Three Years with Mr Hopper

It has been 3 years since my younger dog Hopper showed up mysteriously in my backyard as a tiny puppy. He came through a hole in the fence big enough for him but far too small for my larger dogs.

He has learned many things since he arrived and became my close companion and someone to go to the office with me. On cold days, early mornings and nighttime when I go to the store, he prefers to come along and stay in the car, rather than be left at home.

This last year we have been exploring other boarding options for when I have to go out of town. Hopper does not like the word 'kennel'. When I told him that I was taking 'Hopper and Pepper to the kennel tomorrow' right before our February flight, he became visibly upset. He suddenly looked straight at me, eyes very wide open, and began to shake under the hand that was on his left shoulder as he faced towards me. After a few seconds he 'attacked' me with licks and whines, like he was expressing 'NO !!!' and tried to get on my lap as we sat in my car before driving home.

One of the more fascinating things that I realized in this last year is his ability to lean the correct direction, when he is sitting up in the car seat, as we go around corners. I certainly never taught him to do that!

One of the things I noticed in this last year is that I was using pronouns when I talk to my dogs. I decided that I would use regular names instead. That was last August and I think I pretty much have converted myself to talking that way to both dogs.

I pulled a great practical joke on Hopper while driving down Georgia Street in Amarillo. A large Caterpillar brand truck was going in the opposite direction from us, and I told Hopper, "Look! A Cat!". He immediately changed from his coiled up position on the seat to a sitting position looking in all directions for a cat. That was almost a year ago. Several months later I did the same thing to my wife in the same city, only she didn't bother to wake up.

Almost a year ago I was filling out the census questionnaire, got finished and realized there were no questions about my dogs! What a waste of time.

When I took Hopper to the vet in February I learned that he has stopped getting larger, so I know that I am probably going to continue to have a 50 lb dog.

One of the things that I have taught Hopper this last year, no matter how excited he is to be walking out any front door, he always has to stop and sit for a few seconds as I check to make sure there aren't 'puppies' outside that are going to attack, or some crazy bicyclist traveling 20 mph down the sidewalk at the commercial building. Our neighborhood has had way too many stray dogs this last year. The neighbor's pit bull almost got me yesterday while I was mowing. I had to get veRy loud, and then even louder for him to back off. (I didn't even think to put the running lawn mower between us.) Cats and kittens are always 'cats', and dogs and puppies are always 'puppies'. The word 'doctor' doesn't occur in our conversations either, dogs and humans always go to the 'vet'. So every once in awhile I have to tell him, "No, you have to stay home while I take my wife to the vet."