In one ear and out the other, why's love gotta be so tough?

When you have a smart dog who is also a very good communicator, you need to listen to what he's telling you. I ought to know this by heart now and yet I still fail.

Squish doesn't do this. While he isn't precisely mistrustful, he doesn't come running to me the way Spike does, counting on me entirely to make his problems go away. (This is probably just as well or he'd be in my face 9383303 times a day crying about how the cat got too near his bone, Spike stood too near his food bowl or someone got a bigger piece of liver treat than he did. Squish's priorities are very Squishcentric.)

But Spike does. It wasn't luck that I spotted his cancer in time to do something about it. It was because he spent several days laying his head in my lap with a worried expression until I finally thought to look in his mouth. I don't know how much longer it might have taken me to find it if he hadn't.

So today he was doing the same thing, and I rubbed his ears and told him how cute he was, and didn't really listen because I was distracted and humans are way dumber than Border Collies. Turns out he was trying to tell me that he had the runs and wasn't going to be able to hold it in very much longer, and I really should have fucking listened; we'd have both had a much pleasanter day.

Oh well. It was way past high time that I threw out that old manky mattress that was on the floor anyway.

In one ear and out the other, why's love gotta be so tough?

When you have a smart dog who is also a very good communicator, you need to listen to what he's telling you. I ought to know this by heart now and yet I still fail.

Squish doesn't do this. While he isn't precisely mistrustful, he doesn't come running to me the way Spike does, counting on me entirely to make his problems go away. (This is probably just as well or he'd be in my face 9383303 times a day crying about how the cat got too near his bone, Spike stood too near his food bowl or someone got a bigger piece of liver treat than he did. Squish's priorities are very Squishcentric.)

But Spike does. It wasn't luck that I spotted his cancer in time to do something about it. It was because he spent several days laying his head in my lap with a worried expression until I finally thought to look in his mouth. I don't know how much longer it might have taken me to find it if he hadn't.

So today he was doing the same thing, and I rubbed his ears and told him how cute he was, and didn't really listen because I was distracted and humans are way dumber than Border Collies. Turns out he was trying to tell me that he had the runs and wasn't going to be able to hold it in very much longer, and I really should have fucking listened; we'd have both had a much pleasanter day.

Oh well. It was way past high time that I threw out that old manky mattress that was on the floor anyway.