“If it fits, I sits,” for dogs

I am sure you have all seen “If it fits, I sits.”

No? This is a cat thing. Here is a video compilation for you, just in case:

This is cute, even if I don’t quite understand the internet/meme-speak people insist their cats engage in. (“I can haz cheezburger?”)

(To be fair, even though I’m a declared dog person, I also do not understand most of the Internet “doggo” speak. My friend Chels refers to her dog as a “puppalups,” and this I understand, but this might be because I can hear Chels saying it in my head.)

Anyhow. None of that is either here nor there. I’m writing because I think my dog is actually a cat. Witness:

• He loves fringes of any sort: on my head, on my blanket, on my tablecloth; on people’s trousers.
• He uses his paws for a lot more than normal dogs do: to get your attention; to open doors; to juggle toys.
• And last week he ate a fern.

I mean, just look at it. He ripped it right out by its roots. The pot was still standing. And then he sat on the remains of it, so I couldn’t see the evidence. There were some dirt clumps on the side table where the fern used to live. It was a near-perfect crime.*

Also, he climbs on things. He’s only allowed on two pieces of furniture, but Christ, how do we explain this?

And then there is this:

This is the dog version of if it fits, I sits.

Here, have another look.

Obviously, there are some marked differences.

First, this:

This is just sloppy. No self-respecting cat, I think, would leave a limb hanging out like this. I mean, an appendage, sure–a paw, or a tail. But not a whole limb. It just seems uncouth.

Then there is this:

What even is this? This is uncomfortable. No one would ever choose this, unless one is a dog with no nerve endings in his head and does not give a flying whatsit. Dog’s head is against a table leg. Dog is half-in, half-out of bed.

Then there is this:

And this:

What are these evidence of, you might say? This is evidence that dog does seem to care what we think. Which is not to say that cats don’t care what we think**, but this is obviously some kind of needy stare-down.

In fact, I think it’s downright pugnacious.

Look, I know other dogs do this “if it fits, I sits”** thing. In fact, I think Huckleberry does it because his friend Scooby, a gigantic black lab who belongs to our friends Non and Jess, did it first.

But I do think that I’m prescribing cat-like behavior to The Berry because I’m struggling to understand him.

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Our dead dog, Sprocket, was a hyper-communicator. He had funny little eyedots that were a visual cue to whereever he was looking, and sometimes, whatever he was thinking. When he wanted to pick anything up on our walks, he would stop and put his paw on it and wait for us to tell him, “You can have that,” or “No.”

If he wanted to pee, he would stop walking and wait for us to acknowledge that he was, indeed, stopping to pee.

If you told him to “leave it,” he would fling his head to one side, away from the object you were telling him to ignore, an extra signal to us that he was LEAVING IT.

If he came across something on a walk or if he saw something from the window that he’d never seen before, his ears would pin back on his head, and then he would look up at you. “What is that? Is that…okay?”

And we would say, “That’s okay, buddy. It’s just a bunny/raven/lizard. You leave it alone.” We would pat him and the ears would move forward and he would watch, but he rarely bolted or got nervous.

Sprocket had one blue eye, one brown.

Huckleberry’s eyes are very dark brown, and set more closely together and forward in his head. He looks beady-eyed, calculating, sometimes, especially when we are wanting him to do something with us or for us:
“Huckleberry, come!”
*Beady-eyed stare*
“Huckleberry, come!”
*Further staring.*

This is frustrating at best, and it makes us really sad, at worst. I worry that Huckleberry doesn’t enjoy the same level of trust or calm that Sprocket did. When he goes outside and we see a bunny, we tell him to leave it. He does, but his whole body trembles. He is alert. Every muscle is waiting for release.

(Not for nothing, but this is a little cat-like, too.)

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This morning, I read something that put into more concrete terms an exercise I give to most of my students and my writing-coaching clients. In the case of my university students, always runs the length of our time together.

I borrow the term “deep noticing” from poet Derek Sheffield, and I use Lynda Barry’s daily diary exercise. Part of the exercise requires you to list seven things you did, and seven things you saw. You’re not to spend more than two and a half minutes on each section. The idea is that you just get better at paying attention to what’s actually around you.

We do this because I want students to pay attention to how much wealth of inspiration there is out there, but I don’t want them to be overwhelmed by MAKING SOMETHING of it. Sometimes, a thing just is, and you can get to know yourself really, really well by paying attention to what you’re actually noticing.

When I’m noticing things, for instance, I notice:
Patterns
Creatures
Leaves

(What things are you likely to notice?)

The thing I read is this piece from the New York Times Smarter Living section, which I seem to be reading an awful lot of lately. In it, the columnist, Tim Herrera, talks about “pay[ing] attention to what you care about, and … car[ing] about what you’re paying attention to.”

I love this idea, and putting it into practice with Huckleberry may help me to make more sense of his behavior:

When does he look apprehensive?
When does he look happy?
What is his body doing when he is happy/apprehensive?
When is he paying attention to me?
What expression is he wearing when he is paying attention to me?

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Probably my favorite thing about life overall is how much the things we love to do dovetail into each other, and how confirming that can be.

Back when I thought my first novel would be a middle-grade/YA book, and the animals in my work in progress were talking, someone suggested I really consider what they’d say if they were actually talking to me. So I built a facebook page for Sprocket, and made up a voice for him. This is the most I’ve ever considered my writing life coinciding with my dog life.

But you know, maybe the thing I should take from this is that I noticed Sprocket a lot more than I notice Huckleberry. That’s a valuable lesson, too.

*So stealthy.
**Who’m I kidding? Part of the great charm of cats is that they really don’t care what we think, do they?