It’s been a month since my last Paloma story. Good grief, she’s growing faster than a weed.
Yesterday I was cooing at our sweet puppy as she could barely keep her eyes open after a good breakfast and energetic morning play. Then, her 14-week-old growing body said it was time to rest. You are getting sleeepy…
Laying her chin on the pillow we bought the night before, she watched as I made my morning coffee, trying as hard as possible to stay with me. But couldn’t. Going, going, gone.
Then, all this puppy cuteness took on a different perspective when later in the morning we took an hour’s drive to visit Louie’s Aunt Magdalena in San Clemente by the beach so that Paloma (finally completing her puppy vaccinations) could meet her senior “cousins,” Bleu, Bunny (Golden Retrievers), and Messi (a Pomeranian).
We worried about Paloma and her baby teeth grabbing ornaments off the Christmas tree and everything else in her path.
And something we definitely were not prepared for was witnessing the canine hierarchy being established in the raw.
It only took one time for Paloma to know that if an elder does not want to play, don’t push it.
We humans, including Louie’s cousins Gloria and Mario, looked on as Paloma bounced around Bunny (she has the redder coat) wanting to chum up and play, play, play. As far as Bunny was concerned, Paloma needed to know what lines not to cross. Bunny quickly snarled and showed some teeth as she hovered over the little one. Paloma quickly backed off and rolled over. I could practically hear Bunny respond, “Good, a fast learner you are.”
From that point on, as Paloma mingled amongst her cousins, she respected their space -- especially Bunny’s. Paloma practically stood at attention whenever she was in her presence!
But poor Messi. Paloma thought she was another puppy and wanted to play. Messi, with her physical limitations, was not going to have it. Paloma innocently tiptoed onto Messi’s bed to lay next to her. As Paloma victoriously snuggled next to Messi, Messi snarled mildly before getting up to find another resting spot: Paloma’s bed. Messi can respond much worse, Louie’s aunt said in surprise.
After almost two hours of non-stop “play,” going on a walk down the block with Bunny – and prancing back into the house beside Bunny like BFFs, Paloma, faster than we could ask, “Did you have fun?” had fallen asleep in the middle the floor.
In a time of such unfortunate divide in our country and around the world, this pack (Messi, Bleu, Bunny and Paloma) demonstrated in one afternoon the art of reaching resolution – an important lesson we humans should learn from our four-legged companions. With unconditional love, they just want to co-exist in harmony.
