Barb Bierman Batie
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Barb Bierman Batie
With the holidays almost here, I imagine many readers are in the throes of preparing for company sometime in the coming two weeks. While we usually focus on the human visitors, I'm here to remind you don't overlook any four-footed guests who might be joining the holiday celebrations with their humans.
If they have been to your house before, don't ignore the routines they like to observe. If they haven't visited, try and ascertain their likes and dislikes, otherwise you may be in for a holiday rockier than dealing with temperamental relatives.
Over Thanksgiving our daughter and her family visited the Big Island of Hawaii for their 10th anniversary trip. Since it's a bit daunting to take pets on those type of trips, we had the granddog with us for the holiday. Now, granted our company consisted of Daughter No. 2 and her husband and a cousin for Thanksgiving dinner. With only five at the dinner table, you could hardly call it a crowd.
But according to Joker, there were still too many people in the house that day. You see, he has developed a routine when he comes to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and it doesn't involve sharing certain spaces.
The first two days after his humans left for the island, he decided he was on vacation, too. He cozied up to sleep most of the day in a purple knitted blanket in his favorite spot on our leather loveseat. That blanket was a gift years ago from a dear Farm Bureau friend and has become his favorite when visiting.
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While Don remains the "Human of Last Resort," Joker enjoys snuggling into his special space on one side of the loveseat and having me scratch his ears and tummy while I sit on the other half of the loveseat while we watch TV in the evenings.
When Cicely and Dan arrived the night before Thanksgiving, he shot dagger looks at her when she pushed his blanket to the middle of the loveseat so she could sit in what Joker firmly claims as his corner.
Thanksgiving morning, he was further miffed when Dan sat on his spot while the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was going on. Finally, mid-parade he jumped off to go pout on his own blanket, which had been arranged in front of the armoire. He had not gone there the entire time he had been with us.
If you have ever watched episodes of the television sit-com "The Big Bang Theory," you are acquainted with the eccentric character of Sheldon Cooper. Sheldon has his "spot" on the couch in the apartment he shares with Leonard Hostetler. No one is supposed to sit in that spot, and if they do Sheldon has a fit.
That was the exasperation exhibited Thanksgiving Day by our granddog, who carries a genetic mix of pug, whippet, beagle and chihuahua. If looks could kill, we all would have been dead, or at the very least seriously maimed because we had had the audacity to try and infringe on Joker's space.
It was with great dog-relief that Joker watched Dan and Cicely pack up the day after Thanksgiving to go to McCook for lunch with Dan's grandparents. No sooner had they driven out the driveway, he was back in HIS space on HIS blanket and happily settled in for a nap.
So, if you have a particular furry guest coming this holiday season, be prepared. You just might find they have communicated with Joker, the Sheldon of Dogs.
Barb Bierman Batie grew up near Battle Creek, Nebraska, and now farms row crops with her Platte Valley Farmer, Don Batie, northeast of Lexington. She has written for local, state, regional and international publications. She joined the Midwest Messenger crew in 2010. She can be reached at [email protected].
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Barb Bierman Batie
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