Every dog has its day

It’s an established fact. My dog Nittany is crazy. I’ve written often over the years about how Nittany, our 14-year-old Lhasa Apsa – Bichon Frise, has lost her mind.

She loves you one minute, licking your hands and cuddling as close as she can get, the next minute she’ll stare right through you like you’re lower than low, like you’re nothing unless you get up off the couch and get her one or twelve or a hundred of her favorite treats.

The evidence mounts

Here’s more proof. If we were to meet face-to-face today, I would have to apologize for the way I look and Nittany would be at the heart of the apology. Oh, I don’t have any dog hair on me — she doesn’t shed, so I’m lucky there — but my clothes have a wrinkled look to them. I was putting away some clean laundry and set my shirt out on my bed. Of course, Nittany decided that my shirt made a comfy bed. If my wife or I leave out anything that we’re going to wear, Nittany has to lay on it.

I suspect most dogs are like this, but Nittany takes things to extremes. I was sitting on the couch the other day. She stepped on my arm, jumped over my legs, just to lay on my sweatshirt. I couldn’t help but take offense. “I’m right here dog. Don’t you want to lie with me?” But no, she didn’t want the living and breathing me. Instead, she wanted my sweatshirt.

Turning the tide

Occasionally though, and it’s rare, but occasionally, I think Nittany is onto something. Several weeks ago over Christmas, I noticed that during the day she would drag her plush little bed from near our couch to behind the Christmas tree. She wanted the perfect spot where she could be part of the family, but be separate too. She could watch over us, but also opt to push her bed into the corner, hide from the world, and have time to herself.

I wonder about her, but this was one of those times when I’m left to consider that maybe, just maybe, Nittany and I have much more in common than I might have previously thought. I’m starting to think that maybe Nittany is simply an introvert like me.

Introversion is a basic personality style characterized by a preference to focus on internal feelings rather than on external sources of simulation. Introverts typically get more energy and recharge by spending more time alone than with others. Yes, that describes me and, guess what, that’s Nittany to a T.

Oh, she’s still crazy. Let me repeat that, she’s certifiably crazy, but she’s my crazy dog. I wouldn’t have it any other way.