No Manners

Today my closest friend came over for a visit. It's good to have her around for the fun and company. She's also good for helping to socialize my dog. My dog has no manners. As Rudyard Kipling would add, "She had no manners then, has no manners now, and will never have any manners." In fact, my dog once nipped my former principal on the back of the leg and drew blood. Now in the dog's defense, she is an Australian cattle dog, trained to bring in the cattle and nip one when it goes astray. It seems that somewhere in my dog's blood line, they've been kicked in the head one too many times. Anyhooo, my dog needs some practice with proper social etiquette, and she was quite well-behaved tonight.

My dear friend had her own neurotic dog at one time - a long-haired terrier. One vacation my friend left the dog with us for a week to babysit. The moment their car pulled out of the driveway and headed for parts north, that dog began a high-pitched whine that could break true crystal (fortunately we only have plastic). She whined when we were with her and she whined when we left. She whined to be picked up and whined of we picked her up. I even tried sleeping on the sofa with her in my arms, and she whined up close in my ear. In less than 24 hours, we had her ensconced in a kennel out of earshot.

A year later my friend and I were taking a road trip together with her two children and two dogs, who I'll refer to as Whiner and Sweetie (the dogs, not the children). On the trip Whiner sat in my lap whenever I was in the passenger seat, slept in bed next to me . . . get the idea. "See, she likes you," they all said. Hmmm, maybe I was mistaken. But then in Nebraska we pulled up at a rest stop. I took the dogs to do their business while everyone took a chance to clean up. The moment they were all out of earshot, Whiner began a high-pitched noise that reverberated up the spine and sent sharp, shooting pain into the brain. I tried to tell everyone what had happened, but of course, she stopped as soon as they got close.

Damn dog!