Brangelina Who?

Evening Readers….

Move over Brangelina!  You are old news. Shamy, who?  Sorry Bennifer, you are about to uncouple.   There is a new power team in town, and they are taking over the world!  Okay, maybe not the world, but definitely 34th Street in Newark. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you, the one and only

Sophie and Joey otherwise known as SoJoe!  That's right, I have a moniker for my fur babies!  It all came about because I needed a word when referring to both of them.  Since they are opposite sexes, girls nor boys would  work.  Sometimes I call them kids!  But that just gets you weird stares at 7 in the morning when you are walking through the hood, and your neighbors hear you. One day while picking up dog poo, they started chasing a bunny and all hell broke loose.  So, I pulled a Judy Gray and started yelling all of the kids' names at one time.  Needless to say, in my frustration, the word SoJoe came out of my mouth, and it has stuck!  After all, they are definitely worthy of their own smash up name!  I mean look at them!  They ooze entitlement!  For those of you who live under a rock or in another country and don't know me, Sophie is the white dog and belongs to me.  Joey is obviously the black one and belongs to my boyfriend Mark.

When we moved into the new house, so did the dogs.  Prior to moving,  they both were accustomed to being an only dog and,  quite frankly,  spoiled rotten.  Now Sophie has always had another dog around whether it was her sister Stormy, who passed 3 years ago or the neighbor dogs, Lady, Ebony, Buffy and Dot.  Joey, on the other  hand, was the center of the universe for Mark and his mom.   Poor Joey, he had no idea what was going to happen to him when he met Miss Sophie Marie.  His nose was definitely bent out of shape when he had to share his dad.  He didn't like it much!  However, he has come around and looks forward to Sophie's weekly visits.  I personally think it's because he knows that when she is here, he will get an egg on his food each morning.  Of course that is all contingent on her staying away from his food when it is served!  And Sophie, she just looks at him as if he is an idiot!  She is her mother's daughter and doesn't tolerate nonsense well.

Well, that all changed today.  After 4 weeks of togetherness,  they have finally bonded as a team.  You see Joey has some separation issues.  Prior to moving here, he stayed with Mark, his mom and son  and very rarely was left alone.  Well, in less than 4 weeks, I go back to school and Mark is working 12 hour days at his new job.  Therefore, Joey has been subjected to crate training.  Let's just say, he's not a fan!  In fact he hides under the bed if he even thinks there is a possibility that I am leaving.  So, Mark and I decided to try to pen him up in the kitchen on short trips to town to see how he does.  So far, so good.  He's been able to keep it together for up to 2 hours.  Today we had Sophie.   Now Sophie has been free range for 13 of her 14 years!  She's a pro!

Well, Mark had a dentist appointment and I had a baby shower.  We were going to overlap by 30 minutes.  The decision was made to pen Joey in the kitchen and let Sophie have the rest of the house.  We separated them with the baby gate.  While at the shower I got a reply to may message asking how it went.  He said the dentist went fine!  SoJoe, not so good! He said that " both were in the kitchen and the baby gate was destroyed.  Really, no joke"  I guess you can call it an epic failure!  As you can see

 from the picture, the baby gate was still standing, but had a hole in it!    Given that all of the missing pieces were in the living room, we are assuming that Miss Sophie did the damage.  What we are not sure about is how she got on the other side!  You see the hole is not big enough for a 44 pound dog to go through it.  It is too tall for a 14-year old arthritic dog to jump.  Unless Joey jumped it first and helped Sophie over it, we are at a loss for an explanation!    Just like the mystery of the shit on the wall.  (See my entry "Because Ryan Paxton said so!" for that story!)

So you see, SoJoe is a force to be reckoned with!  They accomplish the unthinkable!  They have super dog powers or something!  Or they are simply smarter than their owners!  All I can say is to stay tuned.  I have a feeling this is only the first of many SoJoe stories to come!

Make Every Day Count,
Denise