A Word From Cujo

 Cujo here. Mom is tired. She said her brain hurt, so here I am, happy to fill in for her. Things here are busy. We hardly have time with Mom anymore. And that red phone rings all the time. I think I heard Mom growl at it!

I was surprised when Mom growled at the phone, I did not know that she knew how to growl! She has faked a bark before, but never growled. She keeps telling people we are booked solid. I admit that I have no idea what that could mean, but she seems to get a little irritated when the person keeps asking for a site.

A new pet joined our family today. His name is Theodore and he is a turtle. He is quite tiny, this new member of our family. Mom let us all sniff him. It is common knowledge that if Mom is holding a new pet and she offers to let us sniff him, it means he is off limits to play with. I think Bo was looking forward to trying to eat Theodore. He smells a lot like the frogs we find in our yard.

If you find a frog in your yard I would advise you not to bite it. Suds will come out of your mouth and sometimes your nose and the taste is pretty terrible. I did try to warn Bo, but he never listens to my advice. Mom says he has a hard head. I don't know about that, but he is pretty stubborn.

The pool is being readied to paint and Dad found the little turtle living in the pool near a puddle. Mom made him a new home in a glass bowl with water and some rocks to climb on. He is not much bigger than Bo's little paw. 

Bo has tiny feet. I have normal feet and Eddie has giant feet. Mom said she was happy that Eddie didn't grow into his feet. I found that to be confusing. How do you grow into your feet? Tony Louise has regular feet, too. Martha, the boy cat, has cat feet and I am no expert on cats. In fact, Martha is the only cat I know. Martha is getting old now and Mom says he is slowing down. He seem to walk at the same rate as he ever did to me. 

When I asked Mom how she chose the name of the tiny turtle in the glass bowl, she said that she had to think about the name after she met the pet. She said that since Theodore was a turtle and turtle starts with "t", she had been thinking of names that starts with "t". She said she suddenly remembered Alvin and the Chipmunks from her childhood and decided on Theodore, one of the chipmunks that sang with Alvin.

Now I wish I hadn't asked. First of all, Mom used to be a child? That doesn't seem possible! Then, theses chipmunks that know how to sing seems unlikely, too. And if your name is supposed to start with the same letter as what you are, then why is my name Cujo?

Mom laughed at me and told me that she was once a baby! Just like I was once a puppy. Then she told me that these singing chipmunks were a cartoon and then she sang a song to me in chipmunk voice. I was not impressed at all. The sound was annoying. Then she explained to me that every pet she has is named for a reason. Toni Louise is named after Louise, the St. Bernard that was one of Mom's many dogs. Louise, the St Bernard was named Louise because when she came to live with Mom at the same time another dog, Louise's brother went to live with Gage. Gage is Mom's grandson and he had a cat named Burn and he named his dog Crash, so he wanted Mom to name her dog either Thelma or Louise.

This was the name of a movie about two women who crashed their car and burned. How can that make you want to name a dog after them? People do the strangest thing! She said she named me Cujo because I was afraid of the world. Cujo was also the name of a movie and the star of the movie was a rabid St. Bernard that tried to kill everyone. She says my name is meant to be ironic. I do know that word!! Wall-E (another dog named after a movie, but not a St. Bernard) told me what that word means. He was the smartest dog ever!

Now Mom has some research to do about the care and feeding of turtles. Next thing you know we will have birds flying around inside our house!!