I Wish I Could Be My Puppy Just For An Hour

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I would like to trade places with my six-month-old puppy Polaris just for a little while, so I could feel the happiness she seems to feel. She has such incredible joy in life, energy and general good humor.

What must it be like? I try to imagine what goes through her mind. I put down her bowls, and her excitement erupts. She must be thingking,* “Oh boy, it’s dog food! My favorite! And water! I love that stuff!”*

Everything is an object of intense curiosity. In the yard, she chases every flying insect, and attempts to harry the squirrels. They mostly ignore her, because she can’t reach their feeder no matter how hard she jumps. She gives them play-bows, and reacts with disappointment when they don’t come down from their lofty perch.

But no matter, there’s a stick! She acts like she just found Jimmy Hoffa and Amelia Earhart sharing a drink from the Holy Grail-- it’s the most amazing item she’s ever discovered! It’s two feet long, and she grips it in the middle, as she does a victory lap around the yard to show the world her astonishing treasure.

And now she smells a stinky spot, perfect for rolling! The stick is utterly forgotten. BUTTERFLY!!! She bolts after it, and leaps into the air, easily twice her height. After a few moments, it appears she’s not really trying to catch the butterfly-- she’s jumping and twisting in the air for the sheer joy of it.

Back into the house, where there’s the long and difficult process of distinguishing what belongs to Polaris and what belongs to the strange, tall, furless beings who provide food and belly rubs. They’re very selfish, these strange-smelling creatures. There are so many interesting things, begging to be chewed! Shoes, remote controls, pencils stolen from tables . . . but the true prizes are the wads of tissue in the bathroom trash.

It’s Puppy Crack. She’ll do anything to have a chance at grabbing one. As I was turning on the shower this morning, she came into the bathroom, and acted like she was obediently climbing into the tub for a bath, turned and snatched a tissue, and ran like hell.

But just to look down into her face tells you she’s the happiest creature alive. Her eyes shine, her tongue lolls out, her ears perked up, and her entire back end wags (not just the tail-- oh, no-- Polaris does nothing by half measures.) She twitches with excitement at anything new.

And why shouldn’t she be happy? She’s in an air-conditioned house with lots of nice, soft places to nap. Her bowl overfloweth with food and fresh water, and every now and then, the furless beings toss down a tasty chew. But I imagine she would be just as happy living with me in a carboard box.

I wish I could feel her joy for just an hour.

2

I would think you do, since you have her to share your life with.

3

Yay for happy puppies. :slight_smile:

4

Yeah, there’s nothing like pure unadulterated puppy joy. Always lifts my mood, no matter how sour. Our pups still have it, even though they’re 3 and 5 years old.

Sometimes I wish I could be one of our cats for a while. They look so relaxed and carefree stretched out and snoozing on the porch rail, or stretched out and snoozing on the picnic table, or stretched out and snoozing on the motorcycle seat, or . . .

5

Lissa, roll over and I’ll rub your belly.

I’d like to be like my dog somedays. . .

Take a nap on a bed made just for me.

Go outside for a few minutes to pee and take a crap without wiping.

Come back in, and someone feeds me.

Lay back down on my bed for the rest of the day.

It’s just expected that I hate cats.

Where can I sign up for that?

6

My other dog, Bean, is nine years old now, and has settled into mellowed contentment. I don’t remember her being as effusively joyful as this little one. She’s always had a calmer demeanor.

She’s a bit irked by the puppy’s enthusiasm, especially when it’s directed at her. Whenever Bean comes through the door, Polaris wants to jump all over her. Bean may have only been gone for an hour, but Polaris greets her as if she’d been gone for years. "Oh my god! It’s you! Where have you been? I missed you so much! Let’s play! You wanna play? I wanna play! Let’s play!"

I’ve set up a couple “safe zones” in the house for when the puppy gets to be too much for the Big Dog. She can go there and have peace and quiet for a while.

One amusing result of having the puppy is that Bean is playing with toys she hadn’t touched for years. (She was always a little picky about her toys, and we had a basket of rejects.) The puppy appears to be having so much fun with the items that Big Dog has to play with them, too. The puppy watches forelornly for a moment when what she’s been playing with is rudely snatched away, but then goes to get something else. Bean then sees Polaris having the time of her life with something and has to go take it, too. I’ve seen her laying in the midst a pile of reclaimed toys, her paw clamped over one of them while she chews on another.

Ah, to be a dog! I wonder if she realizes how lucky she is? She was a pound rescue, overdue to be put down, but still too young to be taken from her mother. She was desperately ill, and didn’t even know how to drink (I had to give her water from an eyedropper for a while.) Now she’s in the lap of doggy luxury. I think deep-down she does know it.

7

Whoa, does your dog, perchance, have her brain on a time-share with my dog? Cause this sounds exactly like him.
Except that he also enjoys (I would say “suffers from” but he doesn’t suffer at all) some sort of doggy version of ADD. Really. If he’s sulking because you’re not paying enough attention to him, he’ll pointedly bring out a stuffy, plop it RIGHT in front of you, park himself between you and the stuffy and sit there with his back to you. This only lasts until he realizes, hey, I’ve got a toy here! You can almost hear him say, “I’m NOT playing with you. I’m NOT talking to you at ALL. I’m SULKING and I’ve got this WONDERFULtoy here that YOU are not going to be allowed to play with. I’m sulking and not talking to you at all…HEY! I have a toy! Look, I found a toy! Play with me play with me play with me!”

