Lovely Lady Lulu

Lulu and the cats
I've talked a lot about all the cats I've rescued recently, but now it's time to talk about my sweet Lulu. I've always considered myself a dog person, after all. My love for the new rescued cats running all around has not diminished the love for my dog, although she doesn't understand that.

I've been feeling bad for her lately, because she feels so neglected. I have not neglected her, but I do spend far less time cuddling with her than I used to. She's the only one who even gets to be cuddled. She's the only one who gets to lick my face. None of that matters to her though. The fact that the cats have invaded her yard, and get to spend any time at all with me makes her incredibly jealous.

The worst is when I hold one of the cats, even if it's just to put them outside. I try to hold them when she's not looking, but it's almost like she knows what I've been doing. She gets all huffy, and starts pouting. Then I have to take the time to snuggle up to her and win her back. I'm just glad Lulu is not violent toward the cats. She has been going to the beauty parlor since she was 8 weeks old, so she is used to being around cats and other dogs.

The smartest dog I've ever known
Lulu is probably the smartest dog I've ever known. I could see how amazing she was from the time she was very young, and could understand perspective. The most amazing thing is that I never had to train her much. She just knew things. Here are just a few of the amazing, human-like things little Lulu has done:

The ladies at the beauty parlor always give Lulu
what we like to call a "butt bow."

* She never needed to be potty trained. I just showed her how to go out the doggy door one time, and that was it. Granted, we had an older dog for her to emulate, but still. That's pretty impressive!

* She disciplined the other dog for me. The beautiful, wonderful older dog, Emily, had a few bad habits. One of them was to bark at the dog next door. Whenever I would say, "No," Lulu would run outside and grab Emily by the collar, and drag her back inside.

Similarly, when MissKitty is in the house and starts scratching the furniture, Lulu runs up and lets out a little growl, and tries to nose-poke her. It's based on the fact that I said "No" to MissKitty a few times when she scratched, but I never trained Lulu to discipline another animal.

* She's generous. When my older dog was not feeling well, Lulu came up to get her treat, then took it to Emily and dropped it in front of her! Then she came back to get her own. I had never seen a dog do that before!

* When she was stuck in the bedroom one night and couldn't wake anyone, she went to the bathroom in the shower. I never taught her to do this, and I've never had a dog that has done that before. She just seemed to know that is where things get washed away.

* When she was little and couldn't reach the windowsill to see my dad outside, but could hear him walking around, she stepped back and jumped on her hind legs to see him. It was very obvious that she could understand perspective.

I never ask them to, but the ladies
at the beauty parlor love to
decorate Lulu's pretty nails.

* She loves to create her own puzzle games. She loves to catch the ball, but when nobody wants to play, she will create her own game. She loves to push the ball into a difficult-to-reach place, then try to figure out how to get it back.

* She has human-like mannerisms. I usually call her front paws "hands," because she uses them almost like hands. Sometimes she'll wipe her chin in a way that makes me feel like I'm sitting next to a person. Sometimes she'll use her hands to squeak a toy. Other times, she'll reach into a container in which she dropped a toy, just so she could figure out how to pull it out.

* She loves to eat off a utensil. Sometimes I think she's trying to be human. She was always more likely to imitate me rather than the other dog. And so, she prefers eating high quality organic food off a fork rather than out of her bowl. And if I try to feed her regular dog food rather than organic Castor and Pollix? She turns up her nose at it and walks away. I mean that. She literally turns up her nose at food she doesn't like, and lets out a little huff as she turns away.

* She tries to speak. When she really wants to play, she'll start moving her mouth in a weird way and begin "talking." Then, she'll drop the ball in front of you and poke you with her nose. If you're busy or don't pay attention, she'll look you in the eye, then dramatically look down at her ball.  She'll keep talking the whole time.

* She loves to take care of me when I'm sick. If I don't feel well, she'll snuggle up next to me, and just stare into my eyes. Then she'll lick my cheek until one of two things happens: I stop her, or have a miraculous recovery.

* She loves to be held like a baby. I know when she wants me to hold her this way when she sits with her back to me on the couch, then pushes herself back until she's almost falling over on me. When she makes this motion, I reach over and pull her into my arms, so she's lying on her back on my lap, just like a baby. She's very large, mind you: 65 pounds! She'll then go completely limp, and toss her head all the way back so I can give her "baby kisses" (a really fast series of tiny kisses) all over her neck.