calliecritturs
Posted : 10/12/2006 9:01:19 PM
This is a Callie story -- I can't resist -- I've seen this thread for a couple of days and haven't had time to post. But I just GOTTA.
Ok - I have to tell a story on my husband. To set the story up, we do a lot of pet therapy. I like to decorate t-shirts for the dogs for the various holidays -- it's a great conversation starter and looks festive. But more than that -- this is Florida and these Southern dogs think 40 is FREEZIN when you have to go sit for a couple of hours and greet people down at Give Kids the World.
We had, at the time, among others, a boxer pit mix. Ms. Socks was NOT what you'd call a wussie looking dog, ok?? Your basic "don't mess with me" face -- BUT she had come to us (as an old dog) with major heartworm, which we treated the 'long' way but the parasites had badly damaged her heart and lungs. She did FINE with a little help from meds, but I learned early on that keeping her chest warm reduced the coughing a LOT. She also wore bitches britches with continence pads in them because she took Lasix so she was quite "drippy" (like most senior citizen humans who take it).
So she wore a t-shirt all year round and 'jeans'. With this "don't mess with me" face tho -- one day a guy at GKTW said to me (he was the father of one of the Wish Children) "You know -- normally if I saw a dog with a face like that I'd cross the street -- but it's darned hard to be scared of a dog wearing a t-shirt, you know???"
That one comment made my husband stop with the complaints about the t-shirts I'd make for the dogs because he realized it made them more approachable.
HOWEVER ... we decided to get Ms. Socks and Foxy the Mostlie Sheltie (she was 16 1/2 and Fox was 17 1/2 at the time) their CGC's -- which meant we really needed to sharpen their "skills" in obedience a bit. So, here we take these two old-timer dogs to obedience class in FEBRUARY in Florida. It was close to freezing which down here is above-and beyond the call of duty in most doggie minds. Particularly if you're gonna make them SIT in cold wet grass on a Saturday morning!! Moooooooooooooooooooom!!!!!!
I went the night before our first class, to find SOME sweatshirts -- I can cut off the sleeves and it's warmer than just a t-shirt. As luck would have it, I got blue for the boys, but the only one I could find in Socks' size was pink. Well shoot, she IS a girl, ok?? And it's not like anybuddy's gonna think she's a wuss with that face!!
Except.
*sigh*
My HUSBAND handled Ms. Socks and I always handled Foxy the Mostlie Sheltie. David LIKED it that way. We got to the place where the class was and I put her shirt on and my husband nearly had a heart attack there and then.
IT'S PINK!!!!!! (like it had a net tutu and a feather boa?? No ... it's a color!!)
BUT IT'S PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
omg ... the world is gonna end?? Prolly not!!
BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT .... IT"S PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(he's British -- and trust me -- for David to speak in 'capital letters is so freaking unusual you can't imagine).
Socks flatly told him she wasn't goin no where cold ... so like it or lump it buddy *I* don't mind the shirt and I'm wearin it!!!!
(no what she really 'told' him was she was goin with Foxy and if he wanted to keep up he'd better get a move on!! LOL)
He lived thru it .... Socks did really well. It's tough to laugh at a 16 1/2 year old boxer pit mix who is walking flawlessly on lead and 'sitting' on command better than ANY dog in the group ... including the 17 1/2 year old Mostlie Sheltie (who decided sitting in cold wet grass was just plain TOOOOO stupid for anybuddy and he'd stand politely thank you -- he'd 'sit' on the concrete but NOT in that darned wet grass and I wasn't about to make him!! Not at that age.)
The husband still cringes when he sees pink. It is JUST a color for crying out loud. But this one crosses all international barriers I guess. David tends to be a bit more "involved" now when I'm picking shirts for the pet therapy holiday shirts. "No more pink! EVER!" LOL