The DU Lounge

. . . with extra sensitive hearing. He would start howling a good two seconds before the other dogs did and another two seconds later we mere humans would hear the fire or police sirens. We figured that extra keen hearing is what motivated him to pick up the phone receivers in his mouth (Mom finally caught him in the act) and leave the phones off the hook so he didn't have to hear them ring.

And yes, he did once pick up when it was actively ringing. My friend, who had been informed of the dog's habits, kept saying "hello" and got no response. That's when she scolded the dog with his name, and according to her, he hung up on her.

Same dog liked to perch on the top of the sofa seat and other narrow surfaces like a cat, and he was not a toy breed but pretty much medium sized, so achieving that balance was probably more of a challenge for him.

Another dog collected red items. I know what people say about dogs' perception of color, but this girl grabbed my mother's red slippers and knitted moccasins and stashed them under the end table. And it wasn't just an affinity for my mother's scent, either.

One day, I had washed two sweaters in the bathroom. They were made from the exact same knitted fabric and were both of the same intensity of color but one was teal while the other was red. I went to lay out towels in the other room so I could dry the sweaters flat. When I got back to the bathroom, the red sweater was missing. Went looking and found it exactly where I expected it to be: under the living room end table with the dog's other red treasures.

A couple of years later, when my brother and a neighbor buried her, I grabbed a red slipper to put in her grave with her.