Sunday, January 29, 2006

Staffy vs Baby

I am slowly learning the setbacks of napping vs dog in the household. Buddy is a Staffy cross and anyone who owns a Staffy will agree with me that they have no believe whatsoever in the concept of personal space. 'Too close is not close enough' is a popular Staffy philosophy.

I think that Buddy does like Anna (or at least will tolerate her presence, and that's good enough for me), even though he may be opposed to the shocking concept of only one walk a day (and sometimes, it's not even in the morning! Sometimes he has to wait the whole day until the afternoon! What a travesty in the poor dog's life). So, just to show how much he cares, when he walks past her or her pram he will leave just enough room for one thin coat of paint, with a little lick of any available foot or hand sticking out for good measure. Or, he will help me overcome my boredom of rolling Anna back and forth 8000 times in her pram by bringing his tug toy over for me and 'telling' me he wants to play. (Staffy's are vocal dogs and another Staffy mantra is 'why say it quietly when you can yowl it out at full growl?') Or sometimes if he feels the need for a good shake he will come right over to share his hair with the peaceful baby. Maybe he thinks she looks cold and needs some extra quilting?!

Another thing about Staffy's: they are bulky, stocky dogs and they know it. So why give a slightly ajar door just a little nudge to walk through it, when you can barge through in a rugby scrum? Why give a little whimper noise at a closed door to let someone know you want to come in, or out, when you can head-but the thing with enough force to rattle the house? Or why climb daintily and softly off your chair, when you can hurl yourself to the ground with enough noise to measure on the Richter scale?

None of this behaviour leaves the baby peaceful for very long. He smiles away at me, joyful in the face of my murderous glaring, knowing full well that I have my hands too full of grizzly baby to chase him outside and the new mush where my brain used to be means I will have forgotten his actions after five minutes.

Buddy may have been usurped from the centre of my attention, but he certainly knows how make sure he doesn't become an invisible member of the household.

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