A Big (Juicy) Leg!

So, on our first walk of the day with Monty he sticks his head into a bunch of low-lying bushes. He does this often and occasionally I’ll go over to check it out, but unless he signals me (which he does with his tail), I don’t always go over. Today, his tail wagged like flag in a hurricane. “Okay,” I thought to myself, “I better check this out!”

Oh. My. Dog! You won’t believe what was in the bushes. A big, fat, juicy chicken leg!!!!! Not a piece of chicken like we sometimes find. Not a bare chicken bone, which we always find around our neighborhood. But a whole chicken leg with all the meat still on it!

SCORE!

I popped that chicken leg in my mouth faster than you can say KFC and I was just about to down it whole when Gretchen grabbed the scruff of my neck and said, “OUT!”

What was I to do? I don’t get to eat chicken because everyone thinks I’m allergic to it and so I miss it very, very much. Plus there was this huge old leg just sitting in the bushes waiting for me to devour it and here was Gretchen giving me a command to spit it out!

I didn’t.

I know, I know I was a bad dog, but golly gee, a whole chicken leg doesn’t walk into your life fully intact very often.

And that’s when Gretchen reached her hand into my mouth and pulled that big, fat, juicy leg out and threw it in the garbage can.

Monty and I just looked at each other.

Okay, okay. I probably should have offered to share it with Monty, he was on the scent originally and I probably shouldn’t have been so excited about finding it and scooping it up with such vigor Gretchen noticed. But it all happened so fast and I am a dog after all and sometimes my instincts take over. Still, I couldn’t believe she threw a perfectly good piece of chicken into the garbage. Can it really be that bad for me?

“You could have choked on it,” Gretchen said. “You can’t down a whole piece of chicken like that and not suffer consequences.”

Suffer consequences? Who’s thinking about consequences when there’s chicken in your mouth?

Whatever. I let it go — the chicken and the moment — and focused instead on the warm, sunny day opening before us. Of course, after the almost chicken in my belly incident, we went home where Monty was fed his lunch (it was chicken in a can, I might point out) and I was given a snack. Gretchen headed out to walk Oshi and Perrito with Gemma where they played a little bit of fetch at the park. I say “little bit” because Gemma will sort of fetch, Oshi has absolutely no interest in it, and Perrito chases the ball but rarely brings it back.

Instead, Oshi rolls in the grass, Perrito grunts at the ball, and Gemma stands around asking, “Is somebody going to move so I can chase them?”

After the boys went home, Gretchen loaded up Gemma into the car so she could meet Zoe. Oh what a meeting it was! Zoe wanted to play and oddly, Gemma was a bit hesitant though it didn’t take her long to warm up to the idea.

And then they went for a walk in the warm, spring sun and seemed mighty pleased with themselves.

After their outing, Gretchen picked up Saber and then came to get Monty and me so we could play some fetch at the little field. Unlike Gemma, Oshi, and Perrito WE know how to play fetch. And I got a very special treat — a new bigger than usual orange and blue ball from Monty’s mom. Oh how I wish I could marry her! She treats me so wonderfully. I love her!

And this big, juicy ball I’m not sharing with anyone!

But it was warm and sunny and we got kind of hot so we walked for a bit to cool down, get some water at our favorite water dishes around the neighborhood, and finally took Saber back home. Monty went home shortly after and I was left to rest while Gretchen went off to her next job at the swim spa for dogs. I got to go there on Saturday and while it was fun, it was much different than I expected. But it’s late, but I’ll write about that tomorrow.

Until then,

Rubin