Give the Dog a Bone

Pets bring such joy to our lives that I cannot imagine anyone not having one. Whether it’s a cat or a dog, a hamster or a cockatiel, their personalities and antics can keep us smiling all day, not to mention the health benefits they bring.

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have pets. I’ve had all sorts of pets all my life and many have passed on, but they have left me with many wonderful memories and valuable lessons about strength, love, and forgiveness.

Right now, I have two dogs and three birds. A few months ago, I had to put down a very special family member, a Cocker Spaniel named Poppy. I wrote about him in my other hubs. A few months later, after Poppy left us to go to doggie heaven, I went to the dog pound and brought home another Cocker Spaniel, and named him Kobi.

Kobi was to be Gordo’s (a Peek-A-Poo) new little brother that would cheer him up after the loss of Poppy. Oh boy, I think back and wonder what was I thinking when I decided to adopt another dog? Would I take Kobi back to the pound, well, let’s just say, I thought about it many times, but I did the same with Gordo when I brought him home from the dog pound and I still remind him that it’s not too late to take him back.

My home is never a boring place. Although I have no small children anymore, human children that is, I do have four-legged children that are just as rambunctious and full of antics as human children.

In fact, I don’t think they are aware that they are A-N-I-M-A-L-S. They sleep with me and take over the entire bed, especially Kobi since he is a touchy-feely guy. They climb on the furniture, and knock down all the cushions, and things are never where I leave them when I come home from work. I know who starts things because, like all parents who know their children, I know my four-legged children, and the instigator is Kobi, the new kid on the block or so I believe. Sometimes I'm not sure by the guilty looks Gordo give me.

Kobi is a magnet for mud and I have white floor tiles, so you can imagine. If I don’t watch him in the back yard, he’ll come in the house covered in mud, I mean covered! The first time he discovered mud, I had just mopped the floors and had finally sat down to relax, when suddenly Kobi bursts in through the doggy door drenched in mud! I nearly had a Myocardial Infarction. My goodnes, I have never seen so much mud on a dog before! How is that possible? I didn’t think I had that much dirt in the yard!

Like children, they run all over the house chasing after each other. If Kobi takes the little red ball, a favorite in my house, Gordo (who is half his size), walks up to Kobi and daringly takes it away from Kobi’s mouth. Then Kobi comes to me, head down, with an expression on his face as if to tell me what Gordo did to him.

They tackle each other as if in a wrestling match. Kobi, who has gained a whopping ten pounds since I brought him home from the shelter, and is twice as large as Gordo, knocks him off his feet with just one sucker punch. Gordo, tough little guy that he is, gets back up an charges Kobi like a linebacker, nips his front paws, and brings the giant down. Once Kobi is down, he goes in for the kill.

Gordo is an astute little guy. He knows Kobis’ weakness... his long beautiful floppy Cocker Spaniel ears. Gordo will chomp down on them and drag Kobi all over the living room until Kobi cries out from pain, that’s when I step in and break them apart. Then Gordo runs under the coffee table, not taking his eyes off Kobi for one second, waiting for the right moment when he can pounce back on him when mommy is not looking. Sometimes I think that in Gordo’s early years, he was brought up around cats because his movements and behavior are as cunning as a cat.

Just the other night, as I was distracted on my computer, I hear them growling and roughhousing, so I yelled at them to stop and continued with my task. The next thing, I feel Kobi trying to squeeze behind my legs in between the chair. Without looking, I reached down and gave him a quit pat on the head, and then I felt it. I looked down and found Gordo latched on to Kobi’s ears with his teeth, while poor little Kobi had this pitiful look about his face as if saying “mommy save me.”

I’ve had a few talks with Kobi about standing up for himself because I couldn’t be around all the time to save him. I guess Kobi finally learned not to be such a big baby because after that he skillfully dodges Gordo’s aim for his ears. He does this 90-degree turn, and begins to chase Gordo.

Since Gordo is smaller, faster, and more skilled at dodging, Kobi has learned a new strategy, to bite down on Gordo’s tail and pull him until he stops. Then gives him one good slap with his bushy paw and pounces on Gordo’s little neck. Not to fear, Gordo is small and getting up in years, but he knows how to fend for himself. He usually gets away and pounces back on Kobis’ neck. When they start this neck thing, I jump in and give them both time outs. After all Kobi is way bigger, and now that Gordo has toughened him up, there’s no telling what can happen.

It’s never a dull moment that’s for sure, and I do spoil them when I can. Gordo has been with me for over three and a half years, and Kobi for six months. I know that they did not have an easy life with their previous owners because of the shape they were in when I brought them home from the shelters, but they have flourished and have become my little spoiled-rotten four-legged children.

A few days ago, while I was grocery shopping, I decided I was going to treat them to a bone. I went up to the butcher and asked him what was the safest and best meat bone I could give my dogs. He walks me over to an area of the freezer and shows me an array of marrowbones they have for their four-legged customers. I picked up the frozen bag, paid for my groceries, and headed home.

I remembered how in the past my dogs loved me treating them to an occasionally good teeth-cleaning bone, and I wanted to do the same with my two new babies. Did I mention they think they are humans? Well, as always whenever I walk in with groceries, they wait patiently side-by-side for me to put all the groceries away because they know there is always a treat for them.

I pulled the frozen bones out of the bag, washed them off, allowed them to sniff them, and then placed them on the floor in front of them. They both looked down at the bones, then they looked up at me, and back down at the bone with a bewildered look on their furry faces.

“What... you guys never seen a bone before? You’re kidding me!” I picked up one bone and acted as if I was eating it while saying “yummy, yum, yum” and smacking my lips, then placed them back down in front of them. Gordo was the first to dare to grab his. Then Kobi followed. I kept my eyes on them from a distance. I see Gordo tucks it away in his bed and lies on top of it. Kobi rolls it around the floor as if it was a ball, yet no chomping on the bones.

Half an hour later, I was throwing one bone away… I still can’t find the other one. What kind of a dog doesn’t like bones? Human dogs that is. Ok, so I have my job cut out for me. I will have to teach them to be animals. They sure have missed out a lot on being just plain ol’ pups but there’s hope. I’m reminded of how rehabilitated animals can be led back into the wild, and I think it can be done. I think.

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