Ridiculous
Puppies are. The other reason besides that they’re cute that you don’t KILL THEM* is because they make you laugh.** Sometimes the ridiculousness is situational. The hobgoblin and I were out today*** walking† in town so she could meet more people and I clocked that there was a craft fair on in the village hall. Excellent. Cheap Christmas presents. So after she’d had her meagre permitted ten minutes of walking/lurching/hurtling I picked her up and we went to the craft fair.
Where she met even more people. One of them said, what is she?, and I said, English bull terrier†† and he said, I thought that’s what she looked like, but she’s so small. Yes! I said eagerly. SMALL! She’s a MINI! She’s going to STAY SMALL EVEN WHEN SHE GROWS UP! —So clearly I had to buy something at this stall because such perspicacity inevitably must produce artful craft to a very high standard. I had come out without my wallet but I usually have a note or two tucked somewhere about my person . . . the ‘tucked’ part not being an issue except when you’re carrying a puppy. I didn’t want to put her down; she’d get trodden on, and even if she didn’t, she wouldn’t enjoy being ankle-high in a dark forest of giants. So after I’d found several Christmas presents I had to start fishing for cash, shifting Pavlova from arm to arm—it’s a pity she’s going to be too big for this performance soon, because we’ve got the drill down now that I can clamp her between one arm and my side and still have both hands (relatively) free—till the bloke who’d asked what she was said he’d hold her if that was okay with her/me. So I passed her over to her transcendent delight—I am QUEEN! And I WELCOME NEW SLAVES!!—and got my emergency††† money out at which point he had to pass her back because his wife wanted him to check her addition. Then I gave her to him again while I dealt with my change. . . .
It’s all socialisation. It’s all good.
Giboppmar
I know that I could just google “hucklebutting” (fantastic name, by the way)—but are there any chances of us getting a video? That would just make my day.
Well this is slightly more probable than it was when you posted this, because I’ve finally found the plug-in thing to recharge the battery on my little video camera.‡ And I’ll have a go. But I don’t think it’s likely to be nearly as funny on video as it is in real life, judging from the hucklebutting videos already out there. The silliness of it doesn’t really come over, it just looks like some dog running around and, so? Part of this is that since most of it is taken from above, human being standing or sitting and aiming down at hucklebutting bullie, you don’t catch the true effect of the preliminary dropping down, so it’s almost more of a high-speed scuttle than a run. But if you get down to bullie level yourself to capture this you will be hucklebutted, which could be painful and will probably not result in high-quality footage. But I’ll give it a try.
It is a great verb, isn’t it? I hope whoever invented it is proud of themselves.
* * *
* I was thinking how much they’re like humans.^ The dog books all tell you to swap puppies’ toys around so they don’t get bored looking at the same ones and having all of them equally available, they’ll get jaded.^^ And if you can afford it you might want to produce an absolutely new toy at intervals.^^^ That’s just like us.^^^^ I have ENOUGH books, yarn and opera recordings. NOOOOOOOO. NEVER ENOUGH. I want the new and the shiny! Just like a three-month-old puppy!
^ Humans as opposed to people because of course dogs+ are people
+ and [insert your sort of critter here]
^^ Precocious things, puppies, already able to generate jadedness at three months.+
+ Some mum of humans is going to say that human pup—I mean babies are just the same. I think there are probably fewer puppies that have to be talked out of taking their favourite toy, the one that used to be a large orange and black plush tiger and now looks like a bag of mouldy oatmeal with mysterious lumpy appendages, to their first day of school.# I admit that I know a lot more about dog babies than I do about human babies.
# And I have never heard of a dog taking a favourite babyhood toy/bag of mouldy oatmeal secretly in the bottom of a suitcase to college.&
& Yes. But Algernon was in pretty good shape.
^^^ Different textures of towels and dustcloths with knots tied in the middle work surprisingly well. I’ve yet to have a puppy demand Tiffany.
^^^^ I’m assuming there are no ascetics reading this blog.+
+ If there are . . . oh dear.
** Most dogs grow out of this to a greater or lesser degree.^ Bull terriers get funnier.
^ Darkness, mostly. Poor thing has the responsibilities of the world on his shoulders. Chaos, not much. As witness the last photo from the other night.
*** After the hellhounds and I had the most tremendous riot over a piece of golden autumnal countryside WITH NO ONE ELSE ON IT except a few rabbits. Which fortunately the hellhounds did not see.
† Well walking is possibly an exaggeration. We proceed in a series of lurches. At this age I mainly want her liking going for ‘walks’ and learning to accept the lead without really noticing that’s what’s happening. This makes for uneven progress.
†† In my continuing quest to help metamorphose the bull terrier’s reputation from savage killer to friendly goofball, I have found that mysteriously the addition of ‘English’ in front of ‘bull terrier’ seems to mean that fewer people back away from you slowly, looking frantically around for a tree to climb. I wouldn’t put it past a bull terrier to learn to climb a tree, but I don’t tell the backers-away this.
††† There are emergencies and emergencies. I also bought some pink buttons for future knitting projects. It is good to be prepared.
‡ I know Pooka has video capability but life is too complicated, not to mention that iPhone video is usually pretty dire. In theory I know how to make the videocam talk to other tech. In theory.
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