October 15, 2023
Dear Friends,
All about Sandy! Yesterday (Saturday) she got groomed, and she looks like a regular princess. We take her over to PetCo in Greenville for grooming every six weeks. Zeus, our golden doodle goes with her every other time, so he’s on a 12-week rotation . . . except when we forget to inform the groomers that we need to schedule his appointment. Yesterday, he was so overgrown in wool, you could have hidden two dogs in there, or certainly made at least one additional dog out of his trimmings. The word “Hirsute” is a legitimate English word and certainly applies to his condition prior to his trim yesterday. Got shaved pretty clean, and right now you cant even recognize him for being a golden doodle. Looks more like some mutated lab, but it won’t take him long to grow out.
Back to Sandy. As a take-off from Tom Terrific from Early Captain Kangaroo, I’d like to refer to her as “Mighty Sandy, the Wonder Dog.” If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look up Tom Terrific on YouTube and play a couple of the videos. Well worth your time. For Sandy, not quite sure if she exactly fits that bill, but she does a few amazing things.
For one, she has an amazing memory. For example, it’s been quite some time since Gail came into the shop and played with Sandy. I think she played tug-of-war with one of Sandy’s un-stuffed stuffed animals. What’s impressive part is that when Gail came in a couple days ago to buy some fabric, Sandy got all excited when she drove up in her red pickup. Immediately Sandy ran and got her non-stuffed toy to get Gail to play with her again. She remembered!
Sandy shows a similar feat of memory whenever she sees the UPS truck drive up. Soon as he gets parked, we let Sandy out the door, and she runs for all she’s worth, barking and with her tail pretty much wagging her. The delivery man steps out and immediately hands Sandy a dog biscuit. Sandy runs top speed to get back in, and often carries her dog biscuit around in her mouth for a couple hours or more till she finally eats it. She and the UPS driver have become great friends.
She’s good at hearing too. I’m told whenever I come back from town, she actually hears my car before I even turn into the driveway. Once I’m back inside, Sandy carries on with “I missed you, I’m glad you’re back, and you shouldn’t stay gone for so long.” She goes through that routine whether I’m gone five hours or five minutes.
One more interesting bit about her. She is never afraid of big dogs, and always gets along with them. Never met a dog she didn’t like. And you know how it is here in the shop. She greets everyone who comes in, like a cheerful doorbell. If you haven’t met Sandy, you need to come into the shop and see who it is I’m talking about. Perhaps you can time your next visit to catch her in her post-groomer princess look. It lasts only two or three days after grooming, and then the super-soft feel to her coat doesn’t stay quite as nice. But she still remains as Mighty Sandy the Wonder Dog.
Chip
