Hospitality

We have a small visitor this week. Her name is Coco. The very NAME brings Ruger to his feet and straining his neck toward the window. At 100+ lbs, he towers over his 11 lb. best cousin-friend. Coco is as sweet as can be and always seems to be wearing a happy face. She has been with us before, for almost three weeks that time. After the third or fourth day Ruger had begun to view her much like the proverbial "little sister". It doesn't help that she reaches in between his paws and gingerly seizes his bone, dragging it across the floor to chew on it herself. To this, he simply gets up and finds his rope toy. He is rewarded for this act of sharing by a short game of tug of war with Syd or I. For the most part, Ruger is a sharer. When Coco's in the car, she gets the front seat for the first couple of rides. It cramps his style but Ruger obliges. By the third trip I let him sit in the front. When he chooses to curl up and use his usual headrest though, alas, Coco is perched there on the center console as if she owned the car. It is as fun to watch dogs interact as it is to watch children. With dogs there is no talking, so one is left to guess at what they're thinking.

Coco has hair, not fur. She is non-allergenic and does not shed - she simply leaves little white fluffs of hair on the floor, car seat and other things. Her bark is definately worse than her bite--as I don't believe she's ever bitten anyone...but watch out for that bark! It's as if she could tear your ankle off! Getting back to this hair--I have never seen hair on a little beast that can pick up so much water in one swath through a stand of wet grass. Her legs are only three and a half inches long, so it could even be newly-mown grass! With a big horse like Ruger you can simply say, "stay on the blanket till you're dry", and he will only need to be there for about 10 minutes, but what do you do with this little sponge? Coco came on Monday and will only be here until tonight. If I had put her on the rug Monday evening, she'd be there still! I have taken to rolling her up in a towel and massaging her, much like we do to our own hair after it's washed - only more vigorously and for a longer duration.

Don't get me wrong. We absolutely LOVE having Coco come. She is quiet and cuddly, easy to take to work and a truly a joy to be with. With her, two dogs are no trouble even in our tiny house. Ruger can run back and forth across the front of the couch while Coco does the same along the length of its seat. They don't knock over any furniture this way, occasionally a cup of coffee, but nothing major. In I Peter 4:9, the statement, "Use hospitality one to another without grudging", must refer not only toward people, but toward their pets too. Elsewhere the Word says, "you reap what you sow". Could that mean that we are building up weeks of Ruger-sitting for the future? hmm!

Here is a common pose of these cousin-friends.

Now she is seated on the landing, crying at the window as she watches her friend heading up the driveway to the bathroom, through the early-morning dew. We will all go outside in a while. The couch is draped with a sheet and I have the towels ready!