Buddy Boy
We have now had our little Buddy for three months, which means that he has settled into his new territory and made it his home. Both Kim and I have noticed that the blend of fun-loving pup and feisty devilish troublemaker has skewed decidedly towards the former. He still gets those orange/red eyes at times when his blood is up, but for the most part he is a happy and contented little dog. Technically, now that he is about 18 months old, he really isn’t a puppy any more and is more an adult dog than not. I’m not sure that has made so much of the difference as his sense of security with his surroundings and relationship with Kim and me.
Buddy is still a high-energy dog that enjoys activity in the extreme. He prances around the house with his toenails clicking against the flooring and like any rambunctious kid, he likes to spread his toys all over the house for ease of access. And like any child, he has his favorites even though he is relatively toy agnostic when it comes to that all-time favorite dog activity of playing tug-o-war and fetch rolled into one. This classic game gives him a release valve for all that natural aggression, and I am convinced that part of him calming down in general is giving him ample rough play time. These are all natural instinct games and he clearly needs the release that play time affords. Right now we are playing with a favorite, a fist-sized hedgehog, which looks convincingly like his first cousin in coloration and hairstyle. While Buddy does have larger toys like his elephant and giraffe, he tends to prefer the more bite-sized opponents.
The key to the game is to give him lots of exercise and, most importantly, to let him ultimately win. Winning and feeling strong and in-control seems especially important to his 5.5 pound demeanor. Its also important to let him control the pace of play and when it ends. He would never admit to being tired of playing, but it is a pretty rigorous activity and the running and fetching has to be tiring, even for him. When it is time to stop, he usually collapses into one of his many small beds located around the house. Unlike our prior dogs, Buddy is absolutely a bed pup. He loves his beds and can almost always be found in one of them when he is not frolicking around with a toy.
We have had Buddy groomed twice now and while it makes him look and smell nice for a day our two, he still has a ways to go to get used to the trauma of the process. He cries and puts on the death scene from Camille while he is in the grooming van. People walking by our house must think we are strangling a cat or something with all the wailing and gnashing of teeth going on. The groomer is, of course, very used to the drama and feels he is getting more and more used to it, but you couldn’t tell that from the sounds coming from the van. Today, Buddy went for a check-up to the vet. It turns out that I have to start calling him a 6-pound dog because Buddy has gained some weight. The vet chalks it up to his being happy in his new home and based on what I see of his eating habits (he rarely finished his two scheduled meals and rarely, if ever, begs for snacks in between),he isn’t prone to eating much. He seems to have one puppy tooth that hasn’t come out as it was supposed to and that seems to have created a snaggletooth situation. The vet says that he will have to go back to get that removed and get the rest of his teeth cleaned. Strangely enough, I don’t ever recall in my youth that dogs were prone to teeth problems, or at least ones that got addressed. I also don’t recall seeing dogs that looked particularly toothless. But with all our family dogs, Betty, Teddy (Jeff & Lisa’s dog), Pudding (Roger & Valene’s dog), Abe (Carolyn & John’s dog), and now Buddy, they have all had teeth that have needed pulling. This is an extremely costly procedure, more so than I can recall needing to spend on my teeth. WHat’s up with that?
We have also been told by Buddy’s groomer that he has a rather marked overbite. Thank goodness doggy orthodontist is not yet a thing or I might be needing to get him braces or, more likely these days, Doggy Invisiline. Kim has started calling Buddy her little mouse since his overbite certainly makes his little face look somewhat mouse or chipmunk-like. As he bounces around the living room sofa, I have taken to calling him Topo Gigio. Sixty years ago, the Italian cartoon character known as Louis the Mouse (translated into Topo Gigio) was introduced to the United States on the Ed Sullivan Show. Ed was trying to compete with Walt Disney for airtime dominance and let’s put it this way, Ed was not exactly a warm and fuzzy kinda guy. Apparently, the producers thought they could soften Ed’s image by giving him a warm and fuzzy character with whom to interact on stage. Someone must have found taken a trip to Italy and stumbled on Topo Gigio and decided that on mouse (Mickey) deserved another mouse. It’s unclear to me how a rodent that causes women to stand on chairs and scream can suddenly be endearing, but Topo Gigio followed Mickey’s path into the the hearts and minds of Americans. All I had to do was mention Topo Gigio once and it brought a smile to Kim’s face. We all remember the impish little wise-eyed, big-eared mouse that looked to have a size able overbite. In other words, he seems a perfect doppelgänger for Buddy.
I spend hours these days playing with Buddy. I’m not sure who gets more therapy from it. Buddy certainly seems to need it and so long as I have time on my hands, which seems to be the case more and more these days, it feels strangely productive to me to spend time and attention on Buddy. That’s clearly a sign of aging since he’s about the biggest antagonist I feel like taking on most days. I can’t solve the world’s climate crisis. I can’t find a cure for cancer. I am lucky if I can convince one Trumpster the error of his ways. But I can give a six-pound Topo Gigio look-alike a run for his money with a stuffed animal. they say that we all pick our battles in life and this is the fulfilling battle I am increasingly choosing these days. It all gives me great admiration for someone like Joe Biden, who is twelve years older than me and apparently ready to spend another four years tackling the biggest problems on the planet against all the biggest foes the world has seen in a century. I’ll take battling Buddy Boy and let’s just leave it at that.