The following post is by MYRLN, a non-blogger who is Kalilily Time’s guest writer every Monday.
PETS (1)
First was the black and brown dog, the flop-eared Gordon Setter called Biscuit. This partial namesake of the racehorse Sea Biscuit assumed everyone loved him. Total strangers were met with ferociousness: wild tail-wagging followed by a sitdown to offer a paw for a “How’dya do?” shake. People were his friends, not his masters.
He read “his” people-family’s moods and emotions with psychiatric precision — lying quietly on the floor, head resting on front paws for times of anger or tearful sadness; prancing around and standing with paws on someone’s chest when happiness erupted openly; or sitting, with head on the lap of someone who felt abandoned or uncertain, and then listening to whatever tale of woe or unmet need was being told.
And he considered the hillside woods across the road from “his” brick house and the trolley tracks as his pesonal preserve. Daily, he hunted them, stalking and chasing whatever small-game wildlife dared trespass on “his” land. And once, he brought home a pheasant — whether caught or merely found already dead was never known. He left it on the porch floor at the back door. Its discovery evoked screeches of surprise and horror from those who at first had no idea what had gotten to their doorstep or how. At least not until the proud-chested, tail-thumping perpetrator was noticed a few feet off to the side. Then there came grins and laughs and “Of course!” which seemed to please him some.
Yet, he never brought any catch home again after that — except for an occasional fly-ball chased down in the backyard batting practice of “his” younger people-family. He’d bring the baseball up to the back door, leaving a wholly recognizable and familiar catch as an offering. And wholly uncaring that he’d cut short batting practice.
It all seemed okay with him that his real hunting prowess went unappreciated. His open-mouthed, tongue-hanging grin said so. After all, he still got terrific table scraps and petted endlessly and invited along for a walk or to play. “Here Biscuit!”
That was enough for him.
(To be continued: Pets 2)