Barking Lesson

I’m glad that boss let me have room for my own writing as same as Joa Ying, the Beagle.

As you know me from Joa Ying’s Journal, I am a part of Australian Shepherd and other two mixed breeds. I don’t know  what are other two kinds of  breed that I have from my parents.  I have two older sisters, one older brother, and I am the youngest one.

Boss said in her life she always gets the last dog that nobody wants.  However in my case, my old owner had me and my brother was left, so he put us in “Give Away” column.   Two weeks later the new boss called, and came to my old place, but first she had chosen my brother.  My old owner said one lady already called before her, and wanted my brother.  That why boss ended up to take me her home. 

My first arrival at this house, I was about ten weeks old.  Boss told me that her nine years old dog just passed away, and she couldn’t live without dog, so I came in time during her loss. 

I’m not a kind of dog that like to talk out loud as Joa Ying, and I’m not sure this is good or bad.  Because I remember when I was 18 months boss worried about my quietness.  She wondered why I never bark at all.  She thought something went wrong with my throat.  She took me to the doctor, but they found out nothing wrong with me.

Boss didn’t give up.  She had searched for reasons to fix my quietness.  She asked everybody whom she knew, like the postmaster, the elementary school teacher, the farmer, the cashier, and even the UPS man that if they  have,or had a dog that never bark.  All of them gave boss in varieties ideas to try with me, but none of them work at all.  Only I knew that it was not a right time for me, and I wasn’t in the mood to bark yet.

Finally, boss tried to teach me how to bark.  She told me to look at her mouth, and she tried to imitate the dog’s barking to show me an example then told me to do by myself.  I enjoyed her demonstration,  but I didn’t want to do it.  All I did just looked at her with my dreamy eyes and gave her the beautiful smiling, and waged my tail to let her know that I had full attention on her lessons. 

Week after week passed by, boss kept her training with me on “how to bark”, but I didn’t try at all.  One day her last drop of patience was ran out.  She cried out loud for God’s help, and then she tried to pull off her hairs for a few minutes before she went inside the house, and left me alone in the backyard all day.

That day I was very worried that if boss comes out again without hair on her head, I would blame myself for the rest of my life.   In that moment my first barking came out very loud to ask boss to forgive me, please.  Boss jumped out from the kitchen to find out that she wasn’t dreaming. 

Yes, boss it was me! I kept barked… barked…barked, and barked until boss told me to be quite.  Since then I never forget to bark, and I bark to everything, even the blowing wind.     

 

All by myself   ( in the Dog’s jail)