Toy Story or All Dogs Go to Heaven

I’m taking a break from talking about Little Bit – in some ways it’s already a relief to chat about things other than the baby – so this one will be about the dogs…

Anyone who has had family pets (and I mean really had family pets – the kind of pet that becomes like one of the family) has seen evidence of the varying personalities and habits of their animals. Believe what you will, but I think my pets have been nearly human. I’m not even kidding!

If you’ve followed the blog for a while, you know that my dogs have quite the personalities, particularly Frazier, the blonde cocker spaniel. He is the sweetest, most friendly dog you’ll ever meet who is the biggest sissy on the planet. Any loud, sharp noise like fireworks, a gun, or thunder send the poor fellow for the underside of the bed or the safety of behind the couch.

Whimpy as he may be, I still believe Frazier is nearly human. He likes to be involved in family doings. For example, our recliner wasn’t acting right, so Chase turned it upside down to look at the underside, and this is what happened:

If he had opposable thumbs, I’m quite sure Fraz would have had the tool box out, handing Chase tools to fix it. I actually had to hold Fraz back so Chase could find out what was wrong with the chair! He just wanted to be helpful…

The other night, Chase was in the kitchen and said, “Steph, come here and look at this – hurry.” The dogs were laying in the living room as I walked by, so I knew what Chase was looking at couldn’t be something they were doing. Well, it wasn’t something they were doing. It was something Frazier did. He has favorite toys – some favorites to tug on, some favorites to fetch, and some favorites to cuddle. This is one of his favorites to cuddle:

This is the moose Frazier got in his stocking for Christmas. Evidently Moose was thirsty and told Frazier, so the tender-hearted dog saw to it that the poor moose with the floppy, nearly gnawed off, unstable, stuffed legs could get a drink. This kind of stuff – with the Moose – happens with relative frequency. Every once in a while I’ll walk into the living room, and there will be Buffalo, a small, well-loved, stuffed toy Frazier has had for 2 ½ years now, standing up on his 4 legs in the middle of the living room, just watching me walk by.

I guess the truth could be that it’s not so much that Frazier is nearly human, but rather that the toys are nearly human. That would put things more in the realm of Toy Story than All Dogs Go to Heaven. I’m not sure which cartoon is more believable, but either way, such things makes for life more abundant indeed.