There are all kinds of detectors in our lives nowadays. We have lie detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, radon detectors, smoke detectors, and those high tech detectors that keep the lines slow at O'Hare. But perhaps the most important detector we can have is the good-guy detector.
Meet my good-guy detector.
Buffy was the family pet. She was the greatest family pup! Why? Well, for several reasons!
She could sit upright on your lap while you were playing cards, nudging possible moves.
She would run at top speed in race-car mode around our dining room table if someone said, "Daddy's home!"
She trained herself to do her business in the empty lot across the street.
She refused to let Joey, the stud Mom picked out for her, get the upper hand. (She mounted him!)
And the number one reason she was the greatest family pup? She was a good-guy detector!
Buffy let you know if she thought a boy was sweet or sour. She cozied right up to the ones she fancied. She didn't quit barking at the ones she disliked. She was a poodle with a preference, that's for sure.
Looking back now, I fully agree with her picks. Suitor number one was a very nice guy. A little goofy - but sweet as sweet could be! Suitor number two - a reject Buffy growled at non-stop from behind the blue velvet chair - was a real chump. He thought way too much of himself. Buffy must've sensed it.
Yes, through the high school and college years, sweet Buffy let us know who she favored.
Most dogs seem to have a knack at picking out good and bad people.
I remember going on a walk with our big, dumb, lovable brain-stem dog when he went crazy - all because this one neighbor walked up to us too quickly. Copper's hair went up and he started growling. That's scary when it's any dog - but terrifying when it's a one hundred pound moose of a dog! (Truth be told, he was a different kind of neighbor. Kinda the type who'd wear gold chains and talk out the side of his mouth. I never did really like the guy. And apparently, neither did our dog.)
Years after this side-talker moved, we heard something about him being involved in some shady business. That and the fact that someone set fire to his car that was parked right outside his house led me to believe the dog was right!
Another dog we had had a good sense about him. Maybe it was his nose. Angus was a beagle. He would smell any visitor's legs - inhaling with the loudest snorts possible - gathering intel. He approved of most. (One in-law was a little suspect.) He kept out a few cable sales guys and one way-too-big trick-or-treater.
I for one, am going to trust my dogs more.
After all, they haven't steered me wrong yet!
Aww, sweet lil Buffy. Of course you loved her, though--you were her favorite from the time we brought her home! :)