Monday, June 6, 2011

Guthrie

When I last left you I was killing bugs in my sleep and creating metaphors about cheese plates and childhood worries.  All the while the heat was beginning to rise in the dusty streets, and the butter of life was churning forward, and I have lots of toast to share.

But before we get into the excitement of the past two weeks, let me impart a dream that I had about a year ago.  It involved a baby, and in my dream I was holding it, swaddled in a blanket. I uncovered the blanket only to discover a guinea pig, which I believe spoke with a slight New York accent.  I called my Mom at the time and left a message informing her that I dreamt I had a guinea pig baby, to which she replied she would take a rodent grandchild over none at all.  The message is still saved on her phone, and she played it for my boyfriend Scott when they met here in Austin. He thought it was hysterical.

I mention this because my father had to sit our family dog Roscoe down a few weeks ago, and tell him that he was an uncle, because his human sister Lindsey had adopted a dog.

Now, for those of you who know me well, this may come as no surprise.  Here was the girl whose favorite article of clothing was a pink sweater covered in dalmatians and dog bones, and whose pictures always including a tree with a swing and a puppy, next to a red haired girl carrying a bag of books and snacks.  A girl who used to beg her mom to take her to PAWS, and who used to spend her recess imagining a big fluffy dog running up to greet her at school, who she would take him home and love forever.  A girl who lobbied for years to get a dog, until her parents finally relented when she was eleven.  She seems to remember trying to stay calm on the outside when they told her, though on the inside she was probably screaming "VICTORY IS MINE!!!!!!!!!!"

Now, Scott recently adopted a hound mix that he named Lonesome, and it turns out that this pup had some siblings still languishing in the shelter. I had been thinking about dogs since I arrived in Austin, and after much deliberation and many sleepless nights, I finally decided to take the leap and go meet these little guys.  After making Scott sit with me for a couple hours while I played with Guthrie (then named Panda) I decided to take him home.  Guthrie is a 4 month old black and white hound mix, with sad eyes and big ears and a heart shaped nose. He has huge paws. He is lanky and shy and very devoted.

Lonesome and Guthrie love one another, and spend many hours playing and napping when they get to spend time together.  Lonesome, though smaller, throws Guthrie on his back and pins him down.  At a get together recently, Guthrie took his toy and ran into the house to play with it by himself, while Lonesome tried to steal drinks of whiskey and coke from a cup left on the ground.  This seems to speak for itself.  Amazing the easy way we can anthropomorphize our animals, and likewise distinguish between their personalities. If Lonesome is the little bad boy who sneaks out of class to smoke cigarettes, Guthrie is the big akward kid who has to be convinced not to spend recess in the library.

Guthrie and I are back in Austin after spending the weekend in San Marcos, swimming in Canyon Lake with the hill country winds around us, sun on our faces.  He curled up in the middle of the pick-up truck between my roommate Emily and I on the way home, as we passed the strip malls and car lots alongside I-35, night sky and bright lights turning the pallor of Central Texas into something beautiful.