I’m Addicted

During my early morning dog walks with Laz the Resurrection Dog, I cross paths with a neighbor who usually walks his feisty chihuahua the same route we do but in the opposite direction. The dogs like to exchange bark-greetings. Strangely, this morning, my neighbor – not a guy who, by his miserable “My wife made me do this” body language, enjoys exercise – was trudging alone.

Oh, no. I thought. Maybe his dog died. 

“Where’s Louie?” I asked, steeling myself for a hard answer.

My neighbor shook his head and looked baffled as he shrugged. “He didn’t want to get out of bed so I went without him.”

HaHaHa! I had a really good LOL first thing in the morning. Can’t beat it with a stick! Good for the colon, I’m told.

Reminds me of something I need to confess. Okay dear BFFs (Blessed Friends Forever), I’m ready to admit my shameful secret. After decades of carefully enforced moderation and self-control (except with chocolate and Cheetos), I’ve become totally addicted to the cute little animal videos posted on Facebook’s “Reels and Short Videos.” The little panel has popped up on my FB feed for months now, but I managed to ignore them until last week, when an adorable puppy video caught my eye. One click and I was hooked. Now my addiction has spread to barn animals, flying beasts, and the occasional rodent.

I used to fly through my pages of emails like a bat out of somewhere very hot, but now I find myself still eagerly clicking the next adorable video an hour after I lost the fight to resist clicking the first one. I never really understood addiction until now. I. Just. Can’t. STOP! I would’ve never thought it possible – me, the girl with the attention span of a gnat … ADDICTED.

Spouse says now he can always find me if he loses me – he just follows the sound of ooohing and ahhing and belly-laughter coming from behind my closed office door.

I’ve become mesmerized with the 1-minute (or so) clips posted frequently showing the incredible communication between a dog named Bunny and her master/trainer. The depth of their conversations are fascinating. I mean, those of us who are pet owners know that our furry friends communicate to us in different (usually simplistic) ways, but I’ve never imagined a dog could carry on a conversation about the weather or the bird perched on the tree branch outside. It’s true! Bunny’s owner has taught Bunny to tap various “buttons” labeled with symbols spread out on the floor that speak audibly the word Bunny has chosen. Then the owner responds by the same method or sometimes simply verbally. They converse back and forth all day like two people, with the owner posting many of the videos for Bunny’s gazillion followers.

For example, I was blown away by the video that started with Bunny (not sure of her breed – possibly a Labradoodle?) standing at a glass door looking out at a blowing rain storm. She moved over to her “keyboard” and tapped out something like “Big” “Water” “Cold.”

“Yes,” the owner replied verbally, “It’s nearly freezing today and the big water is supposed to continue all day.” (Not verbatim; this is to the best of my memory and you know how holey that is.)

Bunny looked steadily at her owner while she responded, then back out at the wet, blowing storm. “Stay.” “Inside.” Bunny tapped in reply. At this point I found myself shouting “NO WAY!” at my computer screen. Then I had to rewatch the clip 12 times.

Another of my favorite interactions between Bunny and her human was when Bunny came through the door into the house looking frisky and marched over to her keyboard to proudly tap out “Bunny” “Poop.” “Happy.”

Now c’mon – haven’t you ever wanted to share such happy news with someone after a good poop? (I hope my editor isn’t reading this.)

My eyes have been opened to a whole new world of possibility in human-animal communication. I think I’ll teach Laz morse code and ask him to describe his next potty victory to me.

So tell me … how does your furry friend communicate with you?