What’s truly weird is how I felt yesterday, when I picked up Lala’s dogs for a sleepover. I felt giddy-happy. Almost ecstatic to see their little jumping happy heads.
See, I don’t know from dogs. I’ve never, ever been a dog person. Whatever. I thought they were sometimes cute but dumb, and drooled a lot. I just figured it out: They get you by making you feel like the most important person they’ve ever seen. I’ve always seen Lala’s dogs when, duh, Lala was around. They freak out when they see me, but they really freak out when they see her, so before yesterday I’d never had the opportunity to open the door and watch them lose their little minds in sheer joy that I was there, that I was just who they wanted me to be, that I was the most wonderful, beautiful, head-petting person they’d ever, ever seen or hoped to see.
It makes you puff right up with pride and then you have to HUG them. It’s easy to hug Harriet, harder to hug Miss Idaho, since she is, after all, only five pounds, but I managed with no serious injury on anyone’s part.
And then driving them to my house, they were so HAPPY that they were in the car with me. Then home, they were so HAPPY to be outside. Then going in the door, they were so HAPPY that they got to come inside.
(Dude, I might be a dog. Must think more about that.)
And inside, the cats just growled. There was no happiness in cat-land last night. Both of them did eventually get off the top of the refrigerator, and they slept on the living room couches, but it was with the highest level of disgust. The dogs don’t even pay attention to them. Perhaps that’s the problem, actually. They’re feeling slighted by not being chased?
It was totally selfish, me getting the dogs. I sleep SO much better at night with them in the bed. See, during my day-sleeps, my cats are the best. They cuddle and purr all day with me, and I sleep like a log. My night-sleeps are horrible, since Adah wakes at 2am and spends, literally, the next FOUR HOURS jumping from my head to my feet to my head to the bookcase to my head to my hands. She’s a jumper and a pouncer, and I have no doors in this house to lock her out of the bedroom (just accordion-style doors that she learned to open within the first thirty seconds of being in the house). But with the dogs on the bed, Adah does not jump on my head. And the dogs sleep late. It’s a lovely thing. I’m using them again tonight, too.
Pictures tomorrow, maybe? And I’m working on a gansey that I’m loving, a pattern and wool I picked up at Maryland Sheep & Wool, and I can’t remember when I’ve had such fun knitting a pattern. Cromarty was amazing to knit, but it was so HARD, and required constant graph reading. This pattern is memorize-able but still fun on every damn row. Love, love, love it. Worried I’ll run out of yarn. I’d hate to be making a vest.
(As I post this, both dogs are on the couch next to me, and Digit just crept across the living room floor and skulked up to sit on the other side of me. It’s obviously not that he likes me, because right now I’m prolly pretty low-down on his list of favorite things. He’s just asserting his right to me. This is better than TV.)
I think if cats could talk, they would say “Yeah, I’m too cool for you”, but dogs would be all “Pay attention to me! Pay attention to me!”
My roommate has two chihuahuas, and I thought that they’d always be yappy and such, but they’re always SO EXCITED to see you that it’s just too cute,
we have had two dogs and two cats for most of my married life, they do eventually get along. dogs are the epitome of unconditional love however, and there is something quite sweet about that!
I always thought I was impartial, till I got a dog. There’s just nothing like them.
Cats are very cute but dogs will forever have my heart.
I was a “cat” person most of my life. Actually was really disgusted by dogs, they were loud and heavy and jumpy and slobbery, just gross. I had 4 cats and loved them more than anything else. Now, don’t ask how, I have two LARGE dogs and you know what, for some reason its a lot more acceptable and less disturbing to me to be halfway pushed out of bed by an 85 pound cuddle butt than putting up with an 8 pound cat who HAD to sleep on my pillow and gave ma crooked neck night after night 🙂 Go figure….
Hey silly! Sounds like those pups are great company. I was always a dog person, then was forced to become a cat person, and now who knows…if Christy has her way, it’ll be raining kitties!
Hope the pups make you miss Lala less! Sleep tight!
Michelle
That is *exactly* why I love dogs so much, the crazy happy dance that they do when they see you and they’re just thrilled about everything. It’s not that I don’t like cats, but I loooooove my dog. And my parents’ cat that thinks he’s a dog? That’s just as good as a dog.
I’d be afraid to hug a little dog though, I’d be afraid I’d break something. My dog weighs 75 pounds, he’s quite the sturdy pup. 🙂
TMK was NOT a cat person until she met my two, and until one of them “picked” her as his special person. TMK was so out of tune with cat-speak that I had to explain to her WHY he was always following her around, WHY he always purred when she came in the room, WHY he always sat in her lap and not mine, WHY he always waited by the door for her. And when she finally put two-and-two together and realized that, yes, it is possible for you and a cat to become psychically and emotionally bonded, she became a cat lover for life, I think. (Although nothing could ever replace our bouncy, barky, mischievous Frankie, I know!)
