Having A Talk With Jasper

You know how a pet dog will get excited, and jump up and down, and wag its tail wildly when you come home?

Not Jasper.

Our dog, Jasper, gives a very casual greeting when you walk in the door.  I don’t know why, but that’s Jasper.  He may actually come to the door with some mild tail-wagging.  He does that, sometimes, sure.  But, on the other hand, when you walk in, he might look up from wherever he happens to be laying and just give a slight nod.

He’s a good dog.  Don’t get me wrong.  We love him.  And he’s slightly happy about allowing us to know him and feed him.  It’s just unusual that we don’t get the traditional, excited, dog-greeting from him.

Last night, when I came home, Jasper’s friend Jake was at our house visiting.  Jake gave me the traditional welcome home greeting.  There was vigorous tail-wagging.  There was happy slobbering on my face….oh, wait...that was Nadia.  But Jake did do an occasional 360 degree spin executed with pure joy.

In the meantime, Jasper, wandered over with a little bit of tail-wagging and a small wave of the paw in my direction.

Later in the evening, I was sitting on the couch reading and Jasper came and put his head on my leg.  I petted his head for a few moments and as he looked at me, I think I heard him say this:

“Look, I hope you’re not upset.  I’m just not into that crazy, wild-greeting thing that most dogs do.  It seems a little over-the-top and, well, it’s sort of unbecoming.  But that’s me.  I like you folks, I do.  You’re nice people.  And you’re really good about forgetting that you’ve left food unattended on the kitchen table.  This is a terrific thing we have here.  So, I just want you to know, this works for me.  It really works nicely for me.  How about you?”

I looked into Jasper’s dark eyes and scratched his chin and said, “It works nicely for me, too.”

When I raised my head, I saw Nadia standing in the doorway watching.  I’m fairly certain she didn’t hear Jasper’s part of the conversation.  She shook her head and walked away.

…..And I think I heard her muttering the phrase “maybe medication will help”.  But I’m not sure.

Here's Jasper wearing the

Dog-Snuggie that he received

for Christmas. If you chew a

Christmas present into tiny, ragged

pieces is that a sign that you really

liked it?