DocAndersen
Many years ago, when we lived in Indiana, the kids were young, and Francine lived with us. Francine was the first Labrador that came to live with our family. She joined our family in the summer of 2001. By the time the holiday season rolled around, Fran had established herself as a family member. She, on her first Christmas, sat on the couch next to her girl. She inspected every single package the girl got, making sure there wasn’t an attempt to smuggle food past the Lab food warning system. At some point during that first Christmas, my daughter put a bow on Fran’s head. You would think the dog would have shaken the bow off, but she didn’t.
Well, she didn’t right away. She did later. It started a Christmas day tradition of putting bows on dogs. Dylan shakes him off in seconds. Raven, on the other hand, as seen in the picture, loves having a bow. She wears it for as long as possible. When it falls off, she stands and waits for a human to put the bow back on her head. Dogs are funny as to what makes them part of the pack. Gwen, our Shepard, hated having her color taken off. She would panic when her collar was off. Fran, just assumed she was part of the pack and was probably meant to be in charge of the pack if not, at least in the management end of the pack. Her primary focus to keep the girl in line.
Dylan has no desire to be in charge. He is a mellow dude that likes to be with people. The reality of the two now is funny. Raven needs attention. She loves to be pet. Dylan wants to be a pet when he wants to be a pet. The rest of the time, he just well stands there as you pet him and looks uncomfortable. Dogs have personalities, and they share them in many different ways. Tamsyn interacts with humans differently than Raven. But Tamsyn is also a talker. Like Gwen, our Shepard all those years ago, Tamsyn talks about what we are doing wrong. Which, if you were to ask the dogs of our house, are a lot of things overall. I will end with the last picture, Dylan, on the table at my mom’s house. His right ear flipped. We’ve called him flippy because he has done that ear flip for years!