Rachael, I think you’ve hit upon the reason I love dogs! Though to be honest, I love cats just as much. BUT before you believe all dogs sleep late, let me tell you about Zubin who likes to clack his nails on the hard wood floor at 4 a.m. while patroling his house! Acckkk! It is wonderful how he gets so excited when I walk through the door when dogsitting or how he’ll follow me around or how he’s convinced that I’m at the head of his pack and others are just part of his pack. Dogs are grand but then so are cats.
Yeah, dogs are great like that. All non-judgmental love and adoration. On the other hand, cats are a lot less maintenance. Dogs need to be check on, walked, and fed even if you’re only gone a weekend. I still love and adore dogs though.
Dogs are SO great for the ego! 🙂 My chihuahua used to get so excited when I got home that his tail literally wagged him!
Can’t wait to see this Gansey your knitting…that you love sooo much! 🙂
You now get the magic of dogs. I’m not much of a cat person, but dogs are great–they think you’re the best person in the world.
Especially when you let them sleep with you.
Yep, dogs love ya.. no matter what. Have always been a dog lover for that very reason. They just love, love, love you 🙂 And as incarcerated Martha would say, “that is a good thing” 🙂
Dog/cat relations…oh my. Classic scene in our house is Kona in the “play bow” (paws stretched out in front, butt in the air) facing off Vashi who is all bunched up and hissing. Dude! Chill!
And I think I’m just going to give up on unloading groceries from the car right away. Might as well come in and get licked to death *first.*
Love the dog story (and I’m a cat person). Glad to hear you’re using the dogs for good and not for evil 😉
Ha! Dogs are the greatest. Even better: Dogs that think they’re cats (like mine, who scratches the door to get let in, and stretches like a cat), and cats that think they’re dogs (like my friend’s, who fetches).
I never disliked dogs, but I didn’t really “get” dogs until I moved here. It’s that they make you feel like the greatest thing ever, but it’s also that they’re just so freakin’ happy to be DOGS.
Rach…now you know the joy of canine companionship! I can have the suck-i-est day at work, drive home with a grey cloud following me all the way – but once I hit the front door at home – Sade and Dot full of joy that it’s ME! It’s ME! —-There’s nothing better for my heart and soul…well, I take that back – C’s kiss is the only thing better.
Love Miss Idaho’s now picture – pure joy!
If only it were “a dog’s life”. Napping, food every now and then, romping outside, chasing inanimate and animate objects, swimming, cuddling, ahhhhh…… Sure beats sitting at my desk pounding on a keyboard all day. Have their eyes gotten to you yet? Dogs have a way of quietly looking into your soul, and smiling.
Kat (and Java da Pup)
Rach…now you know the joy of canine companionship! I can have the suck-i-est day at work, drive home with a grey cloud following me all the way – but once I hit the front door at home – Sade and Dot full of joy that it’s ME! It’s ME! —-There’s nothing better for my heart and soul…well, I take that back – C’s kiss is the only thing better.
Love Miss Idaho’s now picture – pure joy!
Rach…now you know the joy of canine companionship! I can have the suck-i-est day at work, drive home with a grey cloud following me all the way – but once I hit the front door at home – Sade and Dot full of joy that it’s ME! It’s ME! —-There’s nothing better for my heart and soul…well, I take that back – C’s kiss is the only thing better.
Love Miss Idaho’s now picture – pure joy!
Rach…now you know the joy of canine companionship! I can have the suck-i-est day at work, drive home with a grey cloud following me all the way – but once I hit the front door at home – Sade and Dot full of joy that it’s ME! It’s ME! —-There’s nothing better for my heart and soul…well, I take that back – C’s kiss is the only thing better.
Love Miss Idaho’s now picture – pure joy!
Rachael, I know exactly what you felt when you opened that door! You have been blessed with the unconditional love of a dog! Ain’t notin’ like it! Our little beagle baby is just the best and loves us with his whole entire body ..oh my its just the bestest thing in the whole wide world!!!! I have a little plaque hanging in my kitchen that reads “Lord, help me to become the person my dog thinks I am”
Amen.
delia
One of my kitties wakes around four am and wants somethinghanging over my head ! But I am writing to tell you about the naughty goings on between a dispatcher and a fireman at the Lawrence, MA FPD. Check out the Boston Globe if you get a sec. Judy
Yeah… um, Rach? You know those dogs would be just as happy if Charles Manson walked through the door and then took them for a car ride, right?
Cats rule! Purr power!
Cats and dogs, living together! It took about two months for the cat and the two dogs to figure out the balance of power once the cat moved in. Now, the cat bullies the dogs and all the animals sniff noses and coexist happily. They even play with each other in a strange cross-species way that’s very amusing to watch.
And yeah–ya just can’t be downhearted when you’re with a dog. I mean, they are just So Happy. Give ’em a rawhide and it’s as if you just gave them the bestest present ever possible. Also, you can threaten to turn them into a rug and as long as you use the upbeat, happy voice they think it’s praise.
Yeah…I’ve always been a cat person too. However….some dogs (especially little dogs) really can be such joyous creatures….very loving when sometimes cats are, ahem, a bit arrogant. 😉