a letter to dixie

To my dearest Dixie,

I love that:

• when you're needy you lay your head on my keyboard so I have no other option than to pay attention to you.  And if that doesn't work, you literally punch me with your paw until I stop whatever I'm doing. 
• you still act like the mailman is a terrorist even though he walks by our house every day except Sunday (bless his heart)
• you stare out the window for us when we leave the house.  PS-your dead give away is that you don't put the curtain back in place
• you enjoy eating disgusting used tissues and sneak them as soon and as often as you can
• you randomly pounce on the couch cushions for 5 minutes without stopping
• you pretend that your ball is your prey and you are a jaguar
• you have dreads behind your ears
• you refuse to eat dinner if John and I aren't both in the house
• every time there's a thunderstorm, you think the world is ending
• you trick me into thinking you have to go outside only to find out that you just want to lay in the grass and proceed to ignore me when I call you back into the house
• you punch me in the bum every time I bend over to give John a goodnight or "hey, how was your day" kiss.  Jealous much?
• anyone who talks to me while we're on a walk poses an immediate threat and you have no qualms displaying that (also, maybe we should tone this down a bit...people are really starting to get scared of you)
• you bury yourself under our stairs outside and it takes you 30 minutes to wiggle out 
• when I get home you have to sniff me all over just to see where I've been all day
• when we open a present or a package in the mail you knock our arms out of the way with your snout and sniff said present/package to ensure it's safe
• you think crunchy leaves that have trailed into our home are delectable midnight treats
• you get so excited to see a child that you jump and wiggle and bark and end up scaring the crap out of the kid before they can even come close to you
• you think it's ok to eat part of our slipcover (ok not really, that was sarcasm, that was so not cool)
• after 2 1/2 years of doggie life you still think you can eat a rock, but somehow they're still so dang hard and you can't chew or swallow them
• you eat sticks...why do we buy dog treats again?
• you happily share a bowl of popcorn with me because we both know John has no interest in it
• you think a doorbell on TV is the real thing and go into complete freak out mode for a solid 5-10 minutes
• But most of all, I love that you get so excited to see me every day that you have to bark and wiggle and jump and sniff me all over to express your excitement, because that makes me feel like a million bucks.  I love you, sweet Dixie girl.

Love you to the dog park and back (times like a million billion),

Jessi (aka the woman who feeds you, walks you and cleans up your "accidents")