Greeting Routine

On one of my favorite message boards (one dealing with samoyeds) someone asked about the "greeting routines" exhibited by their dogs when they came home from work. This is roughly what I wrote to describe how Jezebel and Evelyn react when Husband or I get home from work.

About ten minutes before Husband is due home, the girls get antsy at every sound. When they hear the garage door open, they race to the back door shrieking in joyous, frenzied abandon. Husband comes in, Jezebel remembers that she needs to give him something and trots swiftly (toenails going clickclickclickclick - she doesn't lope) into the living room to grab whatever she can find (frequently something as inconsequencial as a piece of junk mail). She grabs it up like a polo pony and races back to give him kisses (she tends to keep the treasure).

While that is going on, Evelyn stays by his side and gets her kiss. Then the girls FIGHT,FIGHT, FIGHT all through the living room and lower portion of the house with much judo and growling and horrible, ferocious noices. Evelyn does a lot of catch me if you can manuevers. It ends when Jezebel flips Evelyn (to be fair, I think Evelyn actually sort of does a summersault, deliberately). Jezebel stands over her and barks victoriously, head cocked as if to dare her to just try to get up - JUST TRY IT!! (She is all grins).


At the same time, Evelyn, tongue to her knees, grins contentedly.

When I come home, they are always surprised. My schedule is such that I am in and out all day. I may be gone until after 6:00 p.m. or may be back by 9:30 a.m. and work at home the rest of the day. When they figure out I am home, they race to the back deck and bark at the back door. I see them looking at me through the window. Jezebel has utter and complete love in her eyes, her ears drop and she nearly goes into a puddle of adoration (sort of like Husband used to look during the first 6 months of courtship). I let them in and, assuming I don't have to wipe muddy feet, Jezebel speeds past me looking for Husband (actually, she sort of REMINDS me of Husband AFTER 6 months of courtship). Evelyn stays and kisses me, then chases off after sister. Jezebel circles back when she has assured herself that Husband is not home and gives me a smooch that would remove wallpaper. Then they race around and do an abbreviated fight. It doesn't last long. Jezebel falls asleep within about 3 minutes and Evelyn beats her to it.

I just finished a dog book entitled "Tell Me Where It Hurts" by Nick Trout.


I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was written by an animal surgeon and set in a roughly 24hour period at an animal hospital. He freely admits he is not describing an actual day and you can tell he is taking artistic liberties, but I really liked it and would recommend it to fellow dog lovers. Samoyeds were mentioned only one time but it is still a good read. I've had an extremely busy week and one of the worst things about that has been that I have had to grab little nibbles of the book, here and there, when I really wanted to just devour it. You don't have to be a dog lover to enjoy this book.