Life According to “The Puppies”

I babysat one of my sisters’ houses over the past week, but the real reason I was there was to look out for “The Puppies.” Take one look in the picture above and you can see that these two are hardly puppies. That’s Indy on the left, a bright, beautiful girl, who could lead any pack. Her companion, on the right, is a big, lovable lug called Cabo. The big orange bulb in the front of the picture is a highly prized squeaky toy that basically drives their leisure world.

Oh, there are other toys, some much better looking and most about as interesting as this one, yet this is the desired prize of numerous tosses across the yard. Both of them scramble to get there before the other, but it is truly a sight to see Indy calculate in less than a second that one direction around the pool is quicker to get to the orange blob than the other. Cabo is either incapable of making the leap in logic or simply doesn't care to bother.

Even when Indy beats Cabo to the orange blob, which I began to call Bob for some reason, she usually gives up the beasty to Cabo, nearly instantly. Bob is exchanged from drooling mouth to drooling mouth and Cabo struts around the yard, just as if he was actually the one to make the capture. I found this an interesting dynamic and wondered if perhaps it proves that the male and female of both species (canine and human)didn’t share some common traits.

Indy also tolerated Cabo’s reluctance to give Bob back to me so that I could toss it again. Until, of course, his hesitancy got in the way of the game and I expressed frustration. All it took was a baleful look in her direction and a plaintive “Indy?” and she would yank Bob away from Cabo and promptly drop it back in the pool, where I was lying on a lounge an arm’s length away. As Bob bobbed in the water (oh, that’s why I called him Bob), I realized the very first time that Indy was the boss, but was good at keeping that fact from Cabo, obviously to preserve his manhood. Oops, manhood can’t be the right word, but you know what I mean.

So, perhaps, the male/female struggle we are all involved in on a daily basis, is truly a cosmic battle, reflected by the simple interactions between even the animal world around us.

I’ve decided to observe other creature couples to see if this theory can be supported. I’ll get back to you on that.