I went to Whit’s Blog post today and saw the quite beautiful Tina Humphrey and her dog Chanti. They interact delightfully. Whit also mentioned that one his friend has “such a thorough knowledge of dog psychology that all of her dogs didn’t know that they were dogs; they thought they were humans. They appeared to understand dozens of commands.”

This brought me back to our home and Lacey, our beautiful Lab. A delightful thoroughbred that we paid a mortgage payment to recieve.



I brought her to our home when she was just a few weeks old.
She was freshly weaned from her mother and we took her into our home and we became her pack. Since there are more humans than dogs, she being the only one, Lacey adapted more to our behaviors and we notice she acts more human than canine.

For instance,Lacey has never spun in tight little circles before lying down, she just walks to where she will be comfortable and plops. Her legs sprawled and her head rolled back.
She will often turn completely on her back and look at us from her vantage point, completely upside down and her tongue awkwardly lolling to the side.
I cannot get a picture of this for you because much like my children, Lacey recognizes the camera as a piece of equipment designed for her to showoff her antics. My ‘shots’ of Lacey are blurred or anything worth keeping is always after she tires and can do nothing further, thus her tongue is large and she is wearing her “I wore mommy out” grin.

I also notice that when I take Lacey for a walk, she is very confused of the dogs barking as we pass by their homes. She always looks quizzically at me and I have to explain that ‘they are fine, and you are fine too,’ so we can continue with our trip.
Recently one of the dogs, a friendly black Lab, was left in his yard with no supervision so he took it upon himself to make some introductions. He walked out onto the sidewalk to sniff Lacey’s bottom to which she took high offense, tucked her tail and butt in and ran circles around me. I tried to explain but she was having none of it and was thoroughly disgusted, the neighbor dog thought perhaps she needed to ‘recognize’ him first and tried backing up and making introductions. Lacey jumped back and ran to the other side of me, her lips curled back, not in a growl but one of utter disdain and pleaded for us to leave. We did. I looked back to see the ole boy watch, his head tipped slightly to one side in confusion. I said, “I am so sorry.” Oh not Lacey, her head was straight forward and her nose was up in the air. She was offended with me, with him, and the whole concept of butt smelling.

But yesterday, she proved her self worth.
Matthew prepared to assemble a bookcase that we purchased. I had filled one and needed another, so to even things out we purchased the exact mate to one I had to balance the room.
Matthew got out the parts and instructions and was setting out the boards when he looked up and asked where Lacey had gone. I was working and had seen Lacey run by, head out to the kitchen and make a mad dash to the backdoor and outside, so I told him. He jumped up yelling her name so I followed. I watched as Matthew chased Lacey who had shredded the instructions and now was running around our back yard with the bag of hardware for the unit. She realized that his voice had turned from frantic to now ‘madder than a hornet’, dropped the bag and dashed by me, back into the house.
I played CSI the next half hour taping the instructions back together so Matthew can finish the job.
Lacey plopped down nearby, head lolling, eyes wide and her mouth in a huge, “That was so much fun” grin.

Yep.
She is not a dog.
She is one of our household.