A Dog’s Breakfast

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It is morning. Ruby is lying low while I get my coffee going.  I can almost hear her thinking, “See? I’m being good.”

Emma takes her cue from the older dog and lies low too. They both know there’s a good chance they’ll get a treat before breakfast, just so I won’t feel so guilty about eating mine before going to feed them.

The tiny Melmac dishes have been part of our household since they belonged to our cats 40 years ago. They are the dogs’ snack dishes now.

I usually crumble half a slice of bread into each dish, add a bit of whatever tasty morsel might be around – a sprinkle of parmesan, a tiny dash of half and half, whatever is handy – and add some warm water. I walk over to the hallway with Emma and Ruby right behind me. Without being told, they each sit in their usual spots, Emma to the right, Ruby to the left. I place the dishes on the floor and as always, Emma looks up at me while Ruby stares at her dish. When I say, “Okay,” they lap up the goodies.

Afterwards, like the good girls they are, they bring me the dishes to put in the sink.

Here is Ruby with her brown dish.

And here is Emma with her cream dish. (Her pictures are often  blurry because she is always in motion.)

Then, partially satisfied, they lie at my feet until I’ve had my coffee and toast, knowing that afterwards we’ll go downstairs and they’ll have a real “dog’s breakfast.”

“Manners matter,” Ruby says.

Emma says, “I’m cute.”

“That’s not enough,” the old dog warns.

“And you should follow suit.

 

Just lie down flat, and roll your eyes

To watch what’s going on.

Pretty soon we’ll get our snack

And breakfast won’t be long.

 

Sit there patiently and wait.

Never whine or jump.

If you do, we’ll miss our snack

So sit down on your rump.

 

When the mistress says, ‘Okay!’

We can begin to eat.

You’d better not start in too soon,

She doesn’t like a cheat.

 

“Oh yeah, but Ruby,” Emma says,

“You always watch your food.

I watch, adoringly, her face,

And capture her good mood.”

 

53 thoughts on “A Dog’s Breakfast”

  12. What a wonderfu post, Anneli! I’m smiling all over. Thanks for sharing. You certainly have two well-behaved dogs. Ours never were that way. But we still loved them. Btw, we had a “Ruby” once, years and years agon, in Karnes County still. Unfortunately she was a roamer and, at the age of just thre, run over on the highway in front of our place there. The intersting fact: from that day on, her twin, Buster, who had always roamed with her all over the county, never ran out onto the highway again! He raomed the pastures behind our house, and he went up to the side of the road, but always stayed on the grassy verge and never ran across.

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      • I’ve had only two dogs, plus I fostered two dogs and found them forever homes. They were wonderful, too. Difficult to give up. Piezon used to pick up things and give them to me. Max can’t seem to grasp that concept. But, Max is smart in so many other ways. My heart soars for these four-legged lovables.

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  21. Thank you, D. I wish I could teach them to wash the dishes too. I bet they would love to play in the water with the dishes. I’d have to put little white aprons on them. Maybe the kind with frilly straps like the French maids have.

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