Miss Mary Lady Bird Johnson

Or as J and his Sigma Nu brethren would call her, Maria Juanita Desantos.  J is a silent reader of my blog, as much as he would never leave a comment showing so.  The other day he made a comment (in-person) that I've never written about just Mary...or as I sometimes call her:

Lady Bird Johnson

Mary Lou Retton

Black-Face Mary (or BFM)

Hoochie Mama

Mary is a real dog.  She does real dog things like swim in lakes, eat an occasional deer leg, and comfort you when you have a bad day.  I had a girlfriend stop by last week, very stressed out and crying.  Leo was panicky and on alert by her tears.  Mary sat by my friend, occasionally stretching her long neck out to touch my friend's leg, prompting an under-chin scratch, to which Mary closed her eyes.  She does things like wriggle like a 6-month-old puppy when we come home, despite her age of 7 *though she doesn't look a day over 5.*  She has perpetually stinky breath, but I'll always let her lick my face...because that might not be something Leo takes pleasure in, but all Mary wants out of life is to lick your face.  I sing to her a lot more than I talk to her because I like to think she digs it.  Sometimes I wake up and she's standing right by my side of the bed, waiting for me (because she knows she's got a 95% chance of me waking up before her daddy).  She sighs when you hug her too long.  She sighs when she's frustrated.  She sighs when Leo runs up and snatches her toy.  She's changed the way J and I talk, since she along with Leo (collectively known as "The Babies") are usually one of the first things we catch up on after a long day.  "What are the babies doing?"  "When did the babies last go outside?"

When we took them to the doggy psychic for my birthday this year, Mary told the psychic that she worries about my health because I tend to cough a lot.  She (Mary) also wanted to tell me that she worries a lot about something happening between J and I that would shake up her happy household, because she's never been happier than she is now.  And coming from a formerly free-roaming Tennessee country dog that used to take herself to J's university's cafeteria and perform tricks for pizza crust, that means a lot to me.

A few more reasons I love her:

She's got human eyes.  They know.

She enticed Leo to do this.

And she let's us do this. 'Nuf said.