50 First Doggie Dates - Life With Mr. Griffey

Have you seen the movie 50 First Dates, with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore?  The basic premise is that each night Barrymore's character forgets everything that happened that day, so each day is a brand new day, quite literally, for her.  Sandler tries to woo her, and gets to learn from his mistakes and try again each day.

That's what living with Mr. Griffey is like - except he doesn't forgive me each day!  I only get the bad effect, where each morning he forgets that I was his friend the prior day.   I SWEAR the dog has something wrong with his brain.

He's getting much better with me for sure, but he exhibits short term memory issues that make me think of the movie.  Every morning, we get up, and I pick him up out of bed and carry him downstairs so that he can't run away from me.  I leash him up and we go for a walk.

When we get back in the house, after I feed him breakfast, he runs upstairs looking for my wife.  He never thinks to check the bed, where he left her - and instead runs from room to room frantically searching, even as she's cooing "Griffffeeeeee - I'm right here" - he runs all over the house. Crazy monkey.  He has definitely shown a propensity for learning the sounds of breakfast and dinner time - he knows the sound of his food bowl hitting the counter, and comes running - so I know he's not a complete moron.  He also learned a few things from watching Oscar, like how to steal socks from the laundry basket and how to smuggle acorns on our walks.  He also quickly got the hang of fetching apples from the yard to bring to my wife in exchange for a treat - although she was really trying to teach him to DROP the apple - he took it as RETRIEVE the apple - can't blame him for that one.  He also taught Oscar how to help himself to beans from the little basket we put them in after picking them in the garden. 

The most interesting thing about Griffey is his safe spot.  I was home alone with him for a few days last weekend, and despite having been acting great around me when Oscar and my wife are around, he was terrified, totally on edge.  However, if I'm sitting on the couch in front of the TV, Mr. Griffey eagerly climbs right into my lap and nestles in, even willing to lie on his back in a vulnerable position and let me rub his belly - but only in this one safe spot on the couch!  Bizarre.

I guess Griffey's memory lapses could also be analogous to the movie Memento, although Griffey doesn't tattoo clues all over his body to remind himself.  I should mention another thing - Griffey does NOT like seeing me naked.  Oh man - if he sees me naked, he gets wicked pissed off.

Anyway, Griffey's attitude is definitely improving, even if he shows signs of having a peanut sized brain and lacking short term memory sometimes as well.

-KD