Life with a four-legged child is so much better and certainly never boring. Our Roxie girl will be seven in May and what a ride it has been.
I keep saying she can not get any more spoiled than she already is, but every day she proves me wrong on that point. She has determined that she gets a treat every time she comes back in from outside. Now she will ask to go outside, walk out on the porch and turn right around and come back in and sit in her appointed place for her treat. Of course, we oblige her as who could ignore that beautiful face of hers.
Lately, she has decided that we must go to bed when she gets ready. She will come and put her face on our lap and look sad and then turn around to the bedroom. She will also whine if it seems we are ignoring her. She has determined her bedtime around 9:30 p.m. I usually stay up a little later but David doesn’t mind the early bed time.
We must also be on her morning schedule. After we let her out in the mornings, usually around 6:30, on weekends, we may want to not get up yet, but she insists. Even if one of us gets up, she will keep nagging the other one until you are forced to get up. She will not only whine but will paw at you or sit on you.
Once you are up and she has gotten a dose of attention, she will then usually go back to bed! We aren’t allowed to, however.
Because we are doing some work in the family room, we have rearranged the living room upstairs to accommodate the downstairs couch and moved other furniture out of the room. That has not set very well with her. For a while, she would not come upstairs but finally decided if she wanted to be around her humans, that’s where she would need to go.
We had to get a king-size bed because she was taking up most of the queen size and it has worked out a lot better, but she still tries to hog the bed at times. She has to sleep in the middle and there are times she wants to get under the cover which means she will get too hot and then want to be out of the cover.
We never intended her to sleep with us and even had her a big, nice bed of her own in our room but she would whine and carry on until we just finally gave up and gave in to her. She is a real snuggle bug at times though she weighs around 55 pounds. She also thinks she is a lap dog and will insist on getting into our lap while we are sitting in a chair or on the sofa. Even if the chair is too small, there’s no stopping her. She is going to get in your lap one way or the other.
When she wants attention, she will keep on until she gets it. If you happen to pick up your phone for a minute and she is not done with getting attention, she is going to slap your phone out of your hand. It’s actually funny to us and not aggravating, so far anyway.
Though she may be spoiled rotten, she brings us much joy. She loves to go riding and especially going out to the cabin to the woods. You can tell that she is smiling because it’s like a big, goofy-wide grin.
She is really a goof ball though. We don’t understand why she is scared of some things and not other things like most dogs, but that’s okay because she’s our goof ball.
She will spend hours barking and trying to climb the tree to get to a squirrel. She hates baths, at least in the house. She loves it when you wash her with the water hose during the summer outside. She also loves the beach and running up and down in the waves.
She refuses to get in the pool but will run through the pond several times a day. She doesn’t like going out in the rain either. She prefers that when she does go outside, her humans go with her but she will eventually relent and go out by herself.
When it’s warmer we walk in the mornings and she gets so used to it that she will pitch a tantrum if you decide you are not going to walk one day. Her tantrums are more like whine parties and being mopey. She lights up soon as you give in and say let’s go.
It’s hard to imagine our lives without her though and you can always count on her to greet you at the door and be glad to see you. Too bad, everyone is not more like that. We can certainly learn a lot from our fur-babies.
Don’t forget the Peaches to the Beaches Yard sale this Friday and Saturday. You never know what you might find.
Congratulations to the award winners at the Chamber annual meeting last week. Two of our nominees won and we are proud for them all.
Prayers for all those effected by the storms on Sunday. Fortunately, in Georgia no lives were lost but that was not the case in Alabama and we pray for those families. Things and stuff can be replaced but lives cannot. Do what you can to help and remember to be a blessing to someone today.©2019

VICTORIA SIMMONS Is a columnist, author, motivational speaker, minister and publisher of The Georgia Post/Byron Buzz. Contact her at: vsimmons54@gmail.