You know how it takes awhile being around others before you really, really get to know their true selves? Well, we're experiencing this right here at my house. Little tiny Mindelah (Mindy), all of two pounds, apparently has 3 personalities. The first two, Sybil and Eve, can be found in any psychiatry book, and then the precious, adorable Mindy who only enters that third personality when asleep. I have raised a number of dogs but never have I had to deal with a pup that whines wanting to be picked up and then growls fiercely and gnoshes on your fingers, hands, anything she can get her teeth into. She truly has her bluff in on all visitors, running to them and begging to be picked up while I secretly sneer at her fraudulent behavior. You would think she was a timid little thing in need of protection. Not so. Not so at all. While walking the other day Mindy demanded to be down. I didn't want to right then because there was a huge chocolate lab racing toward us. I could just picture the gore my little Mindy would become but then her growling and biting communicated to my nerve endings and I let her go. The lab's owners were screaming, I was screaming, as Mindy playfully approached that behemoth dog. And they began to frolic on the lawn, Mindy charming yet another group of people. Time to go and I pick her up to her growls and chomping on my thumb. I know those people think I mistreat this little heathen and I begin to explain and realize Mindy's precious puppy behavior would trump anything I would explain and make me look even more guilty. So I slink off, snarling puppy in hand, and plan to avoid that block for a very long time.
And then there's the time I was a bit frazzled with grandchildren's visit. Their mother walks in, sees the kids rowdy play and says "you have to play quiet, kids. Your grandmother has PTSD". Just another day at my house.
