Inside the actors studio

My husband and I are watching our friends' dogs while they are out this week. Our friends love Dachshund. They are very responsible and an example of how a dog owner should be. The care and love our friends give to their dogs is amazing. A way to see how much they love their dogs is looking at their colorful beds. Each dog has a bed carefully prepared for their enjoyment. There's a Christmas theme blanket full of a variety of stuffed toys. Some still as a whole, others not so lucky. I can image the countless adventures they have had playing with them. I thought their beds looked so cute so I sketched them. The first bed has a legless crab, a lighthouse, a clueless cow, a big lamb, an oversized bone, a pink bird, probably female, a shy porcupine, a Christmas Snoopy, a pumpkin and a snowman in a position that I swear is ready to sacrifice it's life at the mercy of the dogs' teeth.

The second bed is equally charming and carefully set for their comfort. In this one there's a snowman which is imagining it's on a launch chair at the beach, a upside down bear, a multicolored worm, a Thaksgiving Snoopy, a blue bird, probably sad, a very relaxed gingerman, an earless bugs bunny, and a buried Charlie Brown.

 

The dogs are very friendly and well trained. The dog sitter stays overnight but works during the day, so we go twice during the day to check them out. Both dogs are rescued: Roxy 11, who we've took care of on previous times and we know her well; and Slinky 3, he is the new member of the family. We've been 3 days with Slinky so far to get to know him. Both dogs enjoy visitors. As soon as we arrive we waste no time to let them out their cages for them to stretch, greet, run, bark, drink water, explore, pee, poo, play and let us rub their bellies. When is time for us to go, we called them to come into their cages. Roxy knows what to do, but Slinky...oh...Slinky. When I say cage, he switches to acting mode. Now he can't walk. His brain is divided in two. It commands contradictory orders and Slinky knows it. He looks at me begging for help. His back legs are paralyzed, they don't move and his rear end is on the floor, the front legs are baby stepping in slow motion towards the cage door, dragging painfully his whole body. Three feet of agony and suffering. I watch and wait patiently. I'm the audience. When Slinky's hands are inside the cage, the paralyzed legs are no more and he walks proudly few steps like a normal dog to finally get inside the comfortable cage. The act is useless now, is over. I close the cage and clap. Bravo, Bravo! I leave the house smiling, knowing that I'll watch the same performance worthy of an Oscar and enjoy it the next day.....twice.