Theo doesn’t seem to have a lot of faith in me.
I know I’ve said before that he doesn’t trust my driving, thinks I park a little too close to the flames on fire coverage, and generally makes himself scarce anytime I fire up heavy equipment or come out packing a gun, but lately I’ve noticed he has a genuine lack of faith in my abilities.
When I leave in the morning I always fill both dog dishes with enough food to last through the day and evening hours. However, when I return home at night it seems both bowls are still pretty full.
Once I’ve petted both dogs and asked how their day was I notice Theo will go over and eat most of the food in his bowl and ready it for the overnight refill.
I used to think that the dogs jumping around in the yard when I came home meant they were happy to see me, but now I’m beginning to think it is just Theo’s expression of excitement that I managed to find my way home, and will be able to once again fill his dish.
On the days when I dump the last of the dog food from the bag instead of scooping out a serving with the blue scoop, Theo won’t starting eating until he sees me toting the 50-pound bag out of the truck and onto the back porch.
I can’t really blame him. There’s been more than once when I forgot to buy dog food before leaving town, and if they ate all they had it was 6 p.m., the next day before they got fed again.
More than once I’ve backed out of the driveway with the dogs in the truck and the sending unit for the electric shock collar still turned on. Theo gets real nervous when I do that.
I guess it shouldn’t bother me that Theo is amazed when I succeed at the simplest tasks, but it does. Contrary to what my ex-wife used to say, I am trainable.
It’s been quite a while since I forgot to buy dog food, and even without peeing on every tree from the farm to town I do manage to find my way home eventually.
And even though it’s been a while since I forgot to turn off the sending unit, just to keep Theo guessing, as I back out of the driveway I can’t help but whisper that beep, beep, beep noise his collar makes just before it shocks him.
Terry Spradley is the editor of the St. John News. His e-mail address is
sjnewseditor@embarqmail.com
