Well it’s very irritating not to mention undignified to say the least. I used to go leaping and bounding up those suckers several times a day. Sometimes I’d forget my ball upstairs and we’d be downstairs… I’d look at mom – let’s play ball.
But where is it Fudges? Mom would say.
We’d look around the lounge, under the sofa and chairs. Nothing.
Nothing in the garden either.
So mom would say to me… go look upstairs.
I’d dash off no problem. Hunt around the office and the bedroom. Maybe check out the upstairs stoep and come pounding back down with that ball firmly entrenched in my chops.
Now it is a whole different ball game. Literally.
Alpha scoops me up like you would carry a heavy box. Not that I’m a heavy box of course but… oh wait… yes suppose I am a heavy doglet. His arms go round both sides of my legs and he carries me up the stairs very slowly and sedately. There’s not much to complain about. He only has to do this at night time and on the odd occasion in the middle of the night if mom has done stair duty a couple of times already and her legs don’t work anymore.
Mom on the other hand approaches things completely differently.
For starters – I weigh 26 kgs.This is around half her weight. So there’s no ways she can scoop me up like a box. It works like this…
I assume the position. This means I sheepishly stand at the bottom of the stairs with my bum facing the door. She bends down and sort of hugs my chest. (She says I’m lucky she did a firefighter course and knows how to do hand grips.)She clasps me round my chest and picks me up so that my furry bod dangles down the length of hers. I make sure to keep my toes up otherwise they could get caught on the stairs. Then up we go – all fifteen of them.
When we get to the top we have a ritual. I lift my nose up to say thank you and she gives me a whole bunch of kisses on my nose whilst she gently lowers me to the floor.
We both tootle off to the office or the bedroom, breathing heavily.
