Miss Wookiee-licious

Her name was not Wookie originally, it was Ewok. Her face looks exactly like the little Ewok that finds Princess Leia. It was a perfect name, but she would not answer to it. She likes Wookie. We have noticed that some dogs prefer names with a long E sound at the end. Maybe it is pleasing to the canine ear.

Wookie was just a baby when she arrived in my home. I didn’t get to know her then. She was my daughter-in-law’s dog. Wookie even worked as a demo dog at PetSmart for a while. Some of the folks there still remember her and ask about her when I go into the store.

I really got to know Wookie when she was pregnant with her first litter. I moved her into my bedroom with me. She decided that also meant that she slept on the bed. It was OK with me but she is a bed hog. She would wake me during the night and tell me it was play time. Maybe on her schedule it was but it wasn’t on mine.

I was a little worried about Wookie becoming a mother. Truthfully I did not think she was the brightest dog. That’s fine; sometimes a so-called dumb dog is the best pet. If you have read “Marley & Me” then you know what I mean. Wookie fooled me. She just likes being outside, so I just had not gotten to know her. She was and is the best mother. She has also turned out to be the best companion. She asks to sit in my lap rather than just appearing there like Gus. She is not demanding of attention but enjoys every moment of it that she gets. The only thing she and I disagree about is grooming. It is hard to brush a dog that is chewing on the hand holding the brush! So periodically she gets very extreme haircuts. Her topknot is very unruly. I try to keep it banded so that it does not fall in her eyes, but she rubs her head on things to remove the band.

Wookie’s favorite thing is eating. If we didn’t control her diet, she would look like a blimp. She also has a fondness for eating dog droppings. Yuck! Sometimes she and I race to clean up. Unless the dog that left the droppings behind has parasites, it isn’t harmful. Some dogs just have a taste for poop. She is also one of my best cleaners of accidental food spills. She has to compete with Reggie for those.