MY DOG TALKS
Lady Bug, our black and white shih tzu, came into our lives three years ago. For the first year of her life, she didn’t speak or bark at all. Then, one day she discovered she could make a funny noise, and get us to pay attention to her. When she wants something specific, she will chitter-chatter like a squirrel. She jumps up on the sofa so she’s eye level with me sitting in the armchair, and begins talking a mile a minute. Once she has my attention, the talking games begin in earnest. “Outside?” I ask. Nope, not an outside visit for the lady. She keeps on chittering, looking at me with longing. “Cookie for Lady Bug?” I say hopefully. Nope, no cookie (doggie bone) for the bug tonight. “Bedtime?” I say, wanting the game to be over so I can watch the ending of the show. Sometimes she likes to go to bed earlier than I do, and if I take her into the bedroom and settle her in, she’ll go to sleep. Ah, ah, not sleepy yet! I look around the room hoping to find what I missed. It could be a number of things she wants. “Bunny?” I guess, not spotting her big white fluffy toy anywhere in the room. Bingo! Yup, it’s Bunny she wants. Her tail starts wagging a mile a minute, her eyes light up, and she jumps up and down in great excitement. She then leaps down from the sofa and leads me to the prize. Bunny has been tossed on top of a magazine rack where he lays in a heap of artificial fur. When I pass Bunny to Lady Bug, she takes hold of him by the scruff of the neck with her teeth (he’s three times the size of her) and slaps him around with her paws, taking big bites of his fur in her teeth. She drags him around and around in circles, tosses him around, chitter-chatters to him in her doggy way, then finally drags her big friend to the front of the fireplace, where she lays down on one of Bunny’s fluffy arms and promptly goes to sleep. Now that’s entertainment! Her little trying to talk game was more than worth my not seeing the ending of the show I’d been watching.
Have you got a talking pet? How do they tell you they need something? Tell me about them.