syrinx

The little black dog that no one wanted has been with us for 1 year and 3 months. She just turned 2 years old.

She is a delight in ways I can not even begin to express. She does not just wag her tail when we come home, she wiggles her entire body in an arched back rumba that you could put to music. She always has something in her mouth for us as we come through the door. It reminds us of someone bringing flowers. I've watched her at home as she will choose just the right object when she sees that Dan is about to open the door after he has been away at work or even just a short trip to the store. She is very careful not to pick up the same object she had the day before.

Because of the trauma she experienced prior to being with us, she still wets herself when she gets excited, but we have grown used to that. We have a mop on hand for especially joyful greetings.

Bonnie is nothing like Fergus and is really not like a lot of other dogs. Sometimes when you give her a dog cookie, she will carry it around all day - even taking it outside - bringing it back inside - protecting it like it's a baby. Then all of a sudden, she'll eat it.

She is shy but will go to great lengths to kiss your face when she meets you. Not everyone likes this, we realize, but it's not a trait we dislike either. She is always a hit with dog lovers.

I really like her. I love her too, but I like her as a silly little being that finds joy in the smallest things. She is fun, tries hard at everything she does, adores Fergus (the dog daycare folks are always telling us what a pair they are... sometimes only playing together despite the option of 40 other dogs to choose from) and lives up to what behaviorist Stanley Coren says about how some dogs seem to really care about us.

Fergus is all those things, but he is kinda in charge. He is very confident - and gets all the attention if they are together. Somehow no one sees her if we have both of them with us. And he likes that just fine. But the truth is she is better at walking on a leash, and will come when called more often that Fergus will.

They say that rescue dogs have a sense of gratitude to them. I can see that in her. When we first got her she was instantly in love with her new home and was very afraid of losing her new family (or pack as she would see it). She wanted to stay here. She knows this is her permanent home. We adore her, and so does Fergus. A couple of nights ago we watched him gently pick up her favorite new toy bunny and tease her with it as an invitation to play. It has taken him a long time to get to that point. So far he has enjoyed bossing her around and showing us he is the leader of the pack. But now he is happy to play with her. They will eat out of the same dish at the same time (some dogs will never ever do that - as a point of power tripping). They'll curl up and sleep together. And when they played together at a leash free park recently, he was not happy when he saw a husky playing a little too rough with her. He put a stop to that very quickly.

I don't think that Fergus accepted her so much as Bonnie won him over. She is irresistible - even to him.

tags: dogs fergus bonnie baby treats birthday toys