We all have that crazy uncle we’re afraid to invite to dinner for fear of who he’ll bring, what he’ll say, or what table he will dance upon. For my extended family, I fear that is me. Invitations to family outings have waned since the bath robe debacle. In my defense, I didn’t know Easter lunch would be so formal that I was expected to wear pants.
But in my house, that crazy uncle lives with us in the form of a hundred-pound yellow lab. Oh, he’s beautiful on the outside, but he is undoubtedly the dumbest blond you’ll ever meet. And as he’s gotten older, the cobwebs of his mind have gotten stringier and stringier.
In his golden years, Winston has lost faculties and gained phobias. He is terrified of thunder, heating vents, and hardwood floors. We didn’t know about his anxiety until we had our carpeting removed and replaced with, you guessed it, hardwood floors. You see, he loves to play in mud and had ruined our carpets beyond repair. Over the years, our carpets went from the nice camel color we purchased to an undesirable shade of Georgia red clay. The last time we called the carpet cleaner he took one look, packed up his hose and ran.
We love our hardwood floors, but they came at a cost: Winston’s remaining sanity.
In his daily barreling, he found that he lacks traction and slides on hardwood floors. Instead of slowing down to gain his footing, he refused to budge like an overtaxed mule. We actually had to string little carpet remnants around the room as a passage system for the poor boy.
It also appears that carpet was all that stood between him and the evil floor vents. So now, he can’t barrel through the house like he should be able to without those darn vents following him everywhere.
One such vent is positioned in the entrance to the kitchen, which is an important pathway to a dog. This is the magic portal from the den, where he sleeps all day, to the place where his water and food reside. The problem with this latest phobia is that he can’t get food and I refuse to make the dog bowl the centerpiece of our den. So we have a standoff.
Winston will stand at the entrance to the kitchen and whine, shaking his head because he wants food, but not at the cost of nearing a vent. He will rarely build up enough courage to challenge the evil vent empire. The system he developed is either the height of madness or genius we can’t understand. That dumb dog will move to the back door and shake his head until one of us lets him out. Then he will make a beeline to the kitchen door and wait to be let back in, thus bypassing the problem areas by travelling through the safety of the outdoors – even if there is thunder!
This has gone on so long that we’ve learned his signal for letting him around. My wife and girls indulge his eccentricity gently while I grumble and complain… but I still succumb to it eventually.
After I had played his game a few times the other night, a question dawned on me: who’s the real dumb one? Is it the dog with irrational fears or the people he has trained to bend at his will?
I would love to discuss this with Pavlov, but he’s long-dead. Besides, I’ve gotta go because the dumbest blond is waiting for the even dumber blond to let him out and back in.
A Generous Helping 
so sweet and funny, mark. i adopted a cat with ptsd, and we both have startle response, and are constantly jumping, running, and surprising each other. he will only come in and out of my front door, even if other doors are open to the same room, runs if other people come over, and will only eat if his food is covering the entire bottom of his bowl, among other things. i think my orange stripey guy could be friends with your blonde.
I needed this giggle to start my day! I’m praying for your family!
I’m glad Cynthia. And thanks.
I love Glenn Frey the Cat Not the Rockstar stories. Winston has a high tolerance for cats, so I’m sure they could be friends.
thanks, mark and i’m sure winston would totally understand glenn.
What do you do when you go out of town???
He stays outside and a friend dog sits and puts him in the basement at night. He couldn’t do a kennel. He would freak.
Guffaw! Myers Magic!
The things we do for our dogs! After Bailey (the best Lab in the world) left us, we rescued a senior fellow, Beau. Who had all of Winston’s quirks and then some. During a violent thunderstorm one night he knocked an entire gallon of paint onto the carpet. At 3am. I know I should have sealed it more carefully. My 20 something sons told me so repeatedly as I sopped up the paint, dragged out the carpet cleaner, and bathed Beau. A few carpet samples on the floor to create a pathway doesn’t sound so bad. I am ever so grateful our vents were not on the floor!
Wow. A paint bucket! What a mess… He gets itchy with thunderstorms too, but not that bad.
We have a Cairn Terrier who is convinced a rodent lives in the refrigerator’s ice/cold water machine. Drives her wacko so she, being the vicious terrier that she is, attacks the fridge. We now can no longer use the ice machine on a glass by glass basis. We are compelled to using ice trays and getting partially cold water from the faucet. Hence, we have a $2,500 fridge with an unusuable ice maker which we could have purchased for much less.
Don’t even get me started on thunder, and fire crackers! This month has been a real circus. 🤡 And I do so love watching her run and try to slide on the hardwood floors trying to stop before she hits a wall or something else equally stationery.
Haha – the ice machine.That’s hysterical… and very sad. Years ago, Winston thought a rodent lived in the black irrigation pipes in the yard so he dug every one up. That was fun.
So funny~
Your dumb blonde canine is a gol-darned genius!
Sad to say, I think you’re right. Off the charts.
HA HA- he got you around his little finger. Do you guys take turns who lets him out? I just hope he does not need to eat that often:-)
He does it over and over just to prove we are at his beck and call.
Aww Winston