PAY ATTENTION by ©Willow Miranda, July 2004

I've shared my life and home with various dogs for over 40 years and up until a few years ago, I was employed full time. I took care of my dogs and gave them attention when I could, but I didn't have the free time to really get to know them.. to learn to understand them.

Now that I'm retired, one of my greatest joys is being able to have the time to "listen" to my two Golden Retrievers, AJ (six yrs. old) and Bubba (three yrs. old).

A few days ago, I was doing some gardening. The weather was very warm and AJ, who loves a cool spot (especially in newly turned soil), unfortunately picked a place under the Catalpa tree. I say unfortunate, because he dug a huge hole in the new grassy area that I've been working on for over a year. When I saw what he was doing, I yelled, "AJ! OH, NO!" I went over to the freshly dug hole and AJ stood there, head lowered, waiting for the lecture that always followed any incidents of an "Oh, No" nature.

As I scolded AJ for being such a badbadbad boy for digging in Mom's lawn, Bubba stood off to the side and watched, head cocked to the side, and listened intently as AJ was told that it was NOT a "good thing" to dig a hole in the nice new lawn. After AJ was thoroughly reprimanded, I returned to the other side of the yard where I was pulling some weeds.

Shortly thereafter, I was fully engrossed in plucking each little weed from the flowerbeds and had forgotten about the dogs. Suddenly, Bubba was in my face, barking in his shrill and very irritating voice. I told him to knock it off, which of course was just a waste of my breath as he kept on with his very irritating, high-pitched bark (unlike AJ's which is much deeper and adult sounding).

Since Bubba wouldn't shut up, I stood up, with hands on hips and just looked at him. He barked again, and then did something very unusual for him. He stood up on his hind feet and whammed me in the chest with his front feet. (He's never done that to me before.) He then dropped back down, turned, and walked away a few steps, then stopped, turned his head back to look at me and barked again. Being a person who talks to her dogs, I asked him in no uncertain terms what in the h*** he was doing by slamming into me? He walked back to me, barked and then again, reared up and slammed me in the chest with his front feet. He dropped down, walked away, stopped, turned and looked at me. I took a couple of steps toward him and he turned and trotted off in the direction of the juniper trees.

As I followed Bubba, he almost "pranced" over to the trees where AJ was now standing. As I got closer, I once again said, "AJ! OH, NO!" Yup, AJ had dug another hole. As I began to tell him that I was not pleased with his digging, Bubba, who had been standing next to me, turned and casually sauntered away; a job well done of tattle-telling on big brother. As I started to laugh, AJ sensed that for some reason, he was off the hook. He then took off running toward Bubba, which then turned into a free-for-all of the two buddies chasing one another around the yard.

What have I learned from that incident? 1. When a pet does something out of the ordinary, pay attention. 2. Tattle-telling exists in the animal world. 3. Lighten up.. it's a happy home with a yard and dogs, not a sterile house with manicured gardens.

Willow Miranda, WilloWorld - Wonderful Poetry, definitely worth a visit. Willow also does pet portraits & photo editing in honor and memory of her golden retriever, Pinoke. See the examples of her excellent work by clicking HERE.

©2004 - "Pay Attention" was written for the 50+ Friends Club, Paws & Claws section, July 2004.