Twenty Pound Carrot

Carrot, The 20-Pound Dog

Toby, our 8-year-old greyhound, sleeps about 20 hours a day. I’m not exaggerating – in fact, it might be closer to 22 hours, which makes him awfully easy to have around. Plus, his nearly-constant slumber makes me look good in comparison – I need an embarrassing amount of sleep, but hey, I’m awake a lot more than the dog is!

Toby’s other charm is his goofiness, which makes us laugh every single day. Just for fun, he’ll spin around so fast that he staggers with dizziness. If you tap a jar on the counter to loosen the lid, he runs to the door to see who’s there. He loves to relax standing up with his long hound-nose snuggled into Mark’s armpit.

And he loves to dance with me, which is what we call the moves that dogs do when they play with other dogs. He prances…freezes…bows down… spins… bows and freezes again, whipping his head away to peer craftily out of the corner of his eye. Sometimes, he’ll start this routine alone in a room, hoping for a playmate to appear. Across the house, or even upstairs, I hear it: tap-tap-tap… pause… TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!  On occasion it even wakes me up, but it’s so cute that I can’t get annoyed.

Okay, now we introduce character number two: the grand-dog. This is how I think of Carrot, the funny $10 mutt our daughter adopted when she moved out. Carrot is helping me survive the baby-less years I must endure until my children (hopefully!) provide me with grandchildren. So, when Amy visits, she brings Carrot. Little Carrot adores Toby. He greets him with pure glee, doing all the moves Toby knows so well – the bowing, the prancing, the freezing. Toby is four times his size, so Carrot is careful to signal friendly intentions with submissive body language. It’s not subtle. He half-rolls over and bares his stomach to Toby.

And all of this brings out a side of Toby we’ve never seen. Oh, my gosh, our goof-ball dog is a grumpy old man! Again and again, he snubs Carrot by just standing still, then walking away, even giving a little growl to show he is really not interested. Amy and I feel bad for Carrot and his spurned overtures, and for Toby, who could be having fun. But what can you do? Carrot just brings out the worst in him, in the same way, I hate to admit, that some people bring out the grumpy old dog in me. Some people make me shine; others, not so much. True for you, too, maybe?

Now, I had thought I’d wrap up this column by telling a little about my inner grump that certain people bring out in me. But why tell you about a side of me that most people never see? Instead, I’ll end with this cute picture of Carrot – a dog who delights everyone but Toby – and a quote from Henry Ford: My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me. For me, that’s Mark, my partner in business and life. For Carrot, it’s everyone. And for Toby, it’s me. He’s asleep at my feet as I write this, getting a good start on his 22 hours today.