Doors and Lamps, No Problem

I thought I was smart while I was on earth---or was it smart-alecky?---but I never in my entire life tried to turn on a lamp or open a door. Levi is only inches away from accomplishing both of these things. Granted, the lever style door openers Mom and Dad have in their universal design house makes it easier for a clever dog (and disabled people) to figure out. But still, Levi's got to be a pretty smart little puppy at 23 weeks old to stretch himself up in an attempt to pull one of those levers down, thus opening the door if he could reach it. Once he puts a little hop into his efforts---which he'll figure out soon---Mom is going to have to make sure the doors are locked with the deadbolts all the time. Did Houdini have a dog? If so, I wonder if it was a schnauzer and Levi is a blood relative.

The lamp is easier to figure out than the door but still I never tried turning it on like Levi did today. He crawled to the top of Mom's chair in the living room and made a grab for the pull chains. I guess he wanted to learn to read the new book Mom got in the mail today---The Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook---and he needed some extra light.

Levi also managed to crawl on top of the twin beds today, too. I could never do it because they are extra high to accommodate dad's bed-to-wheelchair transfers. The first time my baby brother did it Mom didn't see how he got up there. Levi can't take a running, flying leap in the bedroom like he does to get on the couch in the living room, so she was puzzled. She turned around and there he was lying in the middle of the bed. So she put him on the floor and five seconds later he crawled up the side of the bed like Spiderman on the side of a downtown skyscraper.

Another accomplishment for Levi this week is learning how to nap with Dad. He's been in training for this event for weeks but today he actually stayed on Dad's lap for more than a few seconds. Mom was pleased. She clocked him out at six minutes before he jumped down and she said, "When he grows up enough to have a longer attention span he'll be a good little napping buddy."

That napping comment was bittersweet to my ears, though. I was Dad's napping buddy from the day he came home from the hospital until six months before I came up to the Rainbow Bridge when I just couldn't jump anymore. Levi can't get up there by himself, either, without Mom to help but he's young and will learn soon enough. In the meantime Mom puts Levi on Dad's lap every afternoon for bonding time. When she does that, I have to turn my head and look off towards the magical place where all the rainbows from earth arc up to touch. That helps me remember that angels aren't supposed to be jealous of our earthy replacements. I'm still an angel dog in training, you know, so I have a few things like that still to master. ©


P.S. In case anyone is wondering what the two headed pot is sitting by Mom's chair, it's called a Yellow Dog. It got its name from Teddy Roosevelt who saw these hanging on oil derricks in Texas. They filled them with crude and had two rag wicks coming out the spouts and lite them for light. Teddy said they looked like yellow dogs. A newspaper reporter over heard him say that and soon after a newspaper back east had a headline that read something like: The President Sees Yellow Dogs in Texas! The name stuck. Mom and Dad bought that because they didn't know what it was and it took them several years to find another one. That second one was in an oil and gas museum where they finally learned its purpose and history.

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