My New Dog “Squaller”

by icywoods

She is of the richest honey color with eyes so golden brown they look like carmel drops. She charms with ticks clearly evident on her left ear and toenails raking the back of my legs. She smells no matter if it was yesterday at 7 p.m. when she shook her rainbow of bathwater into my face and jumped full force out of the tub. She earned her name before she was here because she was given back to the owner by his own daughter for her mighty nightly squalling for her momma and traded in for one of her 10 black coated siblings with a less vocal style. And squall she does. Not a barker, but a squaller. Big and bold, into everything, she doesn’t miss an opportunity for trouble and to aggravate. When the inevitable comes (bee stings, stuck under the house, nose caught by the screen door), you know it.  My Maisy will nip her big gangly leg after having been used for an hour as a squeak toy and you would think that poor lab pup had been dismembered. Huge and rambly she comes running for comfort, mouth open and eyeballs a bulging, my Jack Russell in her wake with a look of “I really didn’t do it, really, for real, it wasn’t me. Well, I didn’t draw blood. At least not much blood. Oh, what a whiner, would ya just look at her!” I wouldn’t take a pretty for her today. But a few days ago, I’d have paid you to take her. She and the Jack chased down a genuine Northern Neck polecat and escorted it to the doggy door for up front close spraying. My momma was doused in her sleep just by the mist and I thought the house had caught afire. Never this again, I pray. I went to the people that sell industrial strength deodorizers and finally got up the nerve to use it today, turn the fan on, and take off to Richmond. I went to church tonight and was blessed to find the house smelling clean as a whistle when I got home. Squaller and Maisy were waiting with jumps at the screen door for me to hurry up and get their warm beds back to them (they’ve been sleeping on some old clothes). I fixed them up and gave them some Cheerios for good measure and leftover eggs from dinner. After another bath tomorrow they’ll be good as new and maybe we can have cuddle time without Nana coming out like a woodcat.