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| Dept. 56, Snow Village, "Best Friends," #55176 |
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| Dept. 56, Snow Village, "Village Vet and Pet Shop," #54275 |
Normal people still use dogs for all kinds of important and therapeutic stuff. I don’t have a dog now. I have Hemmingway, a rescue cat, meaning it rescued me from my wanton and undisciplined existence. I say I can't have a dog because we are gone too much, but really, I can't have a dog, because I would miss them too much when we are gone. I desperately miss my cat also, but somehow I know Hemmingway will enjoy hunting and patrolling and prowling, even if I am not there to encourage him. And he will roll over and bare his chest so our cat-sitter will know to pet him. Our cat-sitter, to whom we hand over a large percent of our children's inheritance every time he stays with our cat, is intelligent enough to have been trained by Hemmingway. Our sitter deserves any amount he asks.
But I diverge. This is a blog about dogs, and less about my inabilities and trainabilities. So I have come up with a list of 10 best things to do with your dog, at least in a miniature Christmas village. Here goes:
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| Dept. 56, Snow Village, "Village Pets-Sales and Service," #55365 |
#1: I feel compelled to start my list of things TO DO with one thing NOT TO DO. Despite the fact that this Department 56 building is entitled "Village Pets-Sales and Service," you should NOT take your dog in for service. Dog’s should not be oiled and they do not usually need a tune-up if they are fed the appropriate and good-quality dog food. You must admit, when you consider it, this is a seriously odd addition to a Christmas village.
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| Dept. 56, Snow Village, "Doghouse/Cat in Garbage Can," #51314 |
#2: Dogs do need a place to live, like in the Department 56 doghouse shown right. Therefore, as an activity, your dog may let you build a nice dog house, and he will help supervise the task. Do not be confused, however. Once the doghouse is built, and you both need to rest, your dog will need to come into YOUR house to snooze, and especially spend the night. The dog house exists really to prove to your neighbors that you are a good carpenter, and that you take good care of your dog. Dogs know, and you should know, that dog houses are for appearances only.
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| Dept. 56, Snow Vilage, "Here We Come A Caroling," #51616 |
#3: Dogs, particularly in Department 56 villages, love to go Christmas caroling. If the caroling group sounds particularly bad, your dog will join in to try to get you on key. Have you seen the PBS version of Pride and Prejudice, when Mary Bennett is singing at an assembly? She is so remarkably bad that the dogs outside the window join in the melody.
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| Dept. 56, Snow Village, "Early Morning Delivery," #54313 |
#4: Dogs are the only members of the family who loved you enough, when you were a kid, to get up and join you on your early morning paper route. Everyone knew you were safe when your dog was with you. I bet you didn’t even notice that your dog got fed late, did you? This proves dogs are well-read, and afterwards, well-fed.
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| Dept. 56, Snow Village, "Mush!" #54747 |
#5: In old-fashioned greeting cards and nostalgic Rockwell prints, you frequently find dogs pulling cute sleds or little carts or wagons. This does not happen in real life. I have had many dogs in my life, and not one would ever stoop so low as to pull something, especially something with someone in it. None of my friends have ever had a dog do this, either. Not going to happen. Ever. Oh, yes, someone out there will say, “My dog did that.” I don’t believe it. Unless they are trained for the Iditorad, dogs don’t deign to pull. Makes a cute decorative village piece, very nostalgic, very old world. That’s all.
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| Dept. 56, Snow Village, "Pets on Parade," #54720 |
#6: Dogs are very willing, happy, and able to take you to pet parades with them.
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| Photo taken by myself; Honolulu, During Spam-o-Jam Festival. |
Dogs are quite amenable to you looking silly because you make them to wear funny little Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses. Despite your idiosyncrasies, dogs are loyal enough, and secure enough, to withstand the embarrassment to be seen with you. It is one of the most endearing things about them. In this regard, they are kinder than children.
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| Depat. 56, Snow Village, "Family Canoe Trip," #55116 |
#7. A dog is one of the few in a family that will actually enjoy camping, so if you are going, you should take the dog. The other family members will camp because there is this ubiquitous American notion that camping is fun. Sleeping on the ground 50 yards from a bathroom is not fun. Only dogs don’t care, because they are used to sleeping on the ground, and they are never 50 yards from a bathroom.
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| Dept. 56, Sow Village, "Who's Walking Who?" #55260 |
#8. Dogs are good for taking you on walks, so you can get some exercise. They have prowled the yard all day, and don’t need the walk. But you know, and they know, that YOU need the walk, and they know you need an excuse for the walk, so the excuse is to walk the dog.
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| Dept. 56, Snow Village, "Christmas Lake Chalet," with "The Final Touch Accessory," #55061 |
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| Dept. 56, Snow Village, "Rest Stop," #55142 |
#10. It is good to walk the dog until he doesn't need to be walked any more. Dogs remind us that we are humans living in moderately culturally civilized times. While we are comfortably ensconced in our warm and cozy bathroom, Fido has to use outdoor facilities in all stages of hot and cold, wind, rain and snow. If you are not a woman who has endured backpacking, you may not understand the importance of this. But any woman who was talked into spending days and nights, above timber line, cold, even if it is in the middle of summer, knows that a dog’s life sometimes isn’t a dog’s life.
Written in memory of our beautiful rescue cat, Coco Chanel, who died Feb. 13. Her three years with us was too short, but she brought us such joy.
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