Angel

My dog talks with me, or I with him without even speaking. Meaning, if I start to think about taking him for a walk, no spoken words, and I haven’t even gotten up off from the recliner, he’ll jump up, start his living-room through dining-room laps and nonstop begging in his, “Yes, yes, yes,” way!

And, if he’s barking too much at the crows or deer outside, or a wooden chair leg is scraped in the kitchen that makes him think someone is at the door and he just won’t stop bark, bark, speaking until the visitor emerges. In these rattling cases, the kids, or me will say, “Slap his face,” in a clipped way and he’ll immediately stop.

Important to note, we don’t slap one another here and as far as I know, nobody has ever slapped Angel, but he speaks human and knows we’re all pretty upset at his ear-piercing yapping.

When we turn up the stereo and start to dance, he runs in, wiggling his docked tail and sings along! He especially likes Roxy Music and the Rolling Stones! And, if we play Amazing Grace or Scarborough Fair on the piano, he howls in empathetic pain—blue mood or sing the blues.

“You need to pee?” He’ll run for the door. And, if you want him to poop before going to work and he returns to the door without having gone, we command in trailer-court voice, “Go POOP, Ang” and he’ll go back down the steps, round the cherry tree and squat by the arborvitae. Funny, little guy, if nothing comes out he’ll turn just right, taking position and then jump up in a very dramatic way, faking what you want him to do!

Photo: Angel, aka A'ngel (in Spanish) about fifty percent of the time :)