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Dixie joins Plum Street patrol

Fri, 09/22/2017 - 3:39 pm

I have a new dog. Zuckey is still number one, but I have a tendency to buy cars and adopt dogs. As my children would attest, I’m hard on both, thus the need for replacements and additions. I have good reasons for doing both. The last car was a used car and after two years and a few bumps, its value was sinking fast. Also, I wanted a small SUV because I’m getting older and some of my friends couldn’t get out of the low little car I had. 

As to the new dog … I got Zuckey in 2009. She was a few years old at the time, making her about eight-years-old now. In dog years, I still have a few up on her, but we’re beginning to have to use the same purple shampoo. I’m getting silver and she’s getting bronze. She used to be brown, but the mix of white gives her a bit of a glow. 

I was worried about Zuckey and about myself, sleeping all the time, and decided we both needed a little excitement. We got it. The new dog is energetic. She is a sweetie, but the last time Zuckey jumped from the couch to the chair across the room was the time she injured her spine in 2010. Since then she’s had to be helped in any elevating experience. She has to be helped up onto the couch, onto my bed, and sometimes up the steps to the deck. I built her a ramp. So, when the new dog leaped from the deck to the ground four feet below, bypassing the ramp and the steps, Zuckey whirled around and looked at me like, “Did you see that smart-alec?”

She came with the name “Cookie” and for about twenty-four hours, I called her that. There was a problem. “Cookie” sounds a lot like “Zuckey.” Also, “cookie” is what I’ve always called a dog biscuit. So, I was a bit tongue-tied, and the dogs were confused. My friend suggested we call her Rachel. He said he’d never heard of a dog named Rachel. And I agreed that was good … not to name a dog Rachel. 

Yesterday, on day three, we came up with the name Dixie. It has a hard beginning sound and an “e” on the end which I have heard is necessary for calling a dog from a great distance. The “eeeee” will carry in the wind, and they will obey. I have no data to back that up, but it sounds good. 

So, Dixie it is. Of course, the vet was a little nervous about the sudden name change and put Cookie/Dixie on the tag. Therefore, if you come across Cookie Dixie Beggs, she belongs to me. We call her by her middle name. 

Of course, with all the rancor over Confederate statues and such, my neighbor Leonard has given me a hard time over her name, but Dixie it is, and Dixie it will stay. Dixie is permanently, fully adopted. After all, where am I going to find a dog that is house broken, loves me and Zuckey, will sit upon command and can jump high buildings with a single bound (my bed). Now, all I need to do is train her to get along with the tax clients who will be coming in during January. We’ll see.