Category: Conversations With Judy

The setup:

Judy and I were sitting at the table eating breakfast and Max was in his “I see prey” pointing pose, staring out the window..

We join the conversation with Judy stating “He sees something.”

“So he does.”

“He’s watching those birds with the long tails running around.”

“Quail.”

“Yeah, quail.”

“I love his pointing pose – he’s so tense and still – poised for the attack.”

“Pointing.”

“Yes, pointing. I think we should let him out.”

“You don’t like those cute little birdies?”

“Sure I do – they’re birds… And they’re cute – What’s not to like?”

“But you want them dead..”

“Not exactly.”

“But you want them to be chomped up in Max’s jaws, and eaten like that miserable mouse..”

“It’s what his breed does.”

“Well they shouldn’t. He is a domesticated dog and he should know better. And so should you.”

“I just think that we are going against nature by not letting him go out and kill something.”

15 seconds of silent stare, followed by an exasperated word that sounded an awful lot like “Gah!”

Yes, I believe that was it. “Gah.”

The setup:

Judy and I were eating dinner at the dining room table. Next to our table, we have two extra chairs situated against a couple of walls at about 45 degree angles to two of the table’s corners.

Panther likes to be “with us” while we eat, and sometimes actually jumps up on the table… This is, of course, not permissible and when she tries, one of us  has to either catch her mid flight or, in the event of a successful landing,  pick her up and set her on the floor.

When this happens, she immediately hops up on one of the extra chairs and “watches” us.. Tonight it was my turn…

Judy and I are going over to see Max tomorrow afternoon…

We join the conversation just after I have removed Panther from the table and deposited her onto the floor… Panther has placed herself on the extra chair closest to me…

Judy: “…So, I’ll let them know that we will be there after Church tomorrow – about 12:30 sound OK?”

Me: “Sure, 12:30 is good.”

And I address Panther: “Hey P-Cat, how’s it going? Guess what!! Judy is taking me to go see Max tomorrow and take him for a walk!”

Panther just closes her eyes and pretends to be asleep..

“She’s ignoring you.”

“Just wait a couple of weeks… she’ll be ignoring you.”

A little background here:

Judy’s sister, Kathy, whom I used to love until two weeks ago, sent Judy and me an email talking about a Rescue Brittany (which is, apparently a pointer – not a spaniel) named Max who lives in our little town in the middle of nowhere and needs to be adopted and do we know anybody who wants to adopt a dog?…

Unfortunately, included with the email was a web site.. And the website has pictures.. Of Max…

Equally unfortunate is the fact that Judy actually went into the web site and looked at the pictures… Of Max… He’s cute… And he has Brittany eyes that say – well, you know what dogs’ eyes say…

At any rate, Judy started talking about Max a lot.. The next thing I knew, there were two contractors knocking at the door to measure for and quote on a fence in part of the yard… Then she went to meet Max… She took Max for a walk.  (Apparently Max has no problem walking, even though he is nine years old.  In fact, Judy had a hard time keeping up with him.)

And then Judy filled out adoption papers…

And now the adoption people are going to come out to our house and inspect, but they are going to wait until the fence is in…

Max is a friendly dog, and loves people, other dogs and even cats…

And he actually points…

(As mentioned in Chapter 24 of my ongoing bio, We have a cat named Panther, and while I’m quite certain that Max will get along with her, I am not at all certain that Panther will get along with Max. She is not used to friendly dogs… I wonder if it would freak her out if Max ever pointed at her…)

End of background…

Beginning of conversation…

Judy was comfortably situated in her favorite place on the sofa in the family room with Panther sitting on her lap and we were discussing her trip.  At some point, I made a hissing sound, imitating Panther the Vicious.  Somehow, Panther was startled by this and jumped from Judy’s lap to the back of the sofa…

Judy was trying to calm her down…

“Don’t be scared Panther – I’ll protect – you can trust me…”

“You’re buying a dog.”

“Oh yeah…”