Peri's counterpart

I must post a bit about Winnie. She is Peri's daughter, or so I was told, even though the two were polar opposites in all aspects. (See, above, my favorite shot of Peri, so you can see what I'm talking about. Perhaps these two pics of my girls will conirm that I am indeed the most gullible person alive. But it wasn't just their appearance that showed how different they were. Winnie is pepper to Peri's salt; Peri's "satellite dish" ears were always up vs. Winnie's floppy ears. Peri was built like a quasi-schnauzer, but Winnie's splindy legs (see photo below) clearly exemplify the poodle part of her.)

Their names were derived from my favorite color and the name for the *one* dog I intended to adopt, Periwinkle. When I saw them both together, I knew I couldn't split up the pair, so I split the name instead. I have never regretted that decision. They have enriched my life beyond measure. :-)

Since their arrival in my life on Groundhog Day 2001, one of Winnie's nicknames has been Nervous Nellie. She *hates* lightning and camera flashes (which I am certain she considers one and the same) and hyperventilates (OK, pants profusely) at the sight or sense of either. I think she has even associated the appearance of my camera with an imminent unsettling event, so she gets keyed up at the sight of it too. Even on that first day, as I as driving my new dogs from their former home in Baltimore toward my sister's apartment in Fairfax County, Virginia, for the weekend, poor Winnie hypenventilated the entire traffic-infused trip on the Beltway. I thought the poor little girl was going to have a heart attack.

And since that first day she has been known to be antisocial. She discovered a "den" just her size at the intersection of the sofa and the loveseat in a corner of my living room, and as long as she's lived with me she has squeezed her little butt into that void and camped out, giving alpha dog Peri the preferred seat on the sofa with me.

Since Peri's untimely departure in September 2005, Winnie has come out of her shell. She now plops herself on the sofa more often and even hangs out with me. Peri was my parrot, often propping herself on my shoulder as I reclined lenghtwise on the sofa. Winnie, on the other hand -- or should I say leg -- likes to stretch out lengthwise on my right thigh, however tentatively. At the slightest indication of my movement she will scamper to my feet and perch at the far end of the sofa. Her second-favorite spot with me is smack up against my left hip, well within ear-rubbing range. (Her favorite, and persistent, pastime with me and anyone else with digits who are not otherwise occupied. If she sees a hand she will seek out its affection, without hesistation or courtesy! She just "noses" her target's hand until it is resting on her noggin, an if the target doesn't understand the point of said maneuver, she will repeat it until the hand obliges!)

The clearest evidence of her blossoming is her will to overtake my spot on the sofa the moment I leave it. She is a bit of a pig about that preferred spot. I presume she now considers me the alpha, but not when it comes to sofa perching in the top"dog" spot. She must be shooed from it! What a character. The photo above is very rare -- she's seemingly posing for a shot without the slightest indication of nerves. :-) Usually she's OK for the first shot, then after that flash she turns away, sometimes her whole body not just her head, and peers over her shoulder anxiously, trying to anticipate the next awful flash.



Here she is showing off, rather sheepishly, her only fashion, courtesy of my sister last Christmas. I'm not generally a fan of canine clothing (or any pet clothing, for that matter, unless it clearly aids the animal's comfort), but I have to admit -- this raincoat has minimized Eau de Wet Dog several times this spring!

OK, so I am a slacker employee and must do work for The Man now. It's just so nice outside ... it's hard to work!

Thanks for rambling with me. :-)