Sunday, August 21, 2011

Unrequited love

I saw a movie many years ago and I remember nothing else about it, including the title, plot, or major characters, but there is a scene where one character says "I love you" for the first time to the person he/she (the details are extremely fuzzy)loves, and the other party says, with visible squirming, "And I am FOND of you." I've decided this sums up my relationship with Sasha the dog. She loves, I am fond. But it is an improvement over the ambivalence and/or thinly veiled resentment I used to feel
.

We listened to Travels With Charley on the husband's ipod on the way home from Dallas and it reminded me of why it's one of my favorite books, and it also made me think about how well Steinbeck brings Charley to life. Charley is much more interesting than Sasha. I think standard poodles are somewhere near the top on Dog IQ charts. I don't know where Chihuahuas are, but I'm guessing it's pretty low. Sasha isn't stupid, she just doesn't have many character traits except blind adoration, which is generally focused on me. Her favorite time of day is when she sees me getting everyone getting ready for bed. She goes and sits in the chair in Helena's room and waits for Helena's story time. Only once Helena and I are in the chair, there is no longer room for Sasha, a fact which she is steadfast in ignoring. She tries to curl up on top behind our heads, which is precarious because Helena will rock the chair rather forcefully if the story is exciting enough. Usually Sasha ends up on the ottoman in front of us, and she sits and stares at me with a bereft expression and sometimes her eyes close as if she is escaping to a dream world where she is curled up in my lap 24 hours a day.


1 comment:

Margie said...

Thinking it might be a modern-day Travels With Charley, I picked up Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent. I couldn't keep going after the first two chapters. Steinbeck is impossible to match.

Have you read anything by Bryson?