Whatcha talkin' about Willis?

Babies like pacifiers, toddlers love their blankies, and Willis, well, he loves his orange. It's a family joke. As soon as we all sit down to dinner, five minutes into our conversation, Willis starts whining. If we ignore him, he starts kicking his full water and food bowls upside down. Clunk! Crash! Spill! If that doesn't get our attention, he starts barking in our faces. What does he want? An orange. A small clemantine, cutie-pie one that will fit into his little Bichon Frise/mini-Doberman Pinscher mouth which he holds there for a few hours...until just the right time to eat it. And don't come near him once he has his fruit either. He will bare his teeth at you and growl to protect his treasure. (This is where his wolf ancestry instinct kicks in. He behaves as if he's protecting his hunt. But hey, someone try to tell him it's not a rabbit. It's an orange.)

In lieu of oranges, sometimes tomatoes work. Willis developed a taste for cherry tomatoes from the garden where he learned to pluck them off the vine and eat them. He also likes apples which use to fall into our yard from a neighboring tree. But truly, he prefers oranges. In a later blog, I will explain how Willis sleeps on top of his cheeseburger toy, but that's for another time. And for those of you who have been enjoying Willis' antics for the past 12 years, yes, this is the same dog that used to entertain the whole neighborhood by climbing up trees in his younger days to retrieve...what else?...fruit.

Diff'rent Strokes!