Don't Make Me Call My Flying Monkeys!: Scratch First, Itch Later

He resides in our midst, demanding our attention, our scratches behind the ears, our leftover beef bones, our tug o' war. He is called by the name, Mooadeeb, it is a killing word-d-d-d-d-d-d-d BANG!!. (If you have seen the movie Dune, you get it.) We just call him Moo. The humor has always been, that if you open up the back door and say "Moooooooooo" this dog comes running and isn't that just .......funny?

Anyhoo, Moo is one heck of a dog. He is a handsome guy and a bit mysterious. His mother was popular with the fellas and was obviously looking to create the canine equivalent of Josephine Baker's Rainbow Tribe. She was a black lab and had a litter of 6 with 4 labby looking pups some long hair some short, one brittney spaniel (what the?) and then there was Moo. He was the one that got all of the best little bits from all of his baby daddies. He is lean, although he has beefed up over the last year and a half, sweet, colorful, fun, jowly, houndy, and dedicated.

Lean - He has been taking Phenobarbytal for the sudden onset of epilepsy he had almost 2 years ago and has put on some weight because the meds make him ravenous. Even if we don't give him a little more food he will go out and mow the yard for us. I might mention that there is nothing more odoriferous then a big dog's grass fart. Just so you know.

STORY- When Moo first had seizures it was in the winter and they were initially sporadic. I had gotten Max to bed and wanted to watch the movie "I Am Legend" now that I was alone. So I settled down and was immediately sucked in by the film. It came to a part where Will Smith had been noosed around his ankle but managed to escape and was scooting on his butt back to his truck (his leg was badly wounded) as vicious hairless zombie dogs waited for the last streak of sunshine to disappear so that they could rip him to shreds. If you have seen this movie you certainly know the part I am talking about and can understand the high level of anxiety that I was experiencing when AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was my scream as, at the pinnacle of my built up suspense from the movie, Moo had a lips rolled back, foaming at the mouth, chomping his teeth seizure. To make a long story short, I had to watch the remainder of the movie a week later during the daylight hours. That movie still gives me the uber creeps!

Sweet - Moo loves, loves, loves to ......wait, I have to make a small correction.....Moo is obsessed, obsessed, obsessed with being pet, scratched, rubbed, or touched in any way, anywhere. When he gets annoying and won't let you drink a nice cool lemonade (he will nudge your arm and you will wear the lemonade instead) I will make him lay down in front of me and I will rest my feet next to him and occasionally scratch his belly with my toes. He will lay there till he has to pee or my toes cramp up.

Colorful - I love Moo's coloring. He is such a great color of red with the widows peak of black on his forehead to provide him with dignity and the white on his chest and paws for added contrast. My favorite part of Moo is his tongue and lips. Moo will speak to me with these quasi-howly growls every so often and I really only focus on his lips, they look so...almost human but more chimp like. I am fascinated by them. Then there is his tongue! He has a pretty standard pink dog tongue but there is one large black spot on it and this makes his tongue as attractive as any tongue can be.

Fun - He runs and plays and chases and tugs and balances treats and spazes out and provides endless hilarity to all. He also likes to be included in Max's fun. We got Moo when Max was 9 months old and Moo was 3 months old. They have grown up like brothers of different mothers * shudder * Sorry, I had to evict the thought of me giving birth to a dog! Blah, Blah, Blah. So Max and Moo have spent a lot of time competing for the same attention, Max always wins but Moo is not against perpetual effort. To this day, if Max and I are wrestling or doing Karate, Moo will want to participate. Gotta love the dogged determination!

Jowly - It is the general consensus that Moo is mostly Vesla hound. He ran with one at the dog park once and it was freaky how much they looked alike if you ignored all of Moo's varied colors. With that hound lineage comes some of those hound traits. He has a very good nose. Once I saw an opossum in our yard and filmed it to show Max, when it left I let Moo out and as soon as he got outside he smelled that opossum and proceeded to cover every move it made till it left under the fence. Moo also has lots of houndy jowls around his face, when he sleeps his jaw is just above the surface that he is laying on and his lips fall like those heavy velvet curtains in old theatres, revealing the shiny, moist interior of his hairy chimp lips.

Houndy - See "Jowly"

Dedicated - This is the one that I must consistently re-assess because he is dedicated to me until Tad our neighbor comes home on his motorcycle. We call him our Tad alarm and he goes nuts if he can't get out to worship all that is Tad. At the end of the day Moo sleeps at the foot of my bed and lets us put ridiculous looking attire on him, so I guess I can forgive his Tad digressions.