Sophia Sophia

I just read Hannah's blog about our household's newest doggy addition. I think the pooch is a temporary resident here; since she's so adorable, I thought I'd write a bit about her to share the wealth, so to speak. ...The official story is that she's only going to be here for three weeks, but what doglover do we know that keeps a dog for that length of time without falling in love with it?
Truth be told, the night we got her I seriously considered moving out. It was a hot night, we had lots of folks here and the addition of another dog meant four more legs trying to navigate around everyone else's legs. Folks were tripping over owners of the legs. Folks were making comments like, "It sure is crowded in here" "man there are a lot of dogs in this house." OK. Maybe those aren't direct quotes, but I did hear one comment to that effect. And it hurt my feelings, because it seemed that Angel and Rachel, who are real residents here, were taking hits for being doggies just because Sophia had arrived.

And then Angel bit Sophia. He's a small poodle so biting a bulldog's shoulder and hanging on was quite an achievement. Monica grabbed him by his collar and yanked him off after the dynamic duo knocked over her computer table and destroyed her power cord. Sophia responded to the attack by going after Rachel, the weak link. That upset some of us since Rachel's our favorite; she's the one that suffered the pitbull attack last year under similar circumstances. Julie and her friend were taking Angel and Rachel on a walk; things were fine til Angel growled at a neighborhood pitbull. He promptly attacked Rachel ripping open her back~~go figure.
Monica decided to do something about the newcomer's incredible odor and she took her upstairs to the front bathroom and gave her a nice bath. Ahhh... clean doggy, right? No, more like wet stinkier doggy. Monnie didn't know about Sophia's deep facial creases, which are probably the sources of most of her odeur in the first place. Not only didn't the bath help the smell much, it also stopped up the bathtub. In spite of it all, she's grown on us; I think part of her allure is due to her very affectionate nature. She loves to stay close to us... real close. When we stumble over her, step on her or inadvertantly punch her in the head with our elbows she shows no animosity. Quite a trooper. I should ask Hannah to photograph her. Her mouth is lopsided; she has a tremendous underbite, and her tongue sticks out of one side of her mouth when she's resting (which is almost always). I'd rest a lot too if I were built like she is. She's in doggy heaven outdoors wading in the monkey grass... reminds us of a little hippo. She tries to graze amongst it, but after copious efforts accompanied by a LOT of lipsmacking and snorting, she only nips off two or three long grasses before she moves along. The same underbite that makes her so photogenic is probably the culprit here. The trials of bulldogism. Bulldogness?

I highly recommend her breed for your next doggy/companion. She'll entertain you and be great company on your frequent trips to the vet (I've heard that their smooshed-in noses cause respiratory problems). And the money she'll cost you due to all of her other health problems will seem a small price to pay for the joy of owning her.

Well, I hear her little toenails clicking on the kitchen floor upstairs, so I'd better go see what she needs. It's an honor to serve her.