Saturday, February 12, 2011

Snub the puppy

Tax season makes Dempsey mopey.

For the past few days, I've been hard at work on our income taxes, ignoring Dempsey. This makes him sad.


I can't blame him. After struggling all week with IRA conversions, HSA contributions, tax loss harvesting, and sundry other itemized deductions, I calculated that if we had had a flat tax, we would have paid just $130 more in taxes.

It feels like the tax code was designed by a cartoonist: an overengineered contraption that does a simple thing in a complicated way. We should put dogs in charge, I say.

Anyway, I thought that Dempsey needed some play time. So when I heard our friend John was babysitting a 9-week-old Lab puppy, I promptly invited ourselves over. I mean, who doesn't love a puppy?

It turns out, the answer is Dempsey.

After Demps and little Maggie politely sniffed each other's butts, Dempsey decided he didn't want to be friends. I don't know how dogs decide these things through a butt sniff, but Dempsey decided. He wasn't hostile or aggressive at all. He just snubbed Maggie completely.

And I mean completely. Poor little Maggie was jumping all over Dempsey as he played with Elsie, or ran after tennis balls. We even practiced some sit-stays, "lights," and "go get helps," which Dempsey did perfectly, even though Maggie was scampering all over him while he did it.

I'd never seen Dempsey snub anybody like that, let alone a cute little puppy. It was so dramatic, I started taking a video on my phone.

Of course, stupid me was so busy fiddling with my smartphone that it took me a while to figure out that little Maggie wasn't just pulling Dempsey's hair; she was pulling Dempsey's hair out.




Hence the abrupt ending. But apparently it bothered me way more than it bothered Dempsey; he never said a peep.

Dempsey is such a good sport. If he ever fails out of service dog school, I think there's a career for him as a therapy dog.

1 comment:

  1. Oh what a funny video!! Hope Dempsey didn't lose TOO MUCH FURS :) Can imagine that little Maggie had some tooth full of furs!

    Sweet hugs,
    Sierra Rose

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