Tales of a Dogsitter – On a Much Lighter Note. . . Seriously? A Purple Mohawk?

In case you haven’t noticed, Ms. Annie has a mind of her own. When she first arrived at TBTB she escaped off the deck and ran like the wind. Consequently for the first six months, she was confined to a leash on our daily walks. I learned early that every chance she got, Annie would run away as fast as her little legs would carry her but she always came back – on her time, not mine. Recently I started training her with food since she is such a chowhound. Now she gets it! With treats in my pocket, Annie knows she can run ahead and when I call her if she runs back to me, she is rewarded with a delicious biscuit. Not only does she get her aerobic exercise by running, she has now established herself as an official member of the TBTB pack by being a free girl.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Homer – sunshine and warm air, what more can you ask for in early March? The dogs and I enjoyed a walk in spring-like weather and Annie was running with the pack. We returned home and all the dogs ran to the deck, ready for a nap in the sun. Annie hesitated, looked at the treat in my hand and quickly made her decision. She flew back up the up hill, obviously not ready to come inside. Oh Annie, sometimes you are so independent!

I decided not to chase after her. Instead I did the poop scoop thing in the yard and waited for her return. After about twenty minutes there was still no sign of Annie girl. I meandered up the hill and immediately saw her scurrying toward me from the neighbor’s driveway. I knew what that meant. . . Her first escape months earlier had paid off well. She had found open trash on the deck next door and was rewarded with lots of goodies before I found her. Now really, who leaves trash outside on the deck in bear country? Well, that be my neighbor, and I always felt it served him right when she got into it, even though I did clean it up. Better to run into Annie on the back deck than a hungry black bear! But that’s another story. . .

Anyway, Annie’s memory is long and of course unsupervised, she headed straight back over to see what she could find. I could tell as she ran toward me with her head down, that she had been up to something and it probably wasn’t good! Fortunately she did not score today - at least not much. There was no scattered trash on the ground, and that’s a good thing.

Annie has a cocker crown on the top of her head, and her hair naturally grows into a moptop. When she is groomed and her hair is short, her hairline is shaped like a widow’s peak. So, when I saw her running down the driveway with a dark stain on her moptop, I assumed it was blood and she was injured OMG!

She cowered down in front of me and I noticed a stick protruding out the top of her head. What the hell? It actually looked like a lollipop stick, oh wait! It is!!! Matted and very stuck was a purple sucker smack dab in the middle of her cocker crown. The neighbors have five kids, so it’s no surprise that she has found a lollipop in their yard. I pulled the stick out of her moptop but the sucker remained buried there. The sweet little wiggle butt then followed me home with a smile on her face, obviously happy that I wasn’t mad at her. Mad? I couldn’t stop laughing. The actual sucker resting in her moptop makes her look like she has a purple Mohawk! OMG girly, you are so funny. I’m not about to pull that out.

All the other dogs ran to meet us at the gate and immediately started smelling and licking her sucker head as she stood smiling. The color purple lasted the rest of the day until finally they had licked away all the evidence. A friend saw her and thought for sure I had spray painted her a Mohawk because it suited her so well! Ms. Annie you are always a Howl. You keep us all laughing at TBTB Dog Camp, and it seems whatever trouble you get into, it usually involves food or drink, and the doggies love you for that! Woof! Woof!