Being directly responsible for a puppy for the first time has taught me a lot of things in only a week. One is that there is no better unit of measurement of simple contentment than a sleepy puppy sigh. I’ve had her lying on my chest while watching TV during my leg elevation hour most of this past week, and after she settles into a nap, she’ll emit just a tiny little puff of audible exhalation every two or three minutes, that little sleepy puppy sigh, that tells me that she’s exactly where she wants to be or ever will want to be at that moment. Every puff ties me closer to this little ball of fuzz.
Anyway, my nominee for New Unit of Measurement is the Sleepy Puppy Sigh (SPS), which measures contentment.
I’d suggest the length of a Mr. Goodbar or Baby Ruth or something as a new unit of measurement but the size of a candy bar changes so often I don’t think it would be effective.
My two-years-old-but-still-a puppy-at-heart little American Pit Bull terrier, Simone, is a sweet-natured thing, gentle and easygoing. As the evening wears on, she’ll come put her paws up on my knee, wrinkle her little bully forehead, and give me the “Daddy, please?” look. That’s when I’ll haul her up into my lap and she immediately starts conforming to the Daddy-landscape. She’ll make those little puppy sighs too; but when I pet her, and tousle her super-soft ears, she keeps her eyes closed with great determination…“Don’t make me get up yet, Daddy!”
She’s just a wee bit too much for my lap unless I’m in the recliner or on the couch. I’ll have to get a better computer chair, because she keeps guilting me into leaving the computer room just to provide lapspace.
A friend of mine has two new kittens, and I’m over there as often as possible to play and cuddle them.
I think a fair competitor for the SPS would be the SKP (Sleepy Kitten Purr). However, where you can simply count the number of SPS, SKPs would have to be noted in length and loudness for a standardized form of measurement.
I’ve never been quite sure whether the standard unit of fun was quite appropriate: The barrel of monkeys. To me that seems more likely to be the unit of aggravation. I think that fun should be redefined as being measured in units of puppy tugs.
It’s more fun than a barrel if monkeys. Obviously a barrel of monkeys is not all that fun. Plus the type of monkey is not specified as that would affect the amount of fun contained by the barrel. I would also add that after being confined in a barrel, said monkeys would be in a bad mood and therefore not fun.
Oh, puppy sighs. They’re the best! Does your puppy also make that smacking noise with his tongue? Love!
I measure how funny I am by the giggles of my 5-month old. Pinching her cheeks is only mildly funny (maybe 2 giggles) but pinching her toes is a riot (5 giggles and a scream).
My wee buddy Loki enjoys the chair that looks out the balcony window only if there’s a human for him to drape himself over. Two or three minutes of ear scritching, the eyes get heavy and then comes the big inhale, followed by the aaaahhhh exhale and you’re trapped there until he decides to chase his ball or your leg falls asleep, whichever comes first.