Finally Home-Lessons on Life from a Free-Spirited Dog (21 page)

As you may have surmised, he ha
d
a very keen talent for getting his way.
If Buddy want
ed
to play but we
we
re just too busy to play with him, he
knew
what to do.
In the
dogs’
toy chest
were
about one hundred toys, ranging from ripped
-
up shirts (one of Buddy’s favorites from when he was a pup)
to
stuffed animals that squeak or talk
to
Kong toys, nyla-bones, baseballs, plastic toys,
and more
.
Amongst them
wa
s a tennis ball, which we appropriately renamed the
“
attention ball.
”

Each of our dogs ha
d
their favorite toy.
For Buddy, it
wa
s typically
not
a tennis ball.
He just use
d
this as a ploy to get the party started.
He typically like
d
sneakers, cardboard boxes, toilet paper and paper towel rolls,
and
socks
.
Brandi usually love
d
tennis balls.
Toffee ha
d
a plastic toy that no one
had
ever played with but ha
d
been with us from day one of Buddy’s arrival.
That
was
called her “
baby toy,
”
for lack of a better term.

We call
ed
the tennis ball the
“
attention ball
”
because Buddy h
eld
it and then bark
ed
his bark and sort of play
ed
ball with himself before surrende
ring it to Brandi. He looked irresistible
and kn
ew
it, so he g
ot
attention any time he grab
bed
this ball.

It usually stop
ped
us dead in our tracks as Brandi
would
then start playing hackey sack with it…literally.
She
would
balance the ball on her two front paws while lying down and then throw it in the air a
nd catch it. This usually
sen
t
Toffee off into puppy land where she
would
grab her toy and start growling with it and throwing it up into the air for attention.
It
was
a regular circus
.

Yet again, Buddy
achieved
what he
originally set out to do, which was to get
everyone in a good mood
and have them play
with him.
He love
d
when the house
wa
s in an uproar
and everyone was
involved
.

There
we
re
other
things I cannot explain about Buddy so I
claim they were a
coincidence
;
although
,
a deeper, more spiritual part of me does not know if I truly believe that.

For example, Michael and I
purchased a netbook from a local computer store.
We
’d
had it for about three months but Michael still had the box on a table in his office.
We were lying in bed
one night,
and Buddy was l
ying on the floor. The
home shopping
network was
on the television
, and we were
watching an advertisement of the same netbook.
As we were watching, Michael
and I started a discussion, and he
had asked me if it was the same specs as the one we had.

I replied
,
“I think so
—
it’s probably listed on the box or on the paperwork.”
We started talking about the netbook and some of its features when no more than five minutes later, Buddy ran out of the room.

We thought nothing of it and just thought he was going to go downstairs
to
get some water.
Within minutes, he ran back in, barking like a maniac with
his
famous trademark bark.
There, in his mouth was the computer box we were just speaking of.

It is those weird occurrences that ma
d
e him so unique and what compelled me to write about him.

The list goes on and on.
He love
d
getting his teeth brushed.
He love
d
Guinness beer, sans the beer cap (although beer is not good for dogs).
He wait
ed
on the stairs for us to go to sleep and love
d
to help carry whatever it
was
we were
carrying.
He touched the hearts of almost everyone who met him, even after tormenting that very person.

He just ha
d
a knack for making people love him.
My mother, for example, is not what you would call a dog lover.
She likes them and would never hurt them
, but is not crazy about them like we are
.

As kids, we had enforced that we ha
d
at least two dogs at a time; however, my mom
was probably never happy about that.

Buddy, whom my mother nicknamed “The Budster,” ha
d
secretly become one of my mother’s favorites.
I witnessed for the first time in her life that she actually kissed Buddy on top of his head, although if you asked her, she would adamantly deny it. She always claimed kissing an animal
wa
s “gross.”

In addition, Michael’s father
wa
s not a dog fanatic by any means.
He
also
had developed a bit of a soft spot for Buddy.
While some may
have
be
en
disgusted by touching Buddy’s slobbered
-
on rawhide or chewed
-
up toy, Michael’s dad didn’t seem to mind and always initiate
d
a little tug of war with Buddy whenever he came to our house.
I recall him laughing at Buddy’s original way of barking and how Bud would get so excited.

In addition, n
ot many people
we
re afraid of him, including strangers.
Sometimes this worked in my favor, but other times, not so much.
Michael was away one week and I was home alone when a solicitor
knocked on our
door.
I had just battled traffic (okay, not that much traffic), and literally just walked in the door (well, like an hour prior)
. I
was not in the mood to be sold anything.
I did not even want to speak to anyone.
I thought I was in the clear of being harassed with three dogs barking at the top of their lungs when I ope
ned the door just a crack.

I used this to my advantage and told the gentleman that I was not interested, could not really hear him
,
and that I could not control my three very vicious dogs.
Just as I was
reciting my speech
, Brandi appeared at the door wagging her tail with a pink bunny in her mouth, Toffee was holding her green, squeaky baby toy
,
and Buddy appeared at the door with a little pink heart-shaped pillow in his mouth.
The guy just laughed at me as my face turned red
,
and
he
obnoxiously
proclaimed that
he could see how viciou
s they were. He
then continued to ask if he could tell me about the product he was selling.

I walked outside somewhat annoyed that the dogs did not at least growl and
pretend
to be vicious, but held my ground.
I was too involved now to back down.
It was not even about the product, but I proceeded to lie even further
, claiming,
“
T
hey are vicious
.
T
hey were just taught to bark with toys in their mouth.”
At least that was somewhat of a truth.
They were taught to bark with toys in their mouth and Toffee
could
be vicious if you st
ole
her bone.
Other than that, I flat out lied.
Guilty!
I just wanted to be alone.

Aside from his non-watchdog behavior, Buddy definitely ha
d
a list of oddities (or
perhaps it is me that is odd). W
hen it
wa
s time for them to all go to the bathroom before bed,
the girls went like clockwork; however,
Buddy k
ind of just looked at us
.
I was in one my famous wacky moods and I do not know how I came up with it or why I even said it but one day, I said
,
“Buddy, the pee
-
pee monster is outside waiting for you.”
With that
,
he got up and went.
It work
ed
each and every time and I have no idea why.
I guess there is proof that he d
id
not understand what
some
words mean
t
because monsters are generally supposed to be scary.
Maybe in
the
dog world, that theory just does not hold true.

I d
id
not always know what tactics
would
work training Buddy, but as the years
went
on, I
learned
.
Some things were there the whole time we had Buddy, but we just did not catch.

For example, whenever
we ca
me back from shopping, Buddy
always looked
for something to carry in.
We assumed he was looking for some type of toy, which we did not have, so we just ignored him, leaving him to mope away on his own.

One day, we gave him something to hold from one of the shopping bags so he would stop being a pest
,
and he loved it
.
That
wa
s all he wanted
:
something to carry.
It did not have to be a toy.
After that
Buddy c
ame
outside with us to help with the packages all of the time.
He patiently wait
ed
until we g
a
ve him something to carry into the house
. It
could be a small box, or an English muffin package,
or
anything he c
ould
fit in his mouth.
He w
ould
bring it inside and hand it back to us, and then keep coming out with us until all of the packages are in
side of
the house.

It
wa
s th
is
type of thing that can’t quite be explained to people without getting a blank stare that translates into “
A
re you serious?”
It is also th
is
type of thing that we
grew
to love.

I’ve noticed him slowly turn gray around the eyes and nose and while some may say he looks like he has gotten old, I notice that he has only become more beautiful. Prior to Buddy, I have never in my life met anyone, human or canine, who has so much love in
his
heart…or who gives it away so freely.