He “terrorizes” the birds that are in our yard. They’re used to him, so they’ll wait for him to come charging at them, then obligingly take off and perch on the fence. As soon as he’s come a-blitzing through, they’ll land on the ground and continue eating. He just stands there in the midst of flapping wings with a look of utter joy on his face. Investigating smells that come in the window are mandatory, too, as is Watching Doggy TV (looking out the window at the neighborhood.) Doggy TV is fascinating and occupies hours of his time.
His entire philosophy of life, and his answer for everything, is “Play more!” Tired? Play more, and you’ll have adrenaline charging through your system. Depressed? Play more and you’ll be cheerful. Hungry? Play more and THEN share your dinner with him. (Hey, even dogs have to drool for food once in a while.)

I like dogs. They show us how to be happy.

8

Lissa, around these parts we call that the “Oh My God You’re Not Dead” dance…

9

Not to mention the fact that you’d finally be able to lick your own…
nevermind.

10

Pure unadulterated adult dog joy can run a pretty close second. Our Pumpkin is going to be 10 in a few months and she’s one of the happiest creatures on four feet. A simple bowl of dog food can get her dancing and her tail wagging so hard her whole butt moves.

11

My sister once made the comment that in her next life she’d like to come back as an animal in my house because they have it so good.

Keep Polaris happy. By the way, that is a fabulous name for a dog.

12

Thanks! We named her that because of the white spot on her head-- it made us think of the North Star. Here’s some pics.

13

What a sweetie.

Both of them.

Even if Bean is a little bit, “Why, Mom?” in the tug-o-war picture. :slight_smile:

14

You know, it’s very possible that you DID have that kind of excitement and curiosity at one point, albeit without the physical coordination to revel in it quite as much as a puppy does. You were just too young at the time to remember it now…

I go over and help out with my friends’ 1-year-old twins relatively often (“help out” might be stretching things here), and little Sophia’s tought process was clearly something like “oh wow oh wow oh wow I just found a book I LOVE books even though I can’t read or talk and oh boy oh boy maybe Uncle Max will read it to me this is going to be the BEST goodie goodie goodie YAY he’s starting ok I’m bored already ok what’s over there oh wow it’s a DIFFERENT BOOK!!! oh my goodness having this book read to me would be SO AWESOME” and so forth.

To be cynical and glum for a moment, I wonder if babyhood is to childhood as childhood is to adulthood. Much as we say “youth is wasted on the young, who don’t have the maturity to enjoy it”, we could say “babyhood is wasted on babies, who don’t have the brain development to have any lasting awareness or memory of it”. The only way to be THAT happy for so long would be to be too dumb to really appreciate it?

Anyhow, back on the topic of happydogs, Dave Barry has written many very entertaining columns about his main dog, Ernest, and his Auxiliary Backup Dog, Zippy. A classic is the one in which he proposes the TV show about Ernest’s life, “Adventure Dog”, feature the theme song:
“Adventure dog.
Adventure dooooog.
Kinda big, Kinda strong
Stupid as a log”

15

When I die, I want to come back as a middle class American house dog. Life does not get much better than that.

16

Depends on who you end up living with, 'cause God knows, not everyone is as good to their dogs as the dogs deserve. Which, I admit, is a bit perplexing to me.

How could you not want to cherish a creature that worships you as a living god, and is the very personification of joie de vivre? A dog does not care if you’re rich or poor, fat or thin, what color your furless skin may be, or even whether you’ve brushed your hair yet in the morning. It will love and serve you, regardless. If only people could be more like dogs, this world would be a better place.

17

Puppies rule.

Puppies, also, drool.

Funny, that.

18

Lissa , Dogmom , I really think we all have dogs who are related . My Kharma , 15 months old , is the most joyful animal I have ever known . She bounces stiff legged thru the yard with whatever toy she finds , even a simple stick (see picture) . I don’t know that I can ever say I have known the same kind of joy , and I sure would like to .

I loves my Kharmee Girl ! :smiley:

<img src=“http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/PapSett/My%20Babies/Dogs002.jpg” alt=“Image hosted by Photobucket.com”>

19

well crap .

Let’s try that picture again .

20

Well, I’ve tried that, but I keep getting hit with these restraining orders when I try to lick other people’s faces…

I like the notion in the OP – I’d like to see the world from my dog’s eyes, too. He’s a shih tzu named Houdini, who is quite often filled with unbridled joy. He desperately yearns to meet / make friends with / play chase with every living creature he encounters, whether it be other humans, other dogs, cats, squrrels, ducks, or bugs.

Just this weekend, while he was vacationing at a lake with his daddy, he leaped into the water and swam as fast as he could after a group of 4 ducks – and he kept following them out into deeper water, until his Monstre caught up with him and made him turn around and swim back.

Oh, to inhabit his little fuzzy brain at that moment in time, to know what he was thinking. :slight_smile: