This week, I’ve had what might be called a roommate. He is as cute as can be. He is very short. He is very energetic.
He is a dachshund named Theo. I think Theo is a very noble name for a dog. But, Theo is a puppy. And, if he were to have the perfect name to suit him right now, it would be Scamper. My, but this dog can scamper. He is faster than quick. His tiny, sleek little brown body is quite strong. As small as he is – just a few pounds, really – he can almost pull me along against my will whenever we go out.
But, his body is not as strong as his determination. And his intellect is pretty high on the scale, too. If Theo wants something, he will figure out a way to get it.
Take, for instance, the darling stuffed pink poodle someone gave me recently. I love that little poodle: It is a dog, it is pink, and it is very soft. It’s difficult to name her anything but “Pinkie,” but then, Pinkie doesn’t really need a name, because she just sits there looking pink and perky in a “visitor’s” chair in my office.
I should have been smart enough to move Pinkie to a high shelf before Theo’s visit. But I was not. Although Pinkie is technically larger than Theo, still, I was distraught to discover him proudly prancing around the porch with Pinkie not long after he arrived. I managed to rescue her, but it wasn’t easy. At least, she doesn’t have any open wounds.
It’s not as if Theo didn’t come with a host of torn-up toys of his own. “Oh, he just likes to drag these through the house,” his owner said when she plopped down a pile of bedraggled rugs and old chew bones – including a deer’s hip joint (at least, I hope it’s a deer) Theo found in a creek – onto my kitchen floor. That pile has sat there ignored by Theo since his arrival. He’d rather find new things with which to play.
First thing this morning, before I’d had my coffee, Theo found a new favorite toy: My underwear. This was an almost new pair, one of my favorites. But there it was, clamped in the strong jaws of tiny little Theo. He scampered throughout the house, dragging it around. Every few seconds, he’d run back in the bedroom to show me he had captured my undies. And then – you could see it in his eyes – he dared me to catch him and capture his prize back for my own.
So, without coffee, I found myself darting about the house chasing after my purloined undies. The only way I recaptured them was to lure him to his food bowl with a couple of treats.
For some reason, Theo is not all that interested in his food or water bowl. He’s the first dog I’ve known, and I’ve known many, who did not care a whit about his breakfast, or his dinner. I’d put a big handful of nuggets in his bowl, and then mix in two or three tiny treats. He’d find and eat the treats, and not touch the nuggets. I haven’t seen him take a lap of water, but I’m hoping he has. I even stuck my finger in the bowl and then rubbed it on his lips. No dice.
This afternoon, I am taking Theo along my walk on the wooded lane. But not without some trepidation. Heaven knows what column I might write after that walk/pull/drag through the woods.
Theo makes me laugh out loud. And in the evening, he snuggles in my lap for hours, just like a “real” dog. Just because of that … I gotta love him! (And keep my undies under close surveillance).
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