Peggie has a little lamp

We were about to drive out for lunch yesterday when Daddy who was at that time holding Hercules called me frantically to look at Hercules' back. Hercules, for once understood English, came wagging to me with his sad face. He looked like he wanted to tell me something. I bent down to have a look at light colored blood coming out of his back!

I didn't panic. My initial thought was he might have tried to climb up the mango tree and fell into the hole he dug just under the mango tree. But the blood was too light to come from a fresh wound. So we decided to take him to the vet. We were lucky enough to have a vet open in this small town on Sunday.

Daddy was saddened when the vet told us that he has to shave Hercules' hair to see the wound. He can't stand the idea of Hercules losing his crowning glory. But I told him, it is only a small patch.

Hair was gone, and the truth revealed. We saw a golf-ball sized swollen skin with bite marks! I didn't bite Hercules, I only spank him - lightly. Daddy also doesn't bite Hercules, he only yells. So who's the culprit???

Preeeeetttttyyyyyy....!!!

Pretty who was with us in the vet at that time moved quietly to a corner and stayed down when we mentioned her name. Guilt drew on her face.

Hercules was so strong he didn't complain about the shaving, the wound cleaning and the jabs. All he showed was a pair of teary red eyes. Poor Hercules!

So now he has to wear a Lamp-shade collar to prevent him from licking his wounds. The moment I put it on his head, his legs were shaking thinking he was being punished. Yet he didn't complain. Just teary red eyes. So was mine!

Yesterday we were heartbroken watching Hercules clumsily adjusting to his new accessory. Today, we don't see a depressed Hercules, we have adjusted seeing a 4-legged lamp!

And Daddy gave him a new name which he happily responds to.

Lamp-post!

Genesis

When we moved in together, we decided to adopt a golden retriever puppy to signify the start of our family. We named him Hercules.

Few months down the road, we realized Hercules was lonely as we're at work most of the day. So we got another puppy to keep him company. We call her Pretty.

They get along very well that they're now inseparable.

Now that there are 2 of them, we tend to make comparisons of their distinct characters. We think Hercules is stupid, clumsy, very affectionate, gentle and too dependable on us. Pretty on the other hand is very intelligent, fast-learner, defensive, cunning and independent.

Despite of their negative characters, we are extremely proud of both of them as they are so well-behaved towards our guests. They become our topic of conversation most of the time. We'd make fun of Hercules' stupidity and Pretty's ferocious behaviour.

We thought we made a brilliant observation.

We thought they are hillarious until a family member hit us with some truth that those puppies are actually carbon copies of each of us!

That foolish dog Hercules is him, and that cunning little bitch is me!