A few weeks ago, Mary at
The Dogfathers blog tagged us to participate in "Five Things I Laugh At, But Shouldn't."
Now, this assignment presents something of a challenge. It's not that Buzz is perfect, no flaws to speak of...its that his flaws are serious. Buzz is 99% a good, steady boy, but that outside 1% bit of bad, anxious dog-ness is directed at people, has teeth, and I have never found it funny. It something to work on, think about, help him with, not something to laugh at or dismiss.
Then of course, there are all the laughs I get out of harmless things...the way Buzz loves his rainbow ball, the way he and Tessa lick each other's tongues, the way his butt wiggles when the neighbor's girls circle him and pet him and call him a pretty boy. I laugh at these and I
should!Well, I finally think I cracked it. A list of things I laugh at that I probably shouldn't.
1. Lauren and Buzz.
Buzz loves her. He kisses her. He jumps on her. He runs across the yard, leaps in the air, and licks her face as he sails by. He doesn't listen to her. He knocks into her. He invades her space totally and completely. According to Buzz, Lauren has no boundaries. We've tried to sort out why Lauren gets treated this way...it is probably partly her size (she's 5'1" with an itty bitty build), partly that she loves him back and is almost sort of okay with this treatment, partly that I have no idea how to effectively intercede. It's really unfair. And funny.
2. Buzz raids the trash bin.
Why is this funny? Because he's just looking for Puffs Plus to eat. They are like some kind of delicacy to him. Gross. And funny.
3. Booty-ful greeting of other dogs.
Do you see what is happening here? Buzz's butt is as high as he can get it and his shoulder is on the ground. He greets most dogs either this way or by laying down. It's really pathetic, and also misleading, since Buzz's play-style is not submissive.
4. Is this new? Let me smell it.
Buzz loves to smell the groceries, the mail, anything new that comes in the house. I think he thinks he's the inspector general of the household, needing to approve of all additions.
5. You give Buzz an inch, he takes a yard.
So, Buzz knows he's not allowed on this bench.
But I invited him up there for a photograph.
He then decided that all forbidden surfaces were okay and jumped onto the kitchen table.
So naughty. So funny.
Alright, so I'm going to tag
The Big Red Dog Blog with this meme. She's got one fabulous dog (with a Buzz Lightyear costume!) and six sassy cats, so I bet she'll be able to think of five things more quickly than I did!
Oh, and my Buzz is not named after Buzz Lightyear, but rather for how he's always buzzing about and also for the astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Though I'm told Buzz Lightyear is also named after Buzz Aldrin. Still, the hegemonic masculinity of that toy plus his imperialistic catchphrase...not what I was going for. Speed, smarts, that's what.
