Man's Best Friend

I like dogs. Nothing against cats or birds or fish or your pet of choice, but I like dogs. I like dogs because they are honest- there is no guile in a dog. I like them because the are faithful and they are eternal optimists. But what I like best about dogs is that you always know where you stand with one.

I have a German shepherd mix. She is the first dog that I ever really owned. I got her from the pound, and it seems that I was destined to have her (That is another blog story). She loves me and I love her. She is always happy to see me when I get home, and her idea of contentment is lying at my feet in the evenings. What I like the best about her is that she is direct and up front with everyone. There a people that she likes, and people that she doesn’t.

Abby likes women. Any woman. It must be a girl thing. She does not like men. Except for my brother in law. She will piddle on the floor when he comes over because she is so excited to see him. I have no idea why.

She tolerates kids. If they are bigger than she is, then they are potential playmates. If they are smaller, then she thinks they are two legged puppies, and are rivals. My brother in law has a grandchild who is 6. She has a very high pitched voice, and she is a tiny girl. Abby does not tolerate her at all. My niece has never done anything to Abby, yet Abby does her best to get away from her, or else will growl at her to keep her distance.

Which brings me to the real reason for this blog. I was thinking (believe it or not) about what qualities I really like in animals and what it would be like to share those abilities. For example, it would be cool to have the hearing of a bat, and be able to hear and echo locate in the dark. It would be kind of fun to be a cheetah- 0-60 miles an hour in about four steps. Having an elephant’s trunk would be useful in so many ways I can’t begin to think of them all. Being able to climb like a monkey would be especially useful to a carpenter. And so on. But I decided that the ability I would most like to have, is to growl like a dog.

Since I deal with people constantly, a good growl would be a tremendous time saver. Abby has a growl that says, “If you do that again, I am going to bite you.” Wouldn’t that be great when someone is pissing you off? Then there is a growl when strangers pull into the driveway. It usually turns into a bark, but we know exactly what she is trying to say. Sometimes she just grumbles, when I am not feeding her quickly enough to suit her highness
She also has the Skylar growl which means “Back off kid, you are on my last nerve,” and there is the trash talk growl when we are playing tug of war with her rope.

The best part about is, that there is no way to misinterpret what she is saying.


There are some good human growls, and they usually are accompanied with biting and scratching....those are good enough for me.