The Patriotic Pup.... A Life with Mike Story

I think most of you have read my previous story of my dog Mike.

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-FX2YI189dKV2VPrfip4Whemqow--?cq=1&p=567

Mike passed on this January after a loving and most enjoyable life with me as his most loved one.

Mike was a Westhighland Terrier, and the most human like canine ever breathed a breath.. he and I have had many long days of no one else for company but each other. He always forgave my mistakes and ill treatment , with a hearty lick on the ear and a snuggle up as close to me without actually being on me as he could.. if I was in the room and he was sound asleep... snoring even, and went to the rest room, and shut the door.. when I opened up the door, he would be sitting there. At this point, he would act as though I had been gone for a month.. yeah, he loved me best.

This particular story involves my son and his girlfriend... the fourth of july, Kool Aid, Mike the dog, and sneaky underhanded deeds done in the dark!

From the time we had adopted Mike into the family, my son had wanted to color his hair for the holidays.. to which he was told " NO!!!"

in language which not even the most unlearned and dense human could not understand!

This worked until one day after he had moved out of the house into his own rented one and acquired a girlfriend who was just as crazy as he is.

Mikey after my husband passed away slept at the foot of my bed. He was very happy with this arrangement as was I... unless he decided to sleep on me. That was the source of many dreams, in which I was being paralyzed and couldn't move. When I would finally come out of the dream, he would be on my chest ,or snoozing comfortably on the sheets so that they couldn't be moved when I moved... either way.. it was how we passed our sleeping time of the day.

Jamie was in the process of moving his stuff from his room a piece at a time.. you know what I mean.. he would come home and get a pair of pants, a shirt, and some socks and underwear.. maybe a sheet and pillowcase would disappear from the linen closet... that kind of a move out.

So when he came in at 2 a.m. with Mandy(girlfriend) in tow.. woke me up, with loud talking and banging around of things... it did not surprise me at all. He stuck his head in my bedroom doorway and said," Go on back to sleep Ma, I just need some more jeans." I went back to sleep promtly and was really enjoying a nice dream, when the door opened back up a few hours later and he says... " Hey, Ma... just wanted to say love you." I groaned, rolled over and then felt Mikey snuggle up to my feet and all was right with my world.

Until the next morning when Mike and I got up and were in the kitchen making coffee.. Mike whined that he needed to go outside and I, for the first time that day picked him up .... his fur felt different.. I looked

and what I saw just about made me faint!

They had dognapped my pooch and colored his hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The above photo kind of gives you an idea of what he looked like and the one below is what they had put on the other side of his body! Needless to say, it was the Fourth of July the next day... and Jamie had fulfilled his fondest wish of making the dog a decoration!

I got on the phone and called Homer, my beloved boyfriend, and told him that Mikey had been dognapped, in the middle of the night and his canine rights to nonhuman colorized hair, violated!

After he stopped laughing at me.. he said he had to see this, and he would be right there.. I will have to say, Mikes fur had never been so soft or his whites so white.. I wondered if they had bleached him and then used Downy to cover up the smell ,but he did not seem ill or itchey or anything...

After Homer arrived and we had discussed the matter, we decided to say nothing.

Nothing at all.. heheheehee! So when Jamie called me an hour or so later, I said ... nothing... hehehee

Finally that afternoon he showed up with the mentally unstable "girlfriend" to find out what was up. I ran and put Mike in the bedroom when I heard the car pull up.

When they came in, I asked him if he had seen Mike the night before when he came for his clothes.. and if they had left the front screen open at any time during their visit.. hehehehe

He looked at she... She looked at he... and both of them in unison said," No we didn't see him at all, why is he missing?"

I sat there for a minute ... prolonging the agony, and said," He might have run away from home because he was ashamed of what you did to him."

Both breathed an audible sigh of relief, and I let Mike out of the bedroom.. hehehe he actually growled at crazy girlfriend! hahahaahaa

Dog has good sense of character is all I can say!

They explained they had used only doggie shampoo on him and that they had used koolaid to dye his hair.. and promised it would wash out in a couple of weeks according to the guy at Petco... umm hummm...

At Christmas time I was still washing the Fourth of July from his fur.. for some reason it had stopped his hair from growing as fast as it usually did.. it was just going to have to grow out and get cut as it grew..

Either that or cut it down to the skin and let him look like a large mouse for a few months.. I decided to go with the Patriotic Pup look instead...

In retrospect... it was not that bad I suppose...

After all ... the holiday was over in a couple of days.. the decorative paint work on the dog.. will last forever... in my memory.

lockerridge