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I'm at the table and I'm eating Christmas butter cookies and lime-flavoured tortilla chips and Simone is lying on the couch. I give her one of the chips. Yes, it's probably bad for her but it's probably bad for me too so that somehow balances things out.

Simone takes the chip and she walks to the other end of the couch with it just in case I change my mind and try to snatch it back from her. She's not exactly sure what it is so she nibbles on it while one eyeball stays focused on me.

"Momo, you're such a goof," I say and she wags her tail at that.

I watch her and slowly my mind drifts and I start to think about the emails I should be writing. I think about the supper I should start preparing (as opposed to eating chips and cookies). I think about the wheel I need to re-attach to my bicycle. I think about the deadlines at work tomorrow. I think about the revisions I need to do on the house plans. I think about the kitchen floor which I should mop. I think about the people I need to call.

I move over to the couch and sit down. Simone has finished her one tortilla chip so she steps over and puts a paw on my shoulder. I lean my head back and sink into the cushions and close my eyes.






8 Comments to “Seafoam Couch Potato”

  1. Beautiful dog . . . beautiful story

  2. Anonymous says:

    You've captured Simone, and the moment, most beautifully.

    Life is good when you can share a Sunday afternoon with a dog. Our new puppy (a stray we adopted just before Christmas) is in my lap, ever hopeful that I'll give her a Japanese rice cracker.

    Purple Magpie

  3. Lenni says:

    look at that face. Such a darling! I can just picture one eye on her person, one eye on the chip. Awesome.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Simone looks so sleepily content on the seafoam couch! Lovely, lucky dog.

  5. To me, Simone always looks anxious, like she does not trust the good things to last. I look forward to a picture with one of these essays that shows she's finally realised that you are not going to leave her alone forever, after all. Maybe even a picture that says, Hey, Food Guy! You're a goof!

  6. Jill says:

    A lovely story about a moment in both of your lives. Is Simone an old girl?

  7. Fred says:

    Hey Jill, Simone is around three but has white fuzz on her chin and gets mistaken for being an old geezer all the time.

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A request

The reason for this blog is to help get specific dogs adopted from TAS but equally important is to try to normalize the idea of shelter dogs being just as good and just as desirable as any other dogs including those which are regularly merchandised by backyard breeders, puppy millers and those few remaining pet store owners who still feel a need to sell live animals. The single greatest stigma shelter animals still face is the belief that shelter animals are substandard animals. Anyone who has had enough experience with shelter animals knows this is untrue but the general public hasn't had the same experiences you've had. They see a nice dog photo in a glossy magazine and too many of them would never think of associating that dog with a dog from a shelter. After all, no one abandons perfectly good dogs, right? Unfortunately, as we all know, perfectly good dogs are abandoned all the time.

The public still too often associates shelter dogs with images of beat up, sick, dirty, severely traumatized animals and while we definitely sometimes see victims such as these, they are certainly not the majority and, regardless, even the most abused animals can very often be saved and made whole again.

Pound Dogs sometimes discusses the sad histories some of the dogs have suffered. For the most part, though, it tries to present the dogs not as victims but as great potential family members. The goal is to raise the profiles of animals in adoption centers so that a potential pet owner sees them as the best choice, not just as the charity choice.

So, here's the favour I'm asking. Whenever you see a dog picture on these pages you think is decent enough, I'd like you to consider sharing it on Facebook or any other social media sites you're using (I know many of you do this already and thank you for that). And when you share it, please mention that the dog in the photo is a shelter dog like so many other shelter dogs waiting for a home. If we can get even five percent of the pet buying public to see shelter dogs differently, to see how beautiful they are and how wonderful they are, and to consider shelter dogs as their first choice for a new family member, we can end the suffering of homeless pets in this country.
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