Saturday, November 26, 2011

Saying "I love you"...


How do you say, "I love you"?

Myrtle, she tells me that she loves me in all sorts of ways.  Here's one: She lets me sleep on her lap when she would rather be typing away on the computer or playing her Monopoly app.  As you can see, I am starting to take up more and more and more of her lap.  Would you believe that I now out-weigh my birth mom's and dad's combined weight by more than 5 lbs?  That's why my beloved Aunt Bettina started calling me The Beast.  I know she loves me though.

So, what are other ways that Myrtle says "I love you"?

Wait.  Maybe you should know why a fellow like me has been thinking about this.  Well, you see, Myrtle got up when she was plumb exhausted to watch a movie with Bettina.  Bettina offering to watch the movie together was an I-love-you.  When I protested leaving the bed, Myrtle explained this to me.  Also, when I found Myrtle weeping over an email Aunt Bettina sent, Myrtle explained that her beloved friend had re-written a terrible dream so it had a happy ending for Myrtle.  The dream scared my puppy momma so much that she could barely even think about it and was shaking for days.  Aunt Bettina spent time writing out a better dream for Myrtle to have.

My puppy momma's explaination got me to thinking about the way she tells me that she loves me, since...you know...I hear a lot of "bad dog" due to my improper placement of bodily waste.  [Did I mention the stairs?]

I mean, Myrtle tells me that she loves me all the time.  She tells me that she loves me and she repeatedly (oh, so repeatedly) forgives me my errors and faults and foibles.  So, I know that my puppy momma loves me.  However, I think that she says it even more than she actually speaks the words.  Do you have anyone like that in your life?

I know Myrtle has Bettina.  My aunt says "I love you" to my puppy momma in so very many ways, most of them small moments that near overwhelm Myrtle in the magnitude of their meaning, of how often Bettina will take a mere moment to let Myrtle know that she is thinking of her (like texting a photo while she's out with her children) or to let Myrtle know that she knows and remembers her fears and struggles and worries (like sending a new ending to the dream).

Anyway, with regard to my puppy momma, I think I have already mentioned one way: Myrtle will bring some of the down pillows from the bed to the couch so that we can snuggle with them.  Oh, my, a fellow simply cannot have enough time on a mound of down pillows!

Hmm...what are some other ways?  Let's see:

Myrtle will sometimes bring up my most favorite chew toy so I can chow down in bed for a while, even though she's explained that she does not like it when I chomp in the bed...the noise, the slight jiggle....  Still, some evenings, she will swoop down and pick it up as we head to bed.

Myrtle puts milk in my food, breakfast and dinner.  She says a fellow shouldn't have to eat dry food all the days of his life.  Sometimes she saves bits and pieces from her meals and crumbles them into mine.  For example, she burned her pizza, so she cut off the still-edible-yet-too-crispy-for-her parts and added them to my meals over a few days until they were all gone.

Myrtle will let me run up and down before the fence with my girlfriend even when it has been raining.  By doing so, I turn my white feet and belly quite black and Myrtle has to spend quite a bit of effort to clean me up.  She lets me do this even when she is exhausted and always managed a laugh of joy with me as I wag my tail in tandem with Pepper.

Myrtle will let me be the first one up the stairs even though she is still nervous (and rightly so, I must admit) about my being on the brown grass alone.  If she starts up before me and I notice where she is headed and come bounding up behind her, she will step to the side so that I can be first.  She knows I love, love, love racing up and down the hallway on the brown grass whilst waiting for her to finish climbing the stairs. So, even though she worries about my darting into one of the bedrooms to do my business (yeah...I got to admit that I have done that, too), she still lets me be first.

This thinking is hard stuff. I am sure I am missing many things, may ways Myrtle tells me that she loves me.  But at least this is a start.  How about you? How do you say "I love you"?  How does a beloved one say it to you?


This is my life with Myrtle.  Amos Adams signing off!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Why do I do what I do?

