accident. We’ll have to keep an eye on it.
Three small things people have done lately that make me raise my eyebrows. Once, as I was leaving the building, there was a car running. As we went around it, someone came out, started clapping her hands and doing her level best to catch my dog’s attention!
Why? I’m right by a running vehicle. Do you hope to distract my dog and get me killed if that car moves suddenly and Trixie isn’t paying attention? I’m frightened.
Another time, I don’t know what was up with Trixie, but she could not find the spot where we usually stand to cross at this one intersection. A guy decided to give us a hand. Then, while we crossed the street together, he stuck out his hand towards her and started talking to her! She went for it, and I corrected her and said “No sniffing! You’re working! at which point he said, “Oh, she’s not supposed to sniff?” No, especially not in the middle of the street, dude! At least he realized pretty quickly that that was pretty stupid. But seriously, folks, would you start playing a game with your kid as you’re crossing the street? No! You would get the hell across!
And one last one that happened today. I arrived in a store, and this guy started making kissy noises at Trixie and reaching for her. She was interested, so I corrected her, and said “No sniffing. You’re working.” This usually works to stop both the dog and the human. Not this human. He asked what her name was and stuck out his hand, making more kissing noises. At this point, I had to actually tell him, “Please don’t do that,” and grab his hand. Now, if the correction doesn’t work, usually the “stop it!” complete with hand-grab does the trick. Not with this guy. He just said “I have one like that at home and walked off. No “Sorry,” no “oh I didn’t know.” He just continued on his way. What an odd one.
I saw Trixie do the funniest thing the other night. She was playing with a kong, and then abandoned it. I picked it up and was looking at it to see if it was approaching the point where it had to go to the garbage. She has two kongs, so I was trying to figure out if it was the new one or the old one. So, I pulled out the other kong to compare. Trixie saw me holding two kongs, and this was too much for her. She kept bobbing her head between them as if to say. “I see two of them? Not one, but two? Am I seeing double? Sniffa sniffa. That one smells different than this one. Sniffa sniffa. One, two? Is this possible?” She would not be satisfied until she had played with both of them. Silly pooch. I guess I’ve never pulled them both out at once. I just assumed she would notice one was newer than the other, so I thought she’d know there were two kongs in there.
And that’s about it for now. Sorry, I don’t have any new huppy stories this time. Ah, maybe next time.
