Here’s the first thing you need to know about Rudy, the little dog my mother has. A woman stopped by the house the other day handing out leaflets for a dog obedience school. Rudy’s pretty well behaved, but he often thinks he owns the house, so it wouldn’t hurt to show him a thing or two, right?
Rudy took the paper and chewed it up.
Here’s another thing you need to know about Rudy. My mom is afraid to leave him for any extended period of time, for fear little Rudy will get lonely and be deprived of something he needs.
That’s worth noting because, I swear, back when my brothers and sisters and I were in high school, Mom and Dad took vacations all the time. Extended vacations.
“You guys went to Rio de Janeiro for like a month one time,” I told Mom recently.
“Yeah, but we checked on you a lot,” she said.
“You sent a postcard.”
“You were okay.”
“Dad put $20 on the kitchen table just before you left. We had to rent out one of the bedrooms just to survive.”
Although I may exaggerate that (a little), my point is that now, 30 years later, Rudy gets ‘round-the-clock care and his own personal assistant, if he needs one. For someone who weighs only 23 pounds, he carries a lot of weight in getting my mother’s attention.
If he wants to eat, he eats. If he wants to go outside, he goes. The same is true for sleeping, playing, sitting in a particular chair and driving along in the car.
It’s as if he thinks he’s special.
If you have a dog, you know the reality of his thinking.
He’s right. He IS something special. All dogs are, in the way they’re happy and show unconditional love.
I’ve heard my mom say a number of times, understandably, “I don’t know what I would do without that dog.”
My dad passed away more than a year ago, and my mom lives alone in a safe community. Because of that, Rudy is much more than a dog. In fact, he doesn’t even think he’s a dog. He’s a companion, friend, sympathizer and, since he barks at anything within earshot, he’s my mom’s protector, too.
We are constantly asked how Mom has been doing. She and Dad had been together a long time. But her difficult transition has been made easier because of Rudy.
It’s like he’s become a regular part of the family. When we have a family get-together, maybe we’ll give him a seat at the head of the table, something he’s been demanding for quite a while.
But he won’t go with us if we take a family vacation this summer. We might go to Myrtle Beach or Disney World, though I doubt as far as Rio.
And if Rudy can’t go, Mom won’t, either. The thought of Rudy wondering where she was would take away from her fun. So she’ll wish all of us a good time. All she hopes is that we check on her now and then.
Sure, we can do that, I’ll say in jest.
I’ve already bought a stack of postcards.