Blog Your Blessings: Clyde

From September 10, 2011

Clyde is this week's blessing. Adella and I adopted him in July, 2010, after he had been passed over by three women and gone on the SPCA road show from here to Jersey and back again. Nobody wanted him. That was because he was waiting for Adella. This otherwise skittish, neurotic, insecure Dachshund mix who doesn't much like many--any--other people, is as gentle and pliable as can be with her.

After we had brought him home, I took him outside for a walk. When we got back, I had taken the leash off his collar at the door. Bad idea, that. He flipped his lid, growled at me, yapped, did a few laps around the house, and found his way to the back door, where he cowered in a corner until Adella came. That was the end of him and me for a while.

A little at a time, he has come to trust me. It's been a slow go, but Friday night he let me cuddle with him and stuck around long enough to fall asleep with me on the couch. This morning, he took a long walk with me while Adella was out. Of course, he awaited her return from the top of her bed. He let me take a break from the housework and take a nap there, too. I couldn't resist cuddling him up in Adella's baby blanket. He was so relaxed, he let me take a picture--after a few minutes of fumbling with Adella's phone until I found the camera feature. Times change. Slowly.

Clyde hsa taught me:

1. Neurotics take up a loto f everybody's time.

2. If you can love only one person at a time, do it, and do it right.

3. Cheese is yummy any time of day or night.

4. When you're a doxy, small is a state of other people's minds.

5. The right person comes along. 

From September 17, 2011