Oscar Made a Bluff

 I am beginning to understand why Wall-E liked to write! This is Cujo here again. I think I may have mentioned that Wall-E called our mom "Gramma". I learned more things everyday when I came to live here. Oscar helped me learn the rules, while Toni-Louise showed me how to break the rules. Wall-E was good at telling me stories about our family.

Wall-E came to live here because he couldn't stay with his very first family. He was given to a little boy named Gavin. Gavin was only four years old and he loved Wall-E very much. Wall-E loved Gavin as much as Gavin loved him. One day Gavin's mom called my mom to tell her that the puppy couldn't stay in the apartment she lived in anymore and that she (my mom) would have to come and get him (the puppy, not Gavin).

This was very confusing to me. Then he explained that Gavin's mom is my mom's daughter and Gavin's Gramma. Gavin's Gramma loves Gavin, so she went to Minnesota and brought Wall-E back to live with her and Gavin's Papa. That is how he came to know her as Gramma. Wall-E was so sad about leaving his boy, so Gramma helped him write some post cards to his boy. Gavin liked the post cards, his mom told Gavin's Gramma that he was sleeping with the post cards.

So, Wall-E started his very own blog! He wrote letters to his boy almost every day for four years! Every time Gavin came to see him or Gramma and Papa took him to see his boy it was like they were never apart. This made me wonder if I might like to have a boy until I realized that boys grow up to be men and I don't like men. Anyhow, Wall-E's blog turned into a book called "Letters To Gavin". 

One day, not long after I came to live here, my mom told me we were going to see a vet. Oh no, this was not good! I do not like vets! She told me not to worry, our vet is a lady and that I would like her. A lady vet? Okay, I can go along with that. It seems that I had an umbilical hernia. So, that is what that swimming lady was talking about when she said I had something wrong with my belly!

The trip to the vet wasn't bad at all. I stayed most of the day, but I was sleeping and don't remember much about it. My hernia was gone when I woke up and so were my testicles! No one consulted me about this! I healed just fine under my mom's care and I don't really miss anything that was taken away that day.

I suppose Oscar felt sorry for me while I recuperated from my ordeal and he stayed in with me and told me stories about how he came to live with my mom. He didn't start out being her dog, but he was still a small puppy when he came to live with her.

By this time I had met Gavin and his mom, Adrienne. I liked them both and Gavin was extra gentle and patient with me. He is okay, I like him. Now I found out that Adrienne is not my mom's only daughter. Jill gave Oscar his first home and his name. She didn't keep him very long, though. She already had a big dog named Crash. He was a St. Bernard and belonged to Gage, her son. So she was used to big dogs that obeyed her.

Maybe she should have done some research before getting a dachshund! Jill complained every day about Oscar and kept asking her mom to take the dog. Mom already had two dogs! One was the sister of Jill's big dog and her name was Louise. The other dog was a Collie named Sargent Pepper (Sarge).  Mom wouldn't even hold Oscar. She called him an ankle biter and said that she preferred "real dogs" like her big ones.

One day Jill said she was taking the tiny dog to the pound!! "Fine, bring the dog to me!" said the crazy dog lady. She took the tiny dog to her house where her big dogs were in residence. She placed the tiny dog on the floor along with his toys. She told the big dogs to be nice and they stood, silently watching the tiny dog, as he picked up a toy bigger than himself and carried it to big dog dish they shared and placed his toy atop the food. Sarge and Louise walked slowly over to meet this new tiny dog and just guess what he did? He barked and snarled at them!!

This how he became the alpha male and ruled the pack. Oscar confessed to me that he didn't know if this tactic was going to work and that he was intimidated by their size. He was bluffing!!