Hi friends
Mummy reminded me tonight that I hadn’t written in my diary for a long time. I think she may have picked tonight to remind me, because she isn’t feeling well and wants me to stop growling at her to play. Mummy’s arthritic back has been hurting her more and more lately. She fell last night, on the way home from the store, and is sore all over today. She slipped on the wet cement. And then she went to see her favourite plastic surgeon for a bit more “work”. So far, he has worked on her neck, her back, her nose and now her forehead, but she doesn’t look any younger at all! Apparently its skin cancer, but isn’t it a coincidence that the stuff decided to grow right where everyone wants that “work” done?
Anyway, plastic surgery is no fun at all, apart from kidding around with the doctor. Getting the freezing needles hurts, although not as badly as the ones she got in her nose, and when the freezing wears off, the pain is pretty bad, she tells me. Today’s tumour was 3 cm. across. The one on her nose was... “bigger” the doctor says. I guess that explains why her nose is still swollen after 8 months.
We’ve had a pretty quiet winter. Ciera was over for a few visits, but we’ve also had a lot of rain. I don’t like going outside in the rain, although Mummy tells me I didn’t mind it when I was a puppy. Yeah, well that’s when I had short hair! And I don’t even remember that far back! All I know is, if I get wet, I get cold, and then I get the blow dryer when we get home. So I’d much rather play inside with Mummy!!
She loves to throw the frisbee, or the new glow-in-the-dark ball down the hall and then try and beat me to it! Hahaha!! I ALWAYS win!! Then Mummy tries to get it away from me, and I snarl fiercely. Sometimes I even shriek a bit!! That scares her!!! Hahaha!! We also play in the lobby of our building, when it’s late at night. There’s lots of room to throw things, and if I think I need to bark, nobody can hear me. I don’t think!
I’m not really a barky dog, although I do have a very prestigious certificate from the Coton Friends BBB Club. I got it – quite deservedly, too, if I may say so – for scaring off some hoodlums (so-called ‘cause they were wearing hoodies) that were up to no good late one night. I really only bark when I see other dogs, people I know, people I don’t know, good friends, bad guys, squirrels.... Come to think of it, I haven’t seen a squirrel in a long time!! We did see a coyote one night, though. But I didn’t have a chance to bark at it, because Debby – the lady we walk with at night – scared it away! Mummy was upset at first, because she doesn’t like scaring things. She was thinking, “the poor coyote”....
I had a lot of fun last Saturday. A lady had called Sonya Paterson, because she was interested in getting a Coton for her family, but she had never actually seen one in the flesh. Sonya told her to call Mummy, because, she said, I am always kept in show condition.
Mummy and I had a good laugh about that!! Then she gave me a bath.
On Saturday, Leslie, Rob and their two children came to visit. When they rang the doorbell, we ran all the way down the hall to meet them. I was so excited, I ran right up to them and jumped around on my back legs kissing everyone. Mummy says she could tell that, the minute they came through the door, Rob’s face changed. That’s important, because he’s the father and breadwinner, whatever that means, so what he says, goes.
Rob and Leslie had dogs when they were much younger, but their children – 10 and 12 – have never had one. The little girl enjoyed playing tug of war with me and my mongoose roadkill toy – the one Older and Wiser Auntie Penny E. gave me when we met. (That was a long time ago, and the mongoose has had his leg amputated in the meantime.) I growled fiercely, and the little girl laughed. They all did! Well, maybe not the 12 year old boy. He was pretty quiet and didn’t pay much attention to me. Have you ever seen a 12 year old boy who is 6’ 2” tall? Neither had I. I hope he doesn’t get teased at school.... what they now call bullying.
The little girl picked me up and carried me around right side up, and upside down, and with my legs hanging all over the place, and I didn’t let out one squeak of objection. I pretended I was a stuffed animal, and thanks to my excellent breeding and the bath the night before, I felt even softer and cuddlier than a stuffy!
Rob the Father, is 6’4”, but he’s a grownup, so he doesn’t feel shy about his height. He wanted to play with me too, and somehow got the roadkill mongoose away from his daughter, whose name both Mummy and I have forgotten, if we ever knew it.
Mummy is quite sure the family will get a Coton soon. The only trouble is, they want a coloured Coton, and there aren’t a lot of them around. Also, Leslie, the mom, has been doing a lot of research, and she wants a puppy from a really good breeder who puts pedigrees on his or her website along with all the results of all the tests. She cannot interpret them, but she wants to see them anyway. Leslie asked Mummy about tests that say “fair” instead of “good” or “excellent”, but she was asking the wrong person. Mummy doesn’t know what those ones mean.
Leslie had brought along a photo of a puppy she really liked. We don’t know where she got it from, but Mummy recognised the puppy right away!! That’s because Mummy would have killed for that puppy, herself!! Leslie thought it was a puppy from a Florida breeder, but Mummy knew it was from her friend Brigitte, who lives in Denmark. Leslie emailed her right away, but wouldn’t you know, someone else got the puppy while we were still talking about it!! Anyway, Leslie has emailed my breeder, Sara France, as well, and promised to let us know whenever she gets the right puppy. We wish her luck.
Mummy says it’s important to get a puppy from a good breeder. One of the easiest ways is to read pedigrees, even though some breeders don’t like to publish that information. (They worry that a puppy mill will steal the pedigree and use it to sell their mill puppies.) Mummy read pedigrees long before she got me and discovered that quite a few American breeders dogs had the name “Cotonnerie” in front of them. That told Mummy that Cotonnerie must be a good breeder, if lots of breeders liked her dogs, too. Of course, since then, Mummy has learned a lot more about Cotons and their pedigrees, and that there are a lot more good breeders than she knew about when she got me. She told Leslie and Rob their names, too and sent them the links to their websites.
We think that coloured Cotons can be just as beautiful as the white ones, and that the standard should allow coloured dogs to compete too.
Not that anyone asked us.
Well, it looks as if Mummy is going to wimp out on my grooming tonight. She says she isn’t “up to it”. And that’s OK with me.
Talk to you later.....
No comments:
Post a Comment