Walt came in last night holding Bissell in his arms. The puppy was cuddled up under his chin.
"You know," he started. "Bissell is very sweet, and he's cuddly and he's hardly any trouble at all...." he paused
"...but you miss Chunk," I easily finished his sentence because I was feeling the same way.
What's not to like about Bissell? He's the perfect puppy. He is quiet, affectionate, plays well with Lizzie. Other than tearing up a magazine (which I let him do), he hasn't gotten into any mischief. He is about half housebroken and his accidents in the house are minor and very easy to pick up (compared to Chunk's copious applesauce-textured piles!)
He cuddles in my lap when I sit in my recliner, just like Chunk used to and at night he curls up on my feet and sleeps all night, not waking until I wake up.
But I miss Chunk too.
What was there about that silly little girl? We both agree we have no desire to own the adult Chunk but, pain in the butt that she was, there was something special about that little puppy.
I was rubbing Bissell's head last night, as he buried his head in my armpit, the way Chunk used to and I thought about Kimba and wondered if the reason I can't warm up to Bissell is the same reason I never warmed up to Kimba.
It's something about the round softness of most babies of most species. I remember seeing a baby rhino in the Perth zoo and thinking how cute it was. Rhinos are not, by any stretch of the imagination, "cute" but something about this round little big-eyed baby who was just cute. She was so similar to her mother, who was not in the least cute, but the softened edge to the baby made her somehow...different.
There was that same round softness to Chunk.
See the difference? Chunk's eyes are round, her nose is round, her whole face is round, compared to the more elongated, pointed look of Bissell.
I guess it's the "roundness" that appeals to me.
It's not that I don't like Bissell. As I said, what's not to like? He's very endearing. It's just that there are some puppies who crawl into your heart and stay there. Bissell will stay his time here with and then move on and I won't feel any great loss.
But I do feel the loss of Chunk.
It's really funny how you just click with some dogs, just like you click with some people. It's like when Lizzie arrived here, with the name "Happy." I knew from the moment she bounded through the door and leaped up on me (which she hasn't stopped doing since) that we were going to keep this dog.
She must have known it, too, because within the first hour she ran away. She'd never been here before and I didn't have a prayer of her coming back. I drove all over the place, Walt rode his bike all over. We finally came back to the house to contact Ashley and let her know that we had lost the new dog.
That's about when Lizzie came running up the driveway. I guess she figured she knew a good thing when she saw it and, somehow, she found her way back.
Chunk won't find her way back. She is in a great home. And I don't want her back. But I miss that little thing around here. It's just not the same with Bissell.
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