Barkley (The Dog)

The other day my dear dog hurt himself.  He was...sensitive.  My boy, Barkley likes to cry.  He's a whiner, a crier.  I promise you that you have never met a diva like Barkley.  He gets kenneled at night and when we are out of the house because he will cry all day long.  Even more significant, he will cry all night long.  Barkley is part bird.  He needs to be covered in his cage in order to stop from crying and barking.  Maybe I should have named him Zachariah, the husband of Elizabeth.  In any case, my sweet boy was in his feelings.  We massaged him and kept him coddled... until bedtime.  This dog cried all night long!!!  I slept but a few hours.  As I was driving to work with both windows down and overly caffeinated, I thought about how I have never written a blog about the youngest member of our household, Barkley Sneezus Miller.

Barkley came into our lives six years ago.  It was a Sunday.  It was our habit to go to the library after church.  We were on 27th Drive and going to make a right onto Peoria Avenue when I saw a dad and two little girls selling puppies on the side of the road.  They were small, cute fluffy puppies.  They were asking $80 a puppy.  Santi was just going to ask about the puppies.  He had one puppy and brought it to me.  I don't know what made him bring back that puppy.  Instead he picked up Barkley and put him on my lap.  What was I supposed to say?  No?  He declared it a Valentine's Day present and we took the puppy home.

Part of the reason that we brought our Barker boy home is because David is Dog Person.  James and I are both cat people.  Our first baby was Luigi.  Luigi was initially my sweet boy.  He was the second to last baby.  Mary, our neighbor, back in the Bronx would feed strays.  She fell in love with the mama cat and the mama had a litter.  She didn't want the babies.  There were two kittens left when she asked me if I wanted one.  I already had a cat, Picara, a beautiful Lynx point Siamese. I took in baby Luigi.  Later I would find my dear friend Haja and her cat's name was Mario.  Picara was so mean to him.  But he was my baby.  He lasted 10 years.  After David was born, I was ready to get another cat.  But this is not Samson and Ginger's story.  This is not even Midnight's story, this is Barkley's story.

We thought that Barkley was part Shih Tzu and part Pomeranian.  We took our baby to the vet and it turns out that he's a Papillon Spaniel Non-phalene.  He's a full breed.  I don't know how we ended up with a full breed.  We named him Barkley.  We knew we wanted a B name.  We thought of Byron or Brendan.  I liked the irony of Barkley.  He was a Barker.  Barkley cries and is sensitive.  He doesn't like other dogs.  Dog Parks are nightmares to him.  He likes people and he would rather go on a road trip than be left home.  He will sit nicely for hours on your lap.  He likes to sit under my legs as I work and write.  I'm not a dog person.  I'm not.  I am a consummate cat person.  I have not one but two cats.  There are days when I think that Barkley doesn't really understand that he is not one of the cats.  He is a diva. I'll tell you a secret.  I love him.  I love his little face and the way he runs.  The children don't think that he's my favorite.  Maybe he's not but I still love him.  He is my little love from my love.  By the way, we call him Sneezus (I call him Sneezus) because he sneezes when he's happy and excited.  I kid you not!!!