Two Little Dogs . . .

. . . Two Great Talents

Sometimes barking dogs in the house can get to being annoying but there does come a time when we realize they are really talking to us.

This blog is to make mention of the BEST realization we have come across in the recent past, 'though a few things we already knew.

We visited a bed-ridden Norma today and chatted with her for a while until suddenly Tina, her pet Chihuahua, jumped from the bed, raced to the living room and began to bark.

"She does that when someone comes to visit me, just like you did this afternoon," said Norma. This time it was probably someone walking past the house.

She then proceeded to tell us that Tina alerts her when her son Ron comes home from work, when the Hospice nurse comes to check on her in her North Hobbs home , when someone from St . Helena's comes to her with Holy Communion or when she hears the mail carrier stop at the box in front of the house.

But the most astounding story was about the telephone. The lady cannot hear well at all on the telephone and therefore does not bother to pick up the receiver in her bedroom.

But Tina races into the living room where a recording machine picks up the call and listens intently. If the caller leaves a message (some don't) Tina raises her head toward the ceiling and loudly howls three times.

Norma then tells her son when he gets home to check the messages.

Her son did not really believe this was happening until one recent day when he tried an experiment at his mother's urging, phoning the house phone from his cell phone.

He now believes Tina alerts her owner with those howls, her BEST manner of communication .

Here at our house in central Hobbs there's Pinky, another female Chihuahua, who's lived here now about two and a half years. She's not as noisy as Tina but like Tina, doesn't take to company very much, although some visitors eventually will find her jumping into their laps.

While we have been accustomed to hearing Pinky bark at just about anything, particularly cats in the yard or close by in the neighborhood, it was only recently we realized she talks to us.

We live on a corner property and thus visitors may come to either the front or side door, both of which have doorbells. Pinky usually barked and raced around in circles in whatever room she was until one of us got up to go to the door, usually the wrong one.

Now, however, I have noticed she seems to distinguish WHICH doorbell has sounded and will go to that door, actually putting me on the right path.
Early most mornings she responds eagarly to my "let's go get the paper,"
racing through the house to the front door to wait for me to follow. Once outside I get the newspaper while Pinky does her BEST to complete her
bathroom routine.

"Let's go make some coffee" finds her racing from the front door to stand in front of the coffee maker in the kitchen before I reach it.

These are things that apparently have been going on for sometime without my realizing Pinky was talking to me, things that visiting today with Tina has brought to mind.

My mother had a longtime pet named Toby which I mentioned in an earlier blog. Yarntangler commented she rememberd Toby as a little girl.

No doubt Yarntangler soon will have her memories of Toby, and perhaps his talking to her, recounted in one of her blogs. She's had a number of pets in the past and currently shares her front seat in the motorhome with Clancy, who once in awhile blogs at you on Postcards From Clancy.

Our Pinky now has educated us as to some of her wants in a positive manner. "Let me in - I'll scratch at the door but if you don't hear, I'll give you three short barks."

"I need to go out so I'll jump up on the chair two or three times." When Pinky wants to eat, she roams around whatever room we are in as if looking for a goodie and then racing into the kitchen until one of us gets the message.

Does your dog talk to you?

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