You know, for a young pup, I think I am a fairly smart fellow.  I have learned many words: sit, lay down, upstairs, downstairs, up, bed, bath, food, bone, baby, potty, poo poo, outside, time out, momma's-going-to-work, WHAT-ARE-YOU-DOING? and...bad dog.  Sort of wish I didn't know that last one.

But, to be fair, sometimes I might possibly deserve it.  Maybe not the way Myrtle can holler at me, but still, I keep finding myself doing things that I know are wrong.  I just cannot help myself.

Like, well, where to do my business.  I guess it makes sense that I should go outside.  And day after day after day will pass without any problems.  Then a day (or even two or three) will come when I somehow fail to remember everything I have learned.  And I hear a lot of "bad dog."

The thing is, I know I have done wrong.  I poop on the floor and run and hide, because I know what is coming.  I poop on the floor and try to slink away without notice.  Inexplicably, I even poop on the floor right at Myrtle's feet! Why?

The other really strange thing I find myself doing is starting off right, but then somehow losing my way.  I will ask Myrtle to take me outside.  She will take me outside. And then...well...I don't do anything.  In my defense, I will say there are tons of terrors outside: the Fearsome Beast, wet grass, barking dogs, machinery, cars, lights, fireworks, people talking, rain, lightening, thunder, frolicking children, frost...the list is never ending. It is hard for me to brave my fears and concentrate on the task at hand.  Myrtle will give up after a half hour or so and let me back inside.  Then, before I can stop myself, when her back is turned, I ended up doing that wrong thing again.  Why?

I went three weeks, three whole weeks with no mistakes.  Now, not so much.  So, why in the world do I keep making mistakes?  Why do I continue to do the things I know are wrong?

Yesterday, I sort of hit a low point with my puppy momma: I pooped on the stairs.  In my way of thinking, I did not poop upstairs, nor did I poop downstairs.  Myrtle has actually never mentioned the stairs to me.

I like being with Myrtle.  I like snuggling with her and playing with her and just hanging out with her.  If I make mistakes, though, I don't get to be with her. I am left all alone in the kitchen to contemplate my choices.  I don't even get credit when I start to make the right choice but fail to follow through.  I want to be with her more than anything in the world.  I really, really do.  So...

Why do I do what I do?


This is my life with Myrtle.  Amos Adams signing off!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Being a puppy is exhausting at times...

Aren't I adorable?  Honestly, sometimes I don't know how Myrtle stands it.  I'm such a cute little fellow!

This is me, Amos, all tuckered out, snuggling with my puppy momma, Myrtle.

Myrtle has this new friend.  I call her Aunt Sandy, but really she is Sandra.  Sandra is...well...sort of exacting. I love her.  Oh, my heart pounds in excitement whenever she comes over and we play and play and play and play.  But...to play with Aunt Sandy, I have to learn things.  I had to learn to not jump all over her. I had to learn to not chew on bits of her.  And I had to learn to sit!

See.  Don't I do a most wonderful job of sitting?  I certainly think so.  And, well, to be honest with you, it was not so much Aunt Sandy teaching me how to sit as it was my figuring out what "sit" meant!

Unfortunately, my beloved Myrtle has taken a page out of Aunt Sandy's book.  So, I have now learned to "sit" and to "lay down."  Because I am probably the most smartest of puppies on the planet, I actually figured out what Myrtle meant by "lay down" in just a few moments.  Seriously, in no time at all, I was going from "sit" to "lay down."  Myrtle was very, very, very happy with me.  Still, she did not give me any bacon.

Tell me, what does a fellow have to do to earn even the merest morsel of bacon?

In any case, I am also wondering about this whole "lay down" business.  Actually, for someone with a Ph.D., Myrtle is not all that smart, like I am!  If she were, she would be telling me to "lie down," since "lay" requires a direct object.  Of course, she would probably retort that her command actually means "Lay yourself down, Amos."  That would make me the direct object.  But I know better to point out her mistakes.  Whenever Myrtle notices that her writing and speaking is becoming more and more filled with errors, she starts to weep again.  A weeping Myrtle hurts my heart.

