Thanksgiving, October, 2002
Dear Diary,
O Boy O Boy! First Mistress Wendy was packing up things, & putting on her shoes & dropping all my toys into a bag! So I knew something was up! I just knew it! Then my Auntie Beth & Uncle Scott came and Mistress Wendy put my crate into their car, and told me to get in!
Yip! Yip! I was so over-wrought with anticipation, that I jumped right in the car without even covering up the Angry German Shepard's pee on my post in the poo yard! I climbed in my crate & slept & slept & slept! When I finally woke up, we were at that Wonderful Cottage Place we went to once in the summer. The one with all the racoon poo to roll in & the dead, leathery frogs in the road that you can grab in your mouth and chew, & that wonderful, odiferous bear urine on some of the trees! Huzzah!
There were lots of humans there I didn't know, as well as some I did. Master Eric wasn't there - at least not at first. I was hoping he would be. He's been away somewhere doing a play. He's an actor, you see. I know this because his company, Eldritch Theatre did a play called Grendelmaus, and I got to help him with it. I wasn't disappointed for long though, because Master Eric came in our car the second day when I was out on a walk with my Granny Ann. I jumped on him & licked him & made sure he was covered in mud & raccoon poo, so he would know how much I missed him.
There were two other dogs there too. Normous is a basset hound & he was okay. I wanted to play a game where I would bite his ears, & he would run, dragging me behind him. But he didn't like that game so much. He wanted to play another stupid game in which he mounted me, & dripped his slobber all over my back, then chewed on my toys. I tried to tell him I thought his game was stupid. But we just never seemed to agree.
The other dog was a pretty little poodle cross, named Maggie. She was petite & spunky & a little stand-offish at first. I tried to win her over by standing on her back. That got her attention, but it was kind of negative attention. It wasn't wooing her in quite the way I had hoped. I was about to despair, but she was amused by my grabbing Normous's ears game, & that charmed her a bit. So, we could play wrestle & chase. She barked at me a lot, & kind of bossed me around, but at least she didn't slobber on me, like Normous did.
After one play session, she said the strangest thing. She said that I didn't absolutely have to do what I was told by my Humans if I didn't want to. I said that I disobeyed sometimes, if I couldn't help it, but I always feel guilty afterwards. & then she said I was crazy! If I don't want to do something, all I have to do is bark, or run away, or be pushy somehow, & sooner or later the humans will give in! She said that Humans actually want their dogs to be in control! It comforts them to know their place in the pack! She really said that! Can you believe it?!
It seems like completely preposterous hypothesis, but maybe one of these days I'll try it out. What do I have to lose? It might be fun being a Pack Leader, & then Mistress Wendy & Master Eric can sleep in my crate, & I can have the Big Bed Thing to myself all night long!!