Earning A Name

 It has come to my attention that I haven't told you how Toni Louise came to be a part of our family. This is Cujo, in case you were wondering.

In case you don't know, my mom has to be in the office a lot while the pool is up and running. I think she might get bored and starts to think too much. I have heard Dad say this. Sometimes she will find Dad sitting in his chair and will turn the TV down to tell him she has had an epiphany. He will get a look of pain on his face and us dogs will make ourselves scarce as she explains what ideas she has. I happen to think that all of her ideas are good. She has wonderful thoughts!

She found a website about dogs, dogs in shelters. She saw a dog that happened to be in the shelter in the town where we live. This dog was a young dog, even described as a puppy, the caption proclaimed her to be a Chiweenie. She was black and her face looked sweet. The puppy was in someone's arms, so it was hard to tell much about her. My mom even called about her. The adoption price was minimal, only $35.

She made Dad look at the picture of this dog. "We already have three dogs!" is what Dad said to her. Oscar tells me it was amazing that Mom said "You are right, we don't need another dog. She just looks sweet and we love the Chihuahua part of Wall-E and we love dachshunds and she would be both, but we really do not need another dog." And that was that.

Well, maybe not. Two days later the lady at the shelter called Mom and told her they had taken in quite a few animals over the weekend. She reminded Mom that this shelter was not a no-kill shelter and that the dog that Mom had inquired about had been there the longest. When Dad came inside to get some lunch, she relayed all of this to him. He told her that someone was sure to come along and get that puppy. Mom said he was probably right about that. Then she added that she had read that black dogs were the least adopted dogs. "We have two black dogs!" said Dad. "That is just wrong, I think you made that up." Mom told him she would look it up and show him.

Dad came in later to say he had to go into town to pick up something for the mower or the tractor. Oscar said that as soon as he left, she gathered all three of them and told them they were getting a new sister. Oscar said that Emmy thought this to be a fabulous idea since she was the only girl dog in the pack and that she had been missing Louise. Louise did love Emmy the most. She treated her like she was her puppy and would protect her if she got in trouble. Oscar said he was pretty sure that Mom was right, because she was always right about everything. Wall-E was scared. Wall-E was always timid and did not like changes. He was quite content to be in a pack of three.

When Dad came home, he didn't have any tractor or mower parts. He had this young dog with a smallish head and freaky long legs. Oh, it was the dog that Mom had seen. In the picture she could not see those legs! Mom picked her up and examined her, head to toe. "She has a hernia." she told Dad. "And she has no Chi nor Weenie in her, how did someone come up with that?" 

Oscar said that Mom named her Toni at first. Mom said that Toni had a kind face, like Sarge. Seems that she also had long fur with a skirt similar to that of a Collie. While her heritage remains a mystery, her personality earned her a middle name. Being a very young dog with freaky long legs made her somewhat clumsy and goofy, but it was her sense of adventure that made Mom add "Louise" to her name. In honor of the other escape artist before her. 

Oscar tells me that one time Louise, the St. Bernard, gained her freedom and went wandering around the neighborhood. When she decided to return home she neglected to look both ways when crossing the road and she hit an SUV. Yes, you read that right. The dog ran into the side of the vehicle. Louise was hurt, but she three legged it home and climbed up onto the deck and was nonchalantly laying there, wagging her tail when she was found.

She had to be loaded into the back of the car and taken to the vet. Seems she crushed her elbow and smacked her chest pretty hard, but she never whimpered a bit, denying to everyone that she had disobeyed once again. I suppose she forgot that the deck was outside the fenced in area she was supposed to be in.

Oscar says that when Louise came home again she had a big purple cast on her arm and the biggest cone ever made around her neck. Mom was happy that Louise's repaired arm prevented her from digging in the future. Little did she know how strong that wander lust was, as Louise commissioned Emmy and him to do her dirty work in exchange for taking them along on her adventures.

Toni Louise has that same wander lust and like Louise has ended up at the vet for emergency surgery. Only difference was that the vehicle hit her and tossed her into a ditch dislocating her hip! She earned her name!