The Mast-Head: 7 Versus 70
There are simply too many animals in our house, and, to be honest, there were too many a month ago before we brought a new pug puppy home. But a surprising, if unlikely, relationship between two of them gives me hope.
By the numbers, Luna the pug did not really skew things all that much. We had promised Evvy, our 10-year-old middle child, that she would be next in line for a dog of her own when our ancient pug, Yum, died. So, when Yum Yom’s time was up, the ticker started toward Evvy’s big day.
Luna, all three or four pounds of her, came to us by way of a breeder in New Hampshire in August. Now that she has topped seven pounds, she is beginning to establish herself as the most dominant of our four-legged pets.
Weasel the Labrador mix with a mysterious black tongue (a shelter dog from down South somewhere) finds Luna annoying at best, and Luna gives Lulu, our other dog, the business when she wants something. But it is with Leo the pig, all 70 pounds of him, that she really shines.
To Luna, Leo is the ultimate pigskin or rawhide chew. A sucker for attention of any kind, all it takes for her to get him to submit is a few tugs on his tail. This is a signal that she is ready to gnaw, and Leo flops onto his side and lies back in anticipation.
As long as Luna does not teethe on the pig’s snout, all is good. The rest — and I mean the rest — of him is fair game: hooves, ears, knees, pork chops, whatever. There ought to be some kind of law against some of the indignities she subjects him to, if you know what I mean.
Leo, who can be annoying as hell when he is not being scratched or fed, is well subdued by the puppy’s attention. In the early morning, before Luna gets up or I have awakened enough to fill Leo’s bowl, he makes his impatience known in the kitchen by knocking the pot lids around on a low shelf or nosing an old sea chest in the entryway so its lid repeatedly falls with a loud crash.
If I don’t have a spray bottle handy to sprits him in the rump roast, he will keep this up until the food arrives or Luna gets up looking for a bite. Thank goodness for her. Now, if I can only teach her to make Leo’s breakfast.