But grammar is not really my beef with this command.  My problem is this:  As you can see from the photo, Aunt Sandy is holding my baby hostage.  Bumble Bee is being dangled precariously above me and I have to sit before she will let me have him. In fact, once I sat, Aunt Sandy flung him across the room for me to fetch. Poor Bumble Bee.  Still, even that is not my point about these commands.

First, I have to "sit," before Myrtle will toss a ball for me.  Now, I have to "sit" and then "lay down."  That means that even thought I have to be on my feet to fetch the ball or my baby, I must first get all the way off my feet, lie on my belly actually, before I can get back on my feet to fetch my beloved ball or baby.  Does that make any sense to you at all?

Right!  It does not!  I was certain that you would agree with me!!

Anyway, this is my life with Myrtle.  Amos Adams signing off!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Hear my cry...

I am crying, "Foul!" for one and all to hear.  Myrtle is a cheat.  Period.  End of story.

Here I am, mostly, doing my business out of doors in a proper like manner.  She doesn't want me going on the living room floor, nor on the brown grass upstairs.  Fine.  I am trying and trying and trying so hard most of the time I am exhausted.  A fellow simply cannot take enough naps in a day.

So, when we went down into the basement, when Myrtle kept me down there for a couple of hours, naturally, I took care of my business on the concrete floor.  What's a fellow to do?   And, FOR THE RECORD, all of Myrtle's hooting and hollering, all of her anger and disgust and disappointment have been over my indiscretions on the first two floors of the house.  She never really made it clear that the basement floor is also off limits!

IT IS NOT FAIR, THEN, THAT I HAD TO SUFFER A 30-MINUTE TIME-OUT ALL ALONE IN THE KITCHEN FOR ONE STINKING LITTLE MISTAKE!

I am thinking that someone needs to have a talk with Myrtle about getting her story straight.  She needs to be very clear just where it is that she does not want me to do my business.  This is a huge house, with plenty of flat surfaces, that, to my mind, absolutely do not differ all that much from the flat surfaces out of doors.

Inside. Outside.  Inside. Outside.  How is a fellow suppose to keep track of where he is?  Plus, we spend all our time inside.  So, what, really, is the problem of my taking care of business inside?

And Myrtle's foot has been hurt for a couple of months now.  Was it not rather thoughtful of me to not make her climb up the stairs and then come back down so she could finished her laundry?  All she had to do is pick up my small deposit and flush it down the toilet that is right there in the basement.

Well, she also had to wipe up the floor a bit.  But she was complaining that the concrete floor needs to have a proper scrubbing.  I just gave her a head start.

SIGH.  See? There are all these reasons, all these positive constructions Myrtle could have put on my actions.  But, no, none of them matter.  I am punished, once more, for something that was not--if you really consider the matter--my fault!

This is my life with Myrtle.  Amos Adams signing off!

Friday, November 4, 2011

A few of my favorite things...

My Favorite Things to Do:

  • Snuggle with Myrtle after a bath
  • Follow Myrtle around wherever she goes
  • Shred every bit of paper I can get my paws on
  • Gnaw on Myrtle's hand
  • Snuggle with one or more of my babies
  • Squeak one of my babies
  • Lick Myrtle's dishes
  • Chomp down on an empty Gatorade bottle
  • Chase Pyrex bowls across the floor
  • Fetch the balls Myrtle throws for me



Things I Wish I Could Do:

  • Eat bacon
  • Spend every minute of every hour of every day with Myrtle
  • Do my business wherever I wish
  • Dig in the dirt with Myrtle
  • Catch and destroy the Fearsome Beast



This is my life with Myrtle.  Amos Adams signing off!