Sookie, our Amuse Bouche Dog

SOOKIE, OUR AMUSE BOUCHE OF A DOG

When you sit down at a table in a fine restaurant, you are sometimes served an amuse bouche. It precedes the meal and stands on its own. It doesn't need to relate to the meal that will follow but it needs to be packed with layers of flavor that don't need more than one bite to impress. When you eat your dinner, often part of the meal impresses you less than the rest. It doesn't spoil your enjoyment of the meal because the stars on the plate make up for it. The amuse bouche stands alone relying on its single bite to be memorable.

How can I relate this to our dog? Don't worry. I don't intend to eat her. To explain this, I must describe Sookie.

Sookie came to us over ten years ago so small that, even in our pack of cavaliers, she was tiny. In physical size, the cavaliers still tower over her. She has never gotten to even half the size of the smallest cavalier but that small size is packed with so many layers.

Despite, or maybe because of it, everything about her is packed tightly and intensely into this small package. It all turns out to be grander in scale to make sure she is noticed. She certainly accomplishes that.

While she does bark, she usually uses other sounds that often remind us of human speech to explain what we are doing right or more often wrong. It can go on in what seems like a series of sentences. In truth, it can feel like a lecture.We may not understand the meaning of her words but the tone and intonation of her 'speech' makes the meaning extremely clear.

Her idea of begging is to tap us on the arm or leg until we relent. Ignoring her should eventually make it stop. It does not. The pain from her nails on our limbs eventually wears us down even when irritation of the constant tapping doesn't. We discover once again who is the most stubborn participant in this game. We lose.

The other dogs are also intimidated by her when she wants them to be. Rockwell who is more than four times her size won't jump on the loveseat if she is on it. After he is on the love seat, she can jump up and lie there with him. He just fears what will happen if he disturbs her when she is already resting there.

She snaps at Ben too if he bumps her in bed. Fortunately she doesn't have a big enough mouth or enough teeth left to have an effect. My defense for her, old ladies get cranky sometimes. I should know. I am one.

So far I have made her sound awful but that is truly not the case. Remember the multiple layers of the amuse bouche.

Sookie loyally follows me to wherever I go in the house. She is my constant companion when I am on the computer, when I am cleaning the house, when I am making the bed, when I am lying on the bed reading or taking a nap. Maybe I should more accurately say I am her constant companion. I'm sure that is how she would phrase it.

When she wants Ben's attention, she doesn't wait for Ben to notice her. She bounds joyfully from where she is and with one or two leaps she stands on his chest and gives him a kiss on the nose. She almost immediately bounds from his chest to whatever has her attention now leaving Ben laughing at the playful attack.

She loves it when she finds herself the sole dog on the bed in the morning and we play with her. It makes all of us smile.

Everything I have described, she does with determination and intensity and she has all those layers and all those flavors packed into such a small package.

Even at her most irritating, she is incredibly amusing. She has so many layers to her personality.

She is our amuse bouche and we love her dearly.