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Cat at 2 With Spirit suggested a Show and Tell theme for posts. Rather than show an object, here is a photo of my pups, Peanut and Pooter.

The story I have to tell will lose a little because, just as with the people that I write about, I have used pseudonyms for the pups. (Besides, didn’t we all learn something from Paris Hilton about publicizing a pet’s name that might also be used to get a network password? And who would ever have dreamed that we could learn anything from Paris Hilton? But I digress….)

Pooter appears to be mostly schnauzer and is about ten years old. I got her when she was about a year old from a rescue organization that brings pets to a local Petsmart on weekends. I saw her there three weekends in a row while I was trying to decide if I really wanted to accept the responsibility of adopting a dog. She followed me easily, but it took about 20 minutes to coax her out of the car when I brought her home. Ironically, one of the reasons I chose her is because she was the only dog that did not bark at everyone that walked by the front of the store. Within a week of bringing her home she showed how territorial she can be and now growls and barks at everyone that comes near the house. No one will ever sneak up on me while Pooter is around!

Peanut appears to be mostly chow and was a stray that I found two years after I got Pooter. I had gone to see As Good as it Gets at the dollar theater. On my way back to my car I saw a man at the edge of the parking lot. At his feet was a tiny, skinny, pup. She was all skin and bones and covered in fleas. She did this thing where she put her chin on the ground and looked up at you while she slowly inched forward, trailing her back legs behind her. The guy said he had just found her there. He couldn’t take her, but was reluctant to just walk away.

I took her home and bathed her. I took her to the vet the next day. She was about 12 pounds and they guessed she was about 12 weeks old. Other than being underweight and flea-infested, she appeared to be alright. I put signs up at all the businesses around the area where I found her on the chance that she was just lost, not abandoned. In less than a week, she and Pooter were playing together and I realized — I have two dogs now. No one ever called to claim her.

About a year after I adopted Peanut, a nurse at the vet’s office commented on how timid she is. I had never been around chows before and I never really did a lot of research when I first adopted her. I have since learned that they have a reputation as a breed for being very aggressive. They do have a very powerful, stocky build. Peanut is the most timid creature I have ever seen. She also barks when anyone approaches, but she backs away while she does. They also tend to be very much one-person dogs and that is certainly true of my Peanut.

Now, this is the part that won’t make as much sense without knowing their real names. When I adopted Pooter the family that had her first had named her Pongo. That was the name of the daddy dog in 101 Dalmations. Since she had no dalmation heritage that I can tell and is female, I felt okay with renaming her. The name I chose has one connotation that is computer-related. (I was working as a network administrator at the time.) When I adopted Peanut I had a difficult time choosing her name. Since chows are a Chinese breed I looked up Chinese names online. I almost chose Mei Mei, which means little sister. That would have been appropriate I think. But the name I ended up picking is the Chinese equivalent of Pooter’s real name. In a way, I have two dogs with the same computer-related name. And that is one of the geekiest revelations I will ever make about myself.

Oh, and the damnedest thing: the pups are glad to see me EVERY SINGLE DAY!