The New Addition

A terrified little dog, Princess.

Shortly after moving Jack's mother into an assisted living home, we became the adoptive parents of her little dog, Princess.  But a Princess she was not for us, so began the weeks of renaming.  Dancer was the first tag we gave her, because when Jack asked her to do anything she danced at his feet, for me she hid under the desk.  I secretly named her Heidi!

She was not totally socialized, so she spent many hours under Jack's desk.  In Alleen's home she hid under the bed at night or when company arrived, especially bouncy great-grands.  When I attempted to take her out with Lucy, she hunkered down and made herself a cinder-block.  Hence, I named her Cinder-block or Hunka Munka, neither of which did Jack appreciate.  

Haystack. 

On her behalf and Lucy's, they have managed to get along. Little dog knows to follow, not lead. Little dog also knows to go to Jack when there are problems, just like the kids did?  Hum, is there a pattern here?  The days turned into weeks, and we began to feel ashamed that our little dog had no name.   Then one day after a romp and roll in the dried Oklahoma bermuda, we burst into laughter. There she was, a smiling Haystack.  We stuck with Haystack for several days until we both decided that it was hard to call "Here Haystack."  It had no rhyme or rhythm to it.  


This little dog is also about two sizes larger than good health would dictate, so we've had her on a walking diet.  We only feed her two small meals a day, which she has to eat quickly before Lucy comes in to finish off her meal.  We do our best to walk the dogs daily in the field on North Base, however, the ride over for little dog is stressful, and she screams, cries, and whines every minute of the drive.  I growl,  Lucy paces back and forth, all to no avail.   Hence, we changed her name to Whiny.

Heads or Tails?

Then one day when the sun brought us summer temperatures, she followed me out the door when I called her; she began to run through the yard like she owned it; she took off in the fields with glee and played around Lucy. We both watched her run and simultaneously we said, "Scooter."   She's a Scooter when she runs. We erupted in enough laughter that Lucy ran to our sides, jumping and asking if we needed help and Scooter barked. At last our new addition has a name, a home, and now sleeps on the rug by our bedroom door, not under the desk.   

Scooter

Our children certainly kept us active for decades, and now we consider ourselves lucky to have pets that keep us laughing and exercising.  Our next adventure will be to teach Scooter how to walk with a lease and not cry, and whine in the car.  Any suggestions?