It has come to my attention that Bela...um, er....hates...puppies.
This is not easy for me to admit. This is not what anyone wants. This is just the truth. Cold, hard facts.
Puppies. Love, squared. Jesus incarnate. The breath of life.
I have tried to place my finger on what it is about them that repels her. And it's a lot. The way they throw their paws around with little visible control is the first thing that ticks her off. And they go right for the face, you know? Paw her tail! That likely won't do a thing. But no -- they claw her eyes out upon introduction.
The way they lick her face, that is another turn-off for her. She licks MY face. No one licks her face.
The jumping about really throws her off, too. Jumping six feet in the air, to retrieve a ball -- that, she understands. Jumping in place on the sidewalk, for no apparent reason? She can't get down with that.
So it would appear that she doesn't really care so much for their general aura of....JOY.
Now, let's be clear: Bela isn't tearing out of the house, looking for dogs, aged one and under, to put the smack on. But there have been a couple instances lately that have left me embarrassed. We went into a shop where the owner had their tiny black female pug, poised on the counter. 'Can she meet your dog?', the shopkeeper asked. 'Why, of course!,' I replied. Bela was cool for about a whole 60 seconds. Then, a low, garbled growl, that told of deathwishes and threats, began to come from her. The tiny pug seemed taken aback. As it well should have been! We were in her home! And she had done nothing! The owner retrieved her dog and placed her back on the counter. She didn't seem angry with me, but I would have understood if she would have been. Thing is, I had not: a) realized how far Bela was taking this puppy hate thing and b) not known the pug was a puppy, for it was super laid-back.
The fact that I hadn't noticed this hatred until recently suggests it wasn't ever as strong as it is now. Could it be that she's much older (at least on the inside) than approximated? Is she just a cranky ass old woman in the body of a lithe, athletic canine?
I found a chart that attempted to explain dog years vs. human years. It stated that a dog's lifespan is but a fraction of the average
human's lifespan, meaning that dogs age more quickly in the same amount of
time. It also stated that aging in dogs 'slows down', meaning they age a ton in their first year, and then average out to about 4 years for every 1 human year afterward. It approximated a 6-month-old puppy's age comparable to that of a 5-year-old human, an 8-month-old puppy to a 9-year- old, and a 1-year-old puppy that of a 15-year-old teen.
At 4 dog years, Bela comes out at age 32, human years.
(Hey!, that's my age! - I mean, I'm older by 1 year, but we're basically twin sisters! )
You know what? No wonder she hates them. They're just....too. damn. young.
