B4 Afta

Sometimes human language confuses me. I hear so much of it all day long, you’d think I’d be fluent in it, but unfortunately, I’m not. But I am learning how powerful human words can be even if I don’t always understand them.

I’m not feeling particularly serious tonight, so I’ll save the meatier discussion of powerful words for another time. For now, I’ll focus on two words I have yet to wrap my canine head around.

B4

Since human spelling is as difficult as human language, this is the best I can do with the spelling of a word I hear every time someone (including me) goes to the groomer. I love our groomer, but I’ll be perfectly honest; I also hate her. She’s nice one minute then clipping my nails the next. She gives me treats and speaks to me in Spanish (my favorite language) and then runs a comb through my tail (something I particularly disdain!).

Every pre-grooming visit the B4 word gets thrown around a lot, so when I heard Gretchen use it this morning, I instantly thought about the groomer. Lucky for me, Gretchen wasn’t referring to me when she used the word B4; she was thinking of Oshi and Perrito. Poor guys.  They spent the day at the groomers and Gretchen snapped this picture of them with their mom as they made their way to the shop.

I got left at home with my buddy Monty. Whew. We dodged a bullet there, didn’t we? We had a great walk earlier that morning, so leaving us behind while Oshi and Perrito went to visit the groomer was just fine by us.  When Gretchen returned, she fed us and then headed out the door again. I was a little miffed, but when she returned with Gemma, I was a happy puppy once more. Only Gretchen came through the back gate and the back door was locked. Oh that made me very upset because I couldn’t say hello to Gretchen or play with Gemma!

I howled!

Gemma was pretty upset too and Monty stood by me and wondered why no one opened the door.

It was locked so there we stood, stuck and upset.

Luckily, Ann was in the front yard, heard our desperate pleas, and opened up the back door.

Let the games begin!

First game? Gemma wants my purple rubber ball. She tried everything from asking nicely, stealing it from underneath, and ignoring it. Let’s just say, she never got it, so she had to appease her playfulness by romping it up with Monty!

Normally, Monty finds Gemma a tad bit annoying. He’s like that with puppies. He was like that with me early on, but once I reached a certain age, we were playmates for life!  I guess Gemma reached the right age because, while I played with my purple rubber ball, Monty and Gemma had a field day!

I got a little jealous, it’s true, so I tried to entice Gemma with my purple rubber ball. It didn’t work. She was beat from her Monty games and laid against the stone wall to cool off.

I was kind of beat, too, so Gretchen left Monty and me at home, while she took Gemma back to her house. When Gretchen returned, Monty and I were loaded into the car to visit Teabiscuit! What a treat!  Okay, so she wasn’t too thrilled at first, being shy and all, but once we hit the road, she was happy to see us!  Can you see it in her face?

Okay, maybe not in this picture, but after we walked a ways, she was all excited for a rest in the shade. It was hot today and all of us, Gretchen included, needed a short breather. I used the opportunity for a good roll in the grass. Ahhhh….

And that’s when Teasbiscuit decided to rest next to the big guy. Now you can see she’s happy!

I was tired once we returned Teabiscuit back home and Monty was too, so when Gretchen took off on her bicycle with Ann, I was happy for the rest in the cool house.  When they got home, that’s when another word that shows up on spa days surfaced — AFTA. We all walked out on the porch and there were Oshi and Perrito in their mom’s arms all gussied up and sporting new doos. Gretchen got so excited and said, “I need to get an AFTA by the apple tree, too!”

What?

Yep, that’s Oshi and Perrito. Can’t tell the difference?

Here’s Oshi…

Clean shaven and looking good, isn’t he?

And then there’s Perrito…yep, with a mohawk!  Totally fits him.  Totally!

Is that what they mean by AFTA?  Your hair rises up out of the middle of your head?  Humans. It’s so hard to figure them out. No matter, the boys looked good, I had a fun-filled day, and now I get to go to sleep on my nice cushy bed. Life doesn’t get any better than this!

Until tomorrow,

Rubin