Men, I Don't Like Them

Cujo here again. One thing I neglected to mention in my story yesterday was meeting Dad. I did not like him. He was a man, he wore a hat. He was nice to me and he held me, but I leaned far away from here and looked for my mom. I have lived here a longed time, most of my life and he has always been kind to me. He even gives me treats, but my heart belongs to that crazy lady, my mom.

I learned right away that Oscar was the boss of us dogs. He would nip you if you over stepped his boundaries. I bet if he was here today, he would be putting Mr. BoJangles in his place! For a long time, it was just us four dogs and Martha, the boy cat. Wall-E was the sensitive one. Wall-E was quite fond of our dad and Toni Louise is still partial to him. Oscar was like me, he preferred our mom.

I am not sure what my original name was. I was scared of everyone and every creature here at first. I only wanted to be in my mom's lap. She held me a lot. That first night, I was amazed to see that all the dogs got into the big bed with the people!! I had never slept in a bed before! I usually just found a place on the floor and was lucky if there was a blanket I could curl up on.

Oscar showed me how to wiggle under the covers and find a good spot. His spot was right next to my mom's leg. He slept there every night. Sometimes our dad would say he was cold and try to pull him over to his side. Oscar would snarl at him and snap his teeth together in warning. So, I chose to sleep next to Mom, right above Oscar. I still sleep there. Mom says I am in her arm pit. All I know is that I like to be touching her while I sleep.

Mom took me everywhere those first few days to introduce me to the people in the camp ground. I liked the ladies, but shied back from the men. I absolutely hated the children who wanted to grab me and hold me. Mom wouldn't let them, she told them I would bite them. How did she know this? She was right. Oscar told me to just trust her because she knows everything.

After much discussion, Mom finally came up with a name for me. She said that since I was afraid of everything, I should be named Cujo. I didn't care about a name. Wall-E informed me that this was a great example of irony. I didn't know what that was. Wall-E was a big fan of words. He wrote a book! That is another story for another day. He told me that there was once a very large dog named Cujo. The dog got sick with rabies and terrorized everyone around him and tried to kill his family.

Why would she name me after a mean dog? I asked Wall-E and he told me that was the ironic part, because I am just the opposite. Okay, so maybe she is a little crazy, I thought. I was most afraid of Martha, the boy cat. He is huge! He is not afraid of anything. He hunts a lot and will bring fresh meat to us dogs. My mom is not a fan of this fresh meat.

One time Martha brought a whole mouse to me! I was so excited. I picked my mouse up in my mouth and suddenly there was Mom. She yelled at me to spit it out RIGHT NOW. I ran from her, she chased me and told me to put the mouse down, but I did not! I was so busy trying to avoid capture that I didn't have time to chew and when she grabbed me from behind, I swallowed it whole.

That was a bad day and I do not recommend this method of eating a mouse. It made my throat hurt and it made my mom not want to kiss me. I like my smoochie time with my mom. It is a ritual we have first thing in the morning. I go outside and pee, then I run back inside and sit on her lap while she plants kisses all over my head and tells me how much she loves me. It is our special thing.

Oscar told me that Emmy was also a dachshund and that she died right before I came to live here. So now I knew how little Emmy had been lost. Oscar told me that he was still very sad and missing her. She was his wife. He told me that she was quite small, but had a very big personality. They had three puppies that other people adopted. This was when they lived in a big house in a big city. I wondered why my mom wouldn't keep the puppies and how she could let other people have them. Oscar told me there were many reasons.

In the place they lived, they were only allowed to have four dogs. So, I wondered about that, too. Oscar was one dog, Emmy was two dogs, why couldn't they keep two of her puppies? This is when I found out that there were even more dogs before me! My mom really loves dogs!