A Dog Laying on the Floor

           “When did we get this dog rug?” Roland asks for the umpteenth time as we all step over Bonnie to exit dad’s office.

Bonnie is a Saffordshire Terrier mixed – mostly with the appearance of Pit Bull – a fat one at that.  She is definitely a sweet dog. She’s also a bit insecure.

Jenna loves dogs.  She will go out of her way to look at them and ask if she can “pet your dog.”   

She’ll ask the owner the dog’s name and thank the owner and be on her way.  Jenna prefers dogs to humans. Bonnie is opposite.  She LOVES people.  Given a choice of encountering and barking at the ten dogs down the street or spotting one human in the distance going the other direction – she will pick the human every time.  After all, isn’t the entire reason the person is standing outside in the first place is because they want to pet the Bonnie? 

There are many who seem to love Bonnie just as much as we do and will comment on her waggling tail and do their best to spoil her rotten.  There are others who seem fearful or angered because she is a Pit and shouldn’t be allowed to exist.  I do think she appears to be a threat to small dogs.  Any small dog owner may think that Bonnie has already swallowed more than her share of small dogs.  The truth is, she just wants their owners to take notice of her and love her as much as they seem to have for their small rat-sized animals.

Roland went to the mailbox the other day, and when he returned Bonnie got out of the house and ran into the street.  She wasn’t barking at the man or his dog.  I didn’t see it happen.  I just heard Roland say “No, Bonnie!  Come Back!” as though that is really going to work.  I personally think Bonnie has ADD – or something like it.  She is definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer. 

Roland says that a dog will find his master and lay at his feet in order to protect his master.  In Bonnie’s case I believe it’s more to cater to her own insecurities.  Bonnie does not like being alone.  The more people, the better.  She LOVES human attention.  She does not love the chickens in the backyard.  I don’t know why she feels intimidated by them.  She never wants to go out the backdoor.

We decided that we would get a gate for our front deck.  That way if she gets out of the house, she will still be unable to go out to the street. I told Roland to get something that we could push open and NOT a temporary gate that has to be removed or climbed over by the owner. Roland took Jenna to the big city of Roseburg and purchased a gate.  It was the very kind that I had told him NOT to purchase.

I suppose I should not become upset with him.  After all we are both aging and seem to be losing perspective of things that we were told only moments ago.  I had to go with him on Saturday to return the gate and find an OUTDOOR gate that we could use over the stairs.  When we couldn’t find what we wanted at Petco an employee suggested we try Coastal. When we couldn’t find what we wanted at Coastal, an employee suggested baby gates at Walmart.  Wouldn’t you know it, Roland gravitated to a baby gate that was so similar to the dog gate we had returned to Petco.  No.  No.  NO.  I made him return home and ordered a gate online.  We received two of them yesterday.  What prompt and duplicated service.  Wow.

Roland has taken Jenna to seminary and Bonnie is snoring away on my rug – even though she does have her own dog bed.  She prefers to be in the same room as a human than in the room where her bed is.