Give Us a Smile!
Wolfhounds do smile. Yes, all dog owners will tell you their dogs smile – but wolfhounds really do! Nobody is quite sure whether a hound’s ability to smile like a human is due to facial muscles or the nerves needed to operate these muscles, but whatever it is, it produces amazing results.
Just lately, our Guinny (whose sixth sense seems much more highly attuned than any dog I’ve ever owned) has needed major cheering up. Well, we all have really. Our small collie x has been diagnosed with an aggressive jaw cancer and it is inoperable. Our Vet has given her two weeks. Kelsie is fifteen and a half years old, with a strong and healthy heart, and were it not for this dreadful cancer, she would probably have another couple of good years left in her. Naturally, we are spoiling her rotten now – she can have whatever she wants. But Guinny has now become very sad. At first I thought it was due to all the attention we are giving Kelsie, but sometimes Guinny walks up to Kelsie and sniffs her – she’s never done that before.
I have gone to extremes to cheer Guinny up. I miss her smiles, and she hasn’t smiled since the day we bought Kelsie home from the vet (after exploratory surgery). Sometimes when Guinny is lying down, I’ll make silly “ticky ticky ticky” noises while tickling the pads of her feet – ordinarily, she senses that this is “supposed” to be funny… I think she thinks this is fun for me. Well, perhaps she’s right! But sometimes, she’ll lift her head and look at me and deliver a smile so warm it just melts my heart. Her ears will be pulled back ever so slightly, her eyes will be almost, but not quite, half closed – like she’s squinting, the corners of her mouth will be turned up (like ours do when we smile) and her lips will move upwards slightly, revealing pearly white teeth. Her eyes will have that special twinkle in them, and her tail will thump the carpet.
But lately, all the ‘ticky ticky ticky’ in the world has not produced the desired result.
Some times I have done ‘silly dances’ for her, singing silly songs and generally making a fool of myself. THIS she finds very amusing and if she could laugh, I daresay she would. Even Ahrran likes my silly dance and has taken to joining in. He looks like he’s doing Irish dancing with his front feet – a little quick tappy movement which makes everybody smile. Ahrran loves anything silly, and as this is a silly household, he smiles often.
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