Gussie in a rare relaxed moment
Here is a little bit of gushing about my 2 fabulous dogs, The Empress and Gussie (Fink-Nottle of PG Wodehouse fame).
The Empress in a holiday mood
The Empress is 5 years old and a 25 pound lap dog. Her coat is very soft, mostly black with a white blaze on her chest and a white patch on her chin. Her ears are like her Mom’s, very Australian Shepherd, one up and one down. Don’t know where she gets her long fluffy up turning tail from, but it is very expressive. She looks like a little black fox. Her dad was the determined black lab mix from the hood. He must have been a smooth talker, cause Empress likes to talk to every dog and every person she meets. She works her charms with puppy-like abandon. She gets her pat or play about 95 percent of the time. What a good girl.
oh no, not another holiday
Gussie is my Wussie, Gusserino, Gloomy Gus, Big Guy, and my guard dog. He too is a black dog with bits of white. He is 4 years old and about 55 pounds. Despite his soulful, woe-is-me eyes, he’s not that friendly to strangers, dog or people, especially while he’s on lead. He’s a good guard dog, protecting me from strangers when I’m not paying attention to my surroundings, barking at those who stand too close to me. Thank you Gussie! He is also very protective or jealous of The Empress with other dogs. I often watch him run interference for her when a huge dog is rolling her in the dirt. Of course Empress thinks its’ great fun and runs right back under the pony posing as a dog.
Best Friends
When The Empress was puppy, she was very energetic, very needy of attention, play. She was known to wear out with play, chase game, three large dogs in the span of a mile walk. Our puppy needed a puppy. Gussie was only 7 weeks old when he joined our household. We have never regretted getting the second dog. They are twice the fun and a bottomless pit of love to give and get. They are often found spooning on their dog-bed or spooning with me on my bed. Actually, they are hogging the bed. They think I don’t know.
I don’t know how we knew, but we aptly named our dogs. Did they change their behavior due to how we treated them? Did the dogs telegraph their personalities to us and hence named them correctly? Nature versus nurture; a long discussion for another time perhaps. The Empress, cause she’s better than a princess. Mind you, she’s no lady, not the way she devours cat poop, sniffs every dog butt that walks near, licks drool from the largest fanged mouth I’ve ever seen. And these are just a few of her endearing antics.
Gussie is named for a very wet character by PG Wodehouse in his Jeeves and Wooster series. Wodehouse’s Gussie and mine are very much alike. They are bit of a woos, is fearful of life, hangs his head down in a woe-begone way, big brown eyes that pleads don’t hit me although I probably deserve it. Here are some examples of the dogs’ personalities.
Time to go to bed, dogs. Yes, Gussie, to your bed. He looks at me, big eyes sadly stare at me, eye brows lift, who me? No, you don’t mean me? The ears droop as low as they can possibly go. He slides off the bed, plods slowly out the bedroom door. He even sighs. The Empress, disturbed my Gussie’s histrionics, rolls onto her back and languidly waves her paw bye, bye for she gets to stay and sleep on our bed. I swear she has a smirk on her face.
We’re on a walk. Gussie starts howling before I even hear the siren. He’ll stop sniffing or pulling on the lead ( always has to be in the front of our pack) and then throw his head back and wooo-ooo, whooo. He thoroughly indulges himself in his primal howl response. The Empress on the other hand doesn’t stop her fox-like trotting. She stops and looks around her when the sirens (ambulance only) are next to us, then she’ll do a quick wooo-ooo, stop and look around like, who howled? “You did, little dog”, I tell her. Not me her foxy trot says, and don’t be mean calling me a dog . If she had a mane to toss over her shoulder, she did.
Crows are Gussie’s nemesis. He is forever on the alert. He sit’s up on the dog couch, ears on high alert, head straining against the window (nose prints on the glass attest to his vigilance) poised for that sudden need to lurch off the couch to give chase to those black feathered foes. Often times Gussie runs so fast toward the dog door, that he misses the turn, slams into the wall then bounces left through the door, growling the entire time.
The Empress often allows Gussie to do his guard duty alone in order to continue her beauty sleep. Once in awhile she’ll deign to follow Gussie outdoors, using her best Charlie Chaplin mincing steps and short grunts of, “I’m right behind you Gussie. Go get ‘em, Sir!”
Stay tuned for more adventures of The Empress and Gussie. Happy Tails to them.
spooning on the dogbed
