Buddy

     I did exercise my prerogative to change my mind by completely modifying my fall schedule. I dropped the three courses that I had planned originally, and registered for World Geography, a Social Sciences elective, Dynamics of Communication, a required course,  and Evolution of Film, a diversity elective. (You had to know I wouldn't be able to resist the film course). My schedule will be 2 days per week, Tuesday and Thursday.  Quite frankly, I didn’t want to attend class on Mondays anyway, as Buddy, the canine Kevin Mc Allister, would be home alone on Mondays. Like Kevin, Buddy gets into all kinds of mischief if no one (namely me) is here to police him.  In a recent fit of separation anxiety, he ate an entire book in one sitting! It would be a book on films. A $50.00 book at that! The bugger’s got expensive taste. He also chewed the entire cover off of an equally pricey Julia Child cook book, and he taste tested my sentimentally valuable book about Palisades Park. Apparently the leather binding on it wasn’t gourmet, since he only sampled a few bites.                                      

     We need to keep the bathroom door closed, or he shreds throw rugs, as well as whatever goodies he finds in the wastebasket, or laundry basket. He is particularly fond of my unmentionables, especially if they are new. I have found numerous underwires scattered on the floor, looking like the springs from a ball point pen. He has also jumped on the loveseat and torn down my curtains, rods and all. Once I took a 5 minute walk to discard  the trash, and I subsequently walked back in to find him sprawled across the loveseat, curtain rods clenched in his mouth, my curtains resembling a bib on a teething baby. Not that he’s so much better when the sons are here. He paces and pants furiously whenever I am out. When we originally brought Buddy home, he was clinging to me like a blue claw crab on a Maryland beach. I guess he thought I was his mother, and in 7-1/2 years his clinging has not diminished in the least. Last night, I went to a movie with friends for a mere two hours.  Upon my return, all 106 lbs. of him curled up in my lap and hyperventilated for over an hour. As dumb as he is, Buddy is masterful at laying on the guilt. But at least my curtains and few remaining books were intact….