Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Kadi spies on me


It’s true, she does! Kadi’s a good, good girl, almost saintly, but she’s not perfect. She can’t pull that pale orange fur over my eyes anymore.

Now that I’m home all the time, Kadi keeps close track of my whereabouts. If I move from one room to another, I don’t travel alone. She almost always follows me and lies down nearby. Most of the time I find that endearing, but sometimes all the togetherness gets a little annoying.

If I shift from one hip to the other in the recliner, and the recliner squeaks the tiniest bit in response, Kadi’s head jerks up, and she’s on the case. What’s happening here? Are you going somewhere? What are we doing?

If I’m rushing to get something to drink during a TV commercial, she’s right there with me, pacing underfoot so I have to move carefully around her. Someday I'll need her, by golly, and she'll be right there, but it's unlikely I'll have an emergency during the span of a commercial break.

We have made a little progress in addressing this problem, but only for one room in the house. I’ve learned that if I say out loud, “I’m going to the bathroom, I’ll be right back,” she’ll usually stay put. Just not for long.

Because I’ve lived alone for years, I’m in the habit of leaving the bathroom door ajar, so when Kadi spies on me, I see her do it. Even when the door is closed, I know she’s there; I see the shadow of her nose under the door and hear her sniff-sniff-sniffing.

I use the word “spies” instead of “peeks” because she’s sly about it. She doesn’t come into the hallway (an excellent vantage point) and look around to see where I am. Instead, she strides purposefully toward the bedroom (where I almost never am during the day). Just before she gets there, she whips her head to the left and looks pointedly into the bathroom (where I am often during the day). And here’s the deceitful part: She keeps on going into the empty bedroom! She waits there for just a few seconds -- evidently all the time she thinks it will take for her old, naive human to believe she had business in the bedroom -- then comes out grinning and lies down in the hall outside the bathroom door.

I’m on to her now: She's not just "Kadi Marie, Kadi Marie, prettiest girl I ever did see," as I sing to her (to the tune of the Kit-Kat jingle). She's Kadi, a.k.a. Sister Mary Katherine, K-9 Private Eye.

8 comments:

  1. LOL, this is funny and soooo true. My dog does much of the same. What I also get a kick out of is that when you look at them real quick, they will look away...almost like they are thinking if they aren't looking at you, you can't see them. LOL. She never lets me go in the bathroom without following me...its like she believes I have a hidden door in there and I'm going to be leaving to go somewhere without her knowledge. Wouldn't you just LOVE to know what they REALLY think?

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  2. Mabel LOVES when I go to the bathroom...she long ago discovered I'm a captive audience there and she can easily talk me into scritches even though I'm otherwise occupied!

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  3. I do love the way you write...It is hard for me to put 2 words together...Often I re read what I have written and I know it is not correct and often I could even fix it but is so much trouble I just leave it...

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  4. I loved this post. It reminds me so much of my Lucky, who does the exact same thing! And the skulking around and sly thinking...so wonderfully intelligent and uh...loving. I wonder where he thinks I'm going to go, since he already goes everywhere with me.

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  5. Val, I'd LOVE to know what they're really thinking, but I'm kind of glad they can't say it.

    Holly, Butch and Kadi associate the bathroom with doggy baths (although it's been a long time since I bathed them in there), so they aren't too eager to follow me in.

    Sister-Three, I hope she loves me, but I believe she thinks she owns me.

    4th Sister, thank you so much, but you write just fine. You always get your ideas across, and that's what I'm looking for when I check your blog every day.

    Marion, it's funny to read the comments here and see that all of our dogs are behaving similarly. I'm sure they didn't plan on their humans comparing notes.

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  6. I missed this when I was reading the other recent posts! this gave me a smile. Spot used to follow me everywhere, but now that he's older, he finds the best vantage point where he can see our comings and goings. It's gotten so we forget what it's like to walk from one room to another without having to step over his prone body sprawled on the floor. He seems to be able to expand himself so that he'll take up the most room possible, that way he can nap knowing that if one of us moves, he'll immediately know without having to get up.

    Spot looks away too when he thinks he's being clever and I suddenly look at him. "what, me? I wasn't looking at anything!"

    Thanks for the smile!

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  7. Janet, that's funny! I often find myself stepping over Kadi in the same way, carefully placing one foot between her paws so I can step over her head with the other. If she ever decides to get up while I'm doing that, I'm a goner.

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