Hubert Blog

More on Buddy Training

I've gotten a bunch of mail from various beasties noting that I seem to have very smart (by which they mean "train-able") buddies. Well, I'm not sure that's true. In the first place, I'm not sure that "smart" and "train-able" are the same thing at all, and I don't know that I'd want a smart buddy. Granted, their goofiness can be irritating at times, but the obliviousness of our buddies often works to our advantage--they don't notice our using their computers, reading their books, snagging food (except for Marquis and George getting into the corn meal, but the mess was too big to clean up in time).

I also think that, to the degree our buddies are trained, it's because they're not the smartest brains around. For instance, if we jump on the couch, they move over, and I don't think they even notice that they're doing it. It's easy to snag the covers at night, push them into little scrunched-up sleeping positions, get them to take us places, give us snacks and chew toys, and even get them to throw things for us almost anytime we want. It's because they're not too bright that they leave the potato chip bag out (mmmmm....bbq flavored is my favorite!) and open.

And I'm not sure they're really all that well-trained. I'm not complaining, mind you, and I know that lots of my readers put up with much worse (e.g., Aiko and the ribbons), but, I mean, whoof. For example, the other night, beta buddy joins me on the guest bed. I'm not sure why, but I'd guess it was because someone was snoring in her room (whether alpha buddy or Marquis is impossible to know). So, she gets between me and the wall! Seriously! I stood up on the bed and stared at her, but she just fluffed the pillow and rolled over. I whimpered. "Huh?" she mumbles, and then tries to put the blanket over my head. Granted, I do like to sleep with the blanket over my head, but that was not what I wanted right then. This went on for half an hour!!!!!!!! I would whimper, and she would try some other possumfoolthang. It took her that long to figure out that I was NOT going to sleep on the side of the bed where I might fall off. Finally, she traded sides with me, covered my head (again), and we finally were able to get some sleep. You call that smart?

posted by Hubert @ 9:29 AM