Every Dog Has Its Day

Throughout my life, I've seen lots of dogs come and go.  I can't remember most of their names, but a few were special dogs that left an emptiness in my family when they departed: Lucky, Candy, Max, Sam, Duke, and my beloved Tramp.

Barry and I have three dogs.  Louie has emerged as the family favorite.

We adore all three of our dogs; however, the girls have very little patience with AJ.  Sophie spends most of her life holding a grudge in the laundry room.  (She's still mad that we moved to town five years ago.  When AJ arrived she was near-suicidal.)  Chloe is quite agile and runs and hides from AJ if he gets within ten feet of her.   Louie is the easy-going one.  AJ tries to ride him.  He pulls his tail.  He showers him with kisses.  It's Louie that he makes cuddle with him during nap time.  Oh sure, Louie may let out the occasional growl, but he doesn't mean it.  He wouldn't think of hurting a flea.  He adores AJ.

Tonight, AJ begged me to let Louie swing with him.  I knew there was no way that both Louie and AJ would fit in the swing together, but I thought maybe Louie could squeeze into the toddler swing.  It was probably a crazy thing to do, but AJ was adamant that Louie wanted to swing.  When I was a kid, I had a cat that rode on an inflatable canoe with me, so far be it from me to smash the kid's dreams.

I hoisted the overweight dog into the swing.  He put his paws over the edge and settled comfortably into the seat.  AJ said, "Mommy, push Wooey."  I pushed the dog.  He loved it!  Barry was mowing the lawn at the time and saw me taking turns pushing a one-year-old and a dog in their swings.  He stopped mowing and went into the house to get the video camera.  By the time he came out with the camera, AJ had decided that he wanted to push Louie, so he stood behind him and gave him lopsided pushes.

I was afraid that Louie might suffer from motion sickness, so I made AJ stop so we could give Louie the opportunity to get out of the swing.  When I put him on the ground, he ran back to the swing and whined.  He wanted back in!  So AJ continued to push Louie in the swing until AJ's attention became focused on a cricket.

The good news is that I was able to capture some great video that I hope to some day post on this site.  I swear the dog has a smile on his face.