Random Blog A Musing Farf

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

MY HERO - PART II

Tiki really is a great dog. He is friendly, smart and loyal. Apparently, he also fancies himself as my protector. According to The Total Shiba, “The Shiba’s protective instinct makes him a useful watchdog.” I always notice that on the street, he is standoffish to human men (although not so to women) and starts to nudge at me if I talk to someone for too long. He also barks whenever someone attempts to enter my home – be it the delivery guy or the Super. And, when I came home with Tiki the other day and the cleaning woman, who has known Tiki since he was just a baby was still at the apartment, Tiki would not stop glaring at her as if to say, “You do not live here. Why are you here without ringing the bell?”

Husband has noticed these traits as well, but I have noticed that they are much more pronounced when I am alone with Tiki. For example, when Husband is home, Tiki will hang out in the living room and barely pay attention to either of us as I move around the apartment. However, when Husband is not home, Tiki sticks to my side ands will even follow me into the bathroom. When Husband is home, Tiki sleeps on the living room couch and has to be carried to his bed in the bedroom. When Husband is not home, as soon as I go down the stairs to the bedroom, Tiki jumps up and follows me, no matter how soundly he appeared to be sleeping.

This was all illustrated last night during the Mouse Incident. After growling all night at the fireplace (see previous post), Tiki cornered the mouse in the kitchen. When Suzanne came over, he followed us all over the apartment, often running into rooms before we could enter. Suzanne left and as I got ready for bed, Tiki darted into the kitchen barked at the stove and ran back to me. Was the mouse trying to go through the ultimately ineffective barricade Suzanne and I had built?

When I went downstairs to bed, Tiki continued to dog at my heels (pun intended) until I crawled into bed. Then, he jumped on the bed and lay down facing the doorway. After a couple seconds, he jumped off the bed, ran up the stairs, barked and came back downstairs and onto the bed. Very weird. 1. Tiki never goes onto the bed unless he really needs up to wake up and take him out; and 2. Once the lights are out, Tiki never goes upstairs. All night, while I attempted to sleep and listened for the telltale scratching that would let me know the mouse had broken through the suitcases and bag barricade, Tiki remained awake and staring at the steps.

At 6am, I woke up and realized Husband had come home and was upstairs after having fallen asleep while waiting for the mouse to return. I called his name and he called back that he was upstairs. Upon hearing his voice, Tiki leapt from his gaurd post on my bed and crawled into his own bed, where he fell asleep with a sigh, as though he could finally rest and turn the job of protecting me back over to Husband.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's my little granddog!