TODD G. HIGDON: A few canine surprises

Our dog, Ladybug, has certainly surprised us the last few weeks.

For instance, on Tuesday afternoon, Tina and I were sitting on the couch watching TV. We have some small dog steps that we put at the front of the couch for Ladybug to climb up and down off of the couch. On this particular day, the stairs were away from the couch just a foot or two, when Ladybug propped her front paws up on the stairs and with her back legs, pushed the stairs over enough to climb on them to reach the couch. At that same time, we just looked at each other with our mouths wide open in “wow status.”

Other quirks with our dog is every day when Tina gets home from work, Ladybug makes a mad dash from her kennel to Tina, sliding on the hardwood floors, wanting my wife to pet her. I have never seen a dog move so fast.

While watching TV – whether it is with Tina or by myself – Ladybug will come right up to either one of our sides and cuddle. She shakes her whole body starting at her head and it works its way down to the tip of her tail.

Ladybug snores so loudly sometimes she wakes herself up and looks at you like you were the one who did it.

When mom (Tina) comes home it is all about mom. You can sense Ladybug saying, “Pet me, love me, play with me, and hold me.” But at bedtime it is snuggle up with dad (me). It might be because I give Ladybug a bedtime snack.

In the middle of the night, she is real polite about letting me know she has to go (outside to the bathroom) because she will take her paw, scratch my back until I wake up.  This will gradually get harder until finally a little whimper helps nudge me up. Not sure how mom got excluded from this midnight trip because she always picks dad. Lucky mom.

She will not go down the hall without every light on. When she does, it is like someone put racing shoes on her and she tears up down the hall as fast as she can make it, sliding into the doorframe because of the hardwood floors and heads straight for under the bed, where mom and dad play peek-a-boo with her as she runs from one side to the other under the bed.
Oddly, she will not go from the bedroom back down the hallway to the living room, even with all of the lights on. This is something we are working on.

Ladybug is always lovable and snuggled up and will give you as many kisses as you will let her. We have found, however, that her breath is not always the best. This could be from previous lack of dental care and since then, we have been trying our best to maintain the choppers she does have.  

Her favorite movie is “All Dogs Go to Heaven,” and she will watch that sometimes if we are making a quick errand. Otherwise, she loves her kennel and we have found that is her security spot as well. During storms she wants to be in there or when mom and dad aren’t home for long periods. Her kennel is her favorite place to snuggle with her blankets that she tries to bury her toys and herself into. We find we have to be careful when washing her blankets because she will bury her toys in them.

She will only eat her food when it is fully displayed and lit up. She will only eat one kind of food now. Thank goodness for Chef Michael’s, because she gets the softer meat and the little hard crunchy peas and carrots as well. But she will only eat one pea or carrot or chicken nugget at a time. Her dinner eating time can take over an hour. She will carefully and slowly walk to the food dish, grab a bite of food and eat it on the kitchen floor rug.

Ladybug is an older, classy lady, who has her quirks, but we are blessed to have her in our home. She will continue to have all the love and hugs that she deserves, and we are so fortunate to have Faithful Friends who did not give up finding the right mom and dad for her. Ladybug is spoiled and deserves every minute of snooze time on the couch that she can get.
I keep wondering if we were having a snoring contest in the house, who would win? Mom, Ladybug and even myself are certainly contenders. Perhaps someday we will find out for sure. Either way, she is definitely part of our household.
It takes time to find the right one and she certainly is it.

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Todd G. Higdon is a staff writer and writes a weekly column for the Neosho Daily News. He can be reached at tghigdon@neoshodailynews.com