Every night, before I went to bed, I collected Snoopy’s toys – some ten of them – and put them in a plastic bowl in the corner of the lounge room, to avoid my tripping over them in the dark. And every morning Snoopy saw it as his duty to remove them from the bowl and scatter them around the house. I only wish I could understand his motivation – a less unhygienic way of marking his territory than that practised by many dogs, perhaps?
Tired after a swim in late summer, I lay on a lounge listening to soothing music – [Slava Grigoryan’s guitar version of Bach’s cello suites, if you’re interested] – while Snoopy dozed on his day bed beside me. Suddenly I was jolted from my semi-comatose state by the sound of Snoopy growling. The object of his disquiet turned out to be a lizard, some 15cm long – possibly a young blue-tongue – hiding under a display cabinet, fortunately too low to the floor for Snoopy to get at it, and hissing at its challenger. I had to shut Snoopy out of the room before I could extract the intruder from its shelter and return it to the garden. Peace was restored, but my siesta was at an end.
After six months Snoopy’s canvas crate – or what was left of it – would no longer stand, and I felt that I had little alternative but to throw it out. Anticipating Snoopy’s disappointment, I decided to buy him some new toys, by way of compensation. K-Mart has a large stock of dog toys, each ranked from 1 to 5, the latter being the hardest, to indicate its degree of chewability. I chose a rubbery one marked 3 and a rope one marked 5. I put them in the bowl with all his other toys, but he wasted no time in selecting the new ones. Almost immediately pieces of green rubber appeared on the floor, suggesting that a toy marked 3 was no match for Snoopy’s teeth or vigour. Fortunately the one marked 5 proved much more of a challenge. That said, K-Mart took the wise precaution of stating, on each label, “No dog toy is indestructible” – the truth of which Snoopy has lost no opportunity to prove.
At about the same time Snoopy started to seek access to my bed at first light. I thought it would be easier to accede than to resist his demands. Much as I enjoyed his affectionate snuggling up to me, the alternating sensations of a cold wet nose on my neck and a hot wet tongue in my ear were not exactly conducive to a return to sleep.
Having taken advantage, for six months, of the kindness of Allan, Graham and Allyssa, and Sheryl in looking after Snoopy when I was away from home overnight, in March I decided the time had come for him to try kennel accommodation. Google led me to Meroo Kennels, owned by Mel and Nathan, because I approved of their unusual insistence on one or more day trials before accepting a dog for overnight boarding. At the end of Snoopy’s first trial there, Nathan told me that he hadn’t exhibited the hyperactivity of which I’d warned them. Nonetheless, he was too tired for his afternoon walk when I got him home. Emotional exhaustion, perhaps?
When I collected Snoopy at the end of his second day trial, Mel gave him five stars – apparently for cuddles with her and playing with other dogs. So, a week later, I left him there for his first overnight stay. Collecting him the next morning, I asked Nathan how he’d been. “He was a bit sooky, so he got lots of cuddles”. He clearly can’t have been much of a sook before I collected him that morning, for he slept for six hours after we got home. I can’t help wondering if he affected sookiness just to be cuddled.
Until he started showing signs of arthritis, at 12 years of age, I had walked Toby regularly on Seven Mile Beach. We’d always walked for an hour, to justify the 40 minute drive in each direction. I was eager to take Snoopy to the beach, but was concerned that he might take off when I let him off the lead – something I’d never done on our local walks but which seemed unavoidable if he was to enjoy the beach. To prepare him for such unaccustomed liberty, I walked him on a long extending lead and, when he ran ahead as far as he could, I offered a treat to entice him back when I called his name. It worked perfectly, so I decided he was ready for the beach.
