A dogs A-List life

So if dogs could prioritize their desires what would be on the A-List? Food and treats would rank high. Right behind would be walks, ball and Frisbee tosses and assorted affection demonstrated by patting, petting, scratching and stroking. How would this match up to most human A-List's? Probably money would be up there on the human list. Of course food and housing are pretty important, but money will buy those things. The accoutremonts of luxury and prestige can be bought with money also, so to list them would be redundant. Love and affection and all the manifestations of such, like petting, patting, scratching and stroking are quite important to people too. Strictly physically speaking, sex would cover it. But emotional love is more complex, for both people and dogs. Both can misbehave and make emotional love harder to earn. People can misbehave with intentional malice. Dogs can misbehave with intentional directive, but not malice. Digging into the garbage is in order to eat some off-limits food, not to intentionally make a mess to annoy someone. This is why forgiving a dog comes easier to us than forgiving a fellow human.
So what is on Goldie's A-List? Walks, Play, Attention from her family. Food, particular foods rank higher--scrambled eggs, pigs ears, cheese, freshly baked bread. A short and clear list. Items that are easy to provide. It would do us all good to shorten and clarify our A-Lists. Just look to your dog for advice on how.
copyright 2009 vickers

First Steps

I am a writer and my senior dog, Goldie, is a sleeper and an occasional chaser of rabbits, quail, nighthawks and tracker of javelina and other desert critters. We both have periodic bursts of energy where we cannot sit down, but must scatter shot run about moving and rearranging the elements of our lives. We are not a solitary couple. My husband John lives here too, but his engineering work has long hours, while my equally long hours of writing keeps me in a home office where Goldenrod, the 9 year old Senior Dog is my office mate and companion.
As any self respecting writer knows, a personal journal and a more public blog are essential to keeping the literate juices flowing. I have the journal, secret and old. I have graduated from email to the golden retriever chat sites and Facebook and creating a blog seems like the natural progression. I don't know if anyone will read this or comment or post to it, but it will be an interesting exercise none the less.
When starting a new endeavor, it seems right to ask what do I want out of this? What are my goals, my mission statement as it were. Not sure and no comment to both. Flowing, free-form, stream of conscience seems to be the best answer. I am hoping this blog will take me places I have not seen before, allow me to change my point of view and from it will emerge Jean the better writer and better human being. I think all that Goldie will be hoping for are more frequent desert walks and better aim from me when throwing the Frisbee. If you have any requests for the direction I may take, please share. I will enjoy your comments. Probably not take your advice, but enjoy your comments anyway.
copyright 2009 vickers