Happiness

It really doesn't take much to make Pepper and me happy. I think it might not even take much to make the cats happy too and you know how finicky cats are. No matter when mom comes home, we are happy to see her and she is happy to see us. We all dance around on our way outside. Personally I would like to run a few laps around the place but I am not allowed to run inside. I'm still happy though. Mom lets us inside and we have plenty of food and water and a warm bed. That makes us happy. I'm happiest when I'm close to mom and ALL I need to be happy is to be close to her. It's better when I am the ONLY one close to her but I do have to allow Pepper equal opportunity. The cats can hang close to her and that doesn't bother me too much.

I guess it doesn't take much to make dogs happy in general. Toys, treats and clothes (as if I would wear them) don't help to make us happy. All mom has to do is to leave us and we are unhappy. Pepper is known to talk about it rather loudly. I handle her absence stoically.

Now people, it doesn't seem like they are as happy to just be next to someone they love as we are. I hope I'm wrong but that is what I think.

Who are you, really?

One good thing about dogs is that what you see is basically what you get. You can usually tell if one of us is friendly, happy, scared or angry. With people sometimes it's hard to tell. It seems to be pretty easy for people to be something that they are not. Sometimes people take us home and act like they are going to love us but if we mess up, like pee on the carpet, they don't love us quite as much. If it is not convenient for them to have us they don't want us. Well, folks, dogs are not convenient. I'm a big dog and when I have any kind of accident, it's a BIG one.

Don't be nice and pretend to love us and drop us for a smaller or prettier or younger dog. Be who you are and if no one loves who you are, maybe you need to change. Dogs get training so why can't people be trained out of bad habits, etc?

Our state's motto (and what's a motto anyway?) means "to be, rather than to seem." People, be who you are and be what you seem to be. Take a clue from us cause we can tell about other dogs right away from the scent.

Check out www.doggyspace.com

Getting along

If I even think about growling at Pepper or the cats, my mom is right there telling me it is not allowed. She did it more when I was young (I never was little) but now I pretty much know that if I don't get along with the other "children" mom will be all over me. Sometimes the Manny, the cat, will lie in my bed and I want to just chase him off of it but I know that it is not the nice thing to do so I just lie down next to it until the cat leaves. Pepper is old and slow (but chipper) and I have to wait for him a lot but it's just something I do cause mom taught me to behave. I dance up and down and drool when mom gives Pepper his special food but I don't just snatch it away.

Now, I want to know why humans aren't better at getting along. People growl at one another all the time and nothing happens. If someone gets in a human's space, they sometimes just push them out. Waiting on someone else is not part of what human's do very well either. I think I heard of something called road rage.

Why can't people just get along?

Fear

As a Great Dane, I'm not really afraid of much. There are a few things and one my human when she is upset with me and the other is a bath. Now, you wouldn't think that a big fellow like me would get too frightened. I can go charging right up to anyone with the hair on by back sticking up, letting them know I mean business. But, let my human get upset and it's curtains for me. I head straight under the bed. Fear can make you do crazy things like get in spaces you otherwise couldn't fit into. I curl up into a little ball and just lay low...really low until the coast is clear. Yep, fear can make you do some crazy things!

Baseball and policics

My human has been watching the college world series on TV for the past while. She really gets into the ball thing and I do mean she gets into the ball thing. When the game is close, she moves to sit on a huge ball in front of the TV. Normally she makes funny moves on the ball but from time to time she sits close to the TV on the ball. Sitting on the ball looked like so much fun that I decided to sit on it with her so I got in front and carefully backed up and sat down. I know my human didn't think that I could sit on an exercise ball but I did and I did it with grace! If only I could understand why those men were hitting and throwing that little white ball around. Worse, why is my human watching so intently? Well, the ball is small and hard to see especially when someone hits it with a stick and it goes way high up and my human starts to bounce around and talk to the TV. It's almost as bad as when men and once a woman, talk on TV about doing things to our country and my human starts to talk and bounce around. What is it about the small ball and what certain people say that gets my human so wound up? Good grief, I'm here with her so what else matters?

Changes

Some things have changed in my life lately. A new furry buddy has come to live with us. His name is Phred is he is a real talker. I have to talk even louder than he does but his talking does get doors opened. Not as quickly as I do though. Apparently he got lost somehow and then someone took him in but didn't want him so he came in a box to live with us. He is a skinny thing but he has sharp claws and I don't want claws marking up my nice looks so I leave him alone.

Poor Pepper is starting to look like a 15 year old dog but he tends to act like a pup when he's not sleeping. My human gives him special food and she tries to appease me by telling me she will do the same for me when I get old and decrepit. Personally I recognize a con when I see one but I'll let them have their way. I get the cans to lick. What a kicker! Who says you have to get old and decrepit to have the good food? I don't think that is a law or anything, is it? I want to know!

So what does this have to do with change? I've had a lot of them and none seem to actually benefit me. Am I not the top dog in this family? How can I accept all this change around me when it doesn't benefit me? After all I am a Great Dane.

Time

I am a very busy Great Dane. There is always something I need to do. I have a human who needs constant supervision, a house mate that needs a helping hand from time to time and a cat who needs to be reminded constantly that he is the cat and as the cat he is low man on this totem pole. I need to grab a nap as often as I can so in case I am called into duty, I will be ready, willing and able. It would not look too good to fall asleep while on cat watch. There are days when I have squirrel and bird watch. My human used to send us out to chase the squirrels from the bird feeder. That took up a lot of time as we rushed out and sniffed at the base of the tree like we were going to climb it. I think that squirrel duty was taking too much of my human's time so now the squirrels look like little gray furry pigs with tails.

My human does strange things with her time. When we could be out playing around, she has these little sticks she twirls around string and socks and stuff appear. Now I may be only a Great Dane but I know that it is possible to get socks that are already socks and not just string. Those sock things take a lot of time and I just don't get it. It seems like a complete waste of time to me. I try to tell her by poking at the sticks and once my human sister's dog tried to eat a couple of the wooden sticks. Not one tiny bit of the sock was hurt but my human kept talking about the time spent on the sock. You gotta choose your time and if you want to waste it with sticks and string, I don't get it but hey, it's your time and as long as you give me MY time, I'm all good.