Mr. Mack Stories
by Ray Mack

 

When Mr. Mack came to live with us, at Christmas, 1987, our lives changed... for the better for sure. I guess the basic reason a pet has a good influence on our lives is that they set such good examples for humans.

Patience
Mr. Mack is always ready to play. He lives for a few minutes of our time to play with him, take him for a walk, or feed him. However, he accepts with no complaint the condition that he has to wait for us to take care of these duties.

He has a number of ways to gain our attention. If we are lying on the bed he will bounce up and plant his feet firmly in the middle of your back or chest. If your face is available he will give you free "lick-ums" also. If you are busy sleeping, reading, or watching TV he will do his best to gain a few minutes of your time, to rub his head, talk to him, or throw his favorite toy for him to retrieve. However, if you make it clear that you are not available for his play he will finally go to the foot of the bed, stretch out, and comment with kind of a disgusted grunt. He will wait patiently, snoozing. If you do not summon him on your own he will approach you again in 30 minutes or so... checking for any signal that you have a few minutes for him. If not, it's probably a quick trip to the front window or water bowl, then back to his place at the foot of the bed... to wait patiently!

"Sock Dog"
Both of us have little routines that we do over and over with Mr. Mack. he never tires, we do! Every morning, Mack helps me put on my socks. He watches to see when I am ready to put on my shoes, then leads me to my sock drawer. I flip a pair of socks out, over his head, and he goes pell- mell to get them. He shakes them like they were alive and gives them a good chew. When I sit down on the bed he jumps up beside me, and we play "keep-away" for a few seconds, with him prancing around behind my back, shaking the socks and growling. He finally comes up under my arm and I get him a bear hug to get the socks. He fakes a bite on my hand, but let's me take them. When I start to put them on he jumps to the floor and attacks my feet, briefly, then the game is over…

Sleeping
When Mr. Mack was a tiny puppy we were certain we would never allow him to sleep with us! Ha! As it has turned out, he is too warm for me to tolerate him, but Avalyn has a hard time going to sleep without him snuggled up to her; he really is a "snuggly" dog.

As he gets ready to sleep he must first "make his nest" by circling, and circling, and circling in the bedclothes, scratching the bedspread and generally pretending his is out in the wild, I guess. He finally plops down with a satisfied grunt. He often does this before we come to bed, and is half asleep by the time we crawl in. He can lie with his eyes open, but he is glassy eyed, really asleep! When Avalyn gets settled under the covers she pulls him up to her face to say good night and "sweet talks" him. He loves it! He lays his head back on her face or neck and sighs very contentedly. When she turns over to go to sleep he pushes up next to her back, hard. He sleeps with his head on the pillow. When she gets up in the morning she completely covers him up with the bedspread. He just lies there, snoozing for about half an hour, then gets up, stretches and yawns, and goes to the bathroom door and scratches to get in. When it opens he goes in to get his morning greeting from Avalyn and to stretch and yawn some more. Then, he trots back to the bed where I am still sleeping and, this time, comes over and plops down by me while he does his morning "toilet", licking and squirming and waking me up! He then stays on the bed while Avalyn goes to press her clothes and fix her lunch. However, he is listening intently for the rattle of his food bowl. Then, he is off like a shot... to woof down his breakfast. His departure is a good time for me to get up and get in the shower. As soon as I get out he comes in and licks all the water off my legs while I shave. Then it's time to play "sock dog"...

"Laundry Dog"
Another game Mr. Mack and I play is "help fold the laundry". When I take the warm clothes out of the dryer and put them on the bed to fold, Mr. Mack loves to come and root around in them. He nuzzles under them with his head and even burrows his whole body under the larger towels. Then, he tosses some of them into the air while grunting and generally showing signs of enjoyment. The only little problem we have is that he also likes to take selected items in his teeth and shake them&emdash;hard as he can. Fortunately, he never tears them, only shakes them. I guess he learned this from our "sock game". Anyway, we both enjoy the play for a few minutes, until the pile cools off. Then Mack wanders back to his other pursuits...

Stormy Weather
When a thunderstorm appears, Mr. Mack gets very friendly--thunder or lightning seem to frighten him. He is a little embarrassed about it, but where ever he is in the house he will come to one of us and get very close. Avalyn usually picks him up, and he doesn't want to be put down! Or, he will just lie very close to one of us on the bed; sometimes he will shake and shiver. I don't remember my other dogs, from childhood days, behaving this way, but perhaps I just never noticed.

Riding in the Car
Mr. Mack is a good rider, if a little pesky. Pesky when he can't have his nose about 3 feet out the window! Ray usually lets him ride in his lap to get out the window, because if Avalyn lets him he climbs up her arm and tries to get on top of her shoulder! Even with Ray, he will paw with his left foot and put it into the highest pocket he can find. The general rules are that he can be out the window leaving the house and coming back in to our alley and at fairly low speeds.

His second favorite way to ride is perched on Avalyn's knees, watching out the front window. He takes in everything he sees and really seems to enjoy looking and listening. People seeing him (setting in or hanging out of the car) often grin and point and tell their kids to "look at the doggie". Mack takes this all in stride but will sometimes bark at small kids or other dogs.

On the highway, Mack will lie down between the front seats (we have constructed several "beds" for him with supports and pillows, for various cars) very contented, as long as there is no stopping or starting. These immediately brings him to Ray's lap to try and get his nose out the window. If told "no, Mack", he will grudgingly lie down again. On a long trip he will ride for miles, sleeping peacefully. However, the rule is that when we slow going through a town, he gets to smooze out the window, at least for a minute or two.

When we travel near his meal time (even in town) Avalyn always takes his food along to feed him. She tries to sneak the food out to the trunk of the car, because if he sees her getting it, or putting it into the car, he warts us to death until he is fed.

The Spot
Mr. Mack goes to the bathroom in the house all the time except when we go out walking. He knows his paper in the laundry room and I would rather clean that up three or four times a day than to take him outside.

Every now and then (when he gets made at us!), he will go and tinkle somewhere in the house where he is not supposed to. This can be a real problem because we don't always find it immediately. Also, if we don't find it and put a stop to it he is inclined to go back to the place he has "marked" and do it again! So... we watch and look very closely when we come home and it is very seldom he misbehaves.

About two weeks ago we came home and spotted a new place on the tile floor (which is not as bad as the curtains) and I got on Mack's case...I pushed his nose down in it with a "BAD  DOG!" and then put him under his chair where he goes when he has been bad. (Actually he goes and gets under this particular chair anytime we are mad at him.)

We didn't see any more spots for several days and then, there it was again. I really scolded him and left him under the chair for a full hour! (He is so pitiful when you tell him to come out...you feel so badly!)

Well, later, Avalyn shouted to me,"Ray, come here and look at this spot!"

I thought...Uh-Oh...Mack has done it again. I was really getting my dander up but went to see what Avalyn had found. She was standing with her palms up over the spot and looking at the ceiling...THE WATER WAS COMING FROM AN AIR CONDITIONER VENT...

Well, we have been pretty nice to Mr. Mack these last few days. He is getting lots of hugs and kisses and doggie treats to eat! Dogs are pretty forgiving, so I HOPE we will soon be back in his good graces.

dogsprayer.html