The dog that we are caring for, Rufus, isn’t technically ours. He has a real owner, who is currently in school across the pond. In order to avoid putting the dog through the trauma of a quarantine, we took him in. Rufus’ mom sends us money regularly for his care, so this dog has an allowance. I spend it on his dog food, grooming and special treats.
Now, Rufus is a mutt, part Welsh Corgi and part Chow Chow, along with who know what else. He’s wide, long and hairy like a chow, but with the snout and legs of a Corgi. (His picture is in my profile.) So he’s short, but wide.
One day I went to the store and while I was there I saw the largest rawhide bone ever! Ok well, it was only about 2 feet, but still pretty big. Rufus always liked rawhide and he goes though the little stuff pretty quickly so I picked up the big bone, and brought it home.
Upon giving it to him he looks so happy and content, he plays with it and eventually eats it. All is well, we have found a new treat, and big bones stay on the shopping list. Well, as the dog gets settled into the new home, he develops new routines of where and when he chews on his bone. It seems like when we go to bed, the dog grabs his bone, runs to the bedroom and settles in for the night. Our bedroom is the only room in the house with carpet, so it is the “popular” sleeping spot for the animals.
The bone itself is pretty long and the dog usually grabs it in his mouth, left of center, so there is always part of it sticking out wider than his body. For the most part, he can navigate though the house, without hitting the wall and the door frames. On night, we had the bright idea to “tease” the dog to see who could get into the bedroom first. Well Rufus grabs the bone, and runs down the hall, taking out any one and any thing that gets in his way. We have all been hit! Pippin, the cat, took a hard hit to the shoulder and has given up the chase. To the humans, however, it was however a solid hit to the shin, poor dog is too short for a true “knee-capping.”
We immediately remember the Tonya Harding, incident and a new name is created. Rufus now takes out all the “furry” competition to get the best sleeping spot on the bedroom carpet.
From that day on, whenever he has a bone, we say “come on Tonya, time for bed.” We all know to stay out of the way.