Cleo licks. A lot.
She licks when she's nervous. When she's happy. When she knows she's done something wrong. Even when she's sleeping. Her big, rough, pink tongue slobbers about uncontrollably and incessantly.
There's only one way to stop the licking. You have to scratch her stomach. Then she looks at you as if she owns you, as if you're her pet.
When we had our old carpet, we used a product called Carpet Fresh. It's meant to make ratty old carpet fragrant for about a day, leading the cleaner to think it's clean. Because of the smell. Yeah, I know it doesn't make any sense.
What does that have to do with the licking? Well, it seems that powder somehow got into Cleo's paws. So, she started licking her paws. And licking. And licking. Until she licked the pads right off her back paws. We took her to the vet who gave us a solution in which to soak the paws. And antibiotics. We followed the instructions. She kept licking.
It got so bad, in fact, that we had to put a cone around her head. And she tried to lick those paws. God knows she did. But she couldn't, making her utterly miserable. Instead she licked the dust and pollen from the air repeatedly until she made this house habitable for the worst asthmatic.
We talked to someone who told us that the Carpet Fresh might be the problem. And, after we got our new carpet, just like that, she stopped licking her paws and made due with the carpet, the couch, blankets, Buddy, the cats, Joseph, water, play toys, and cat urine.
Yuck.
But that's not the story, this is. Today I come home after what can only be described as a grueling day. I take out the trash - Friday's our trash day - and do the last of my work. I then put the old blue blanket - an artifact from the old man's house - on the ground in my room and proceed to do my workout.
Now, it's tough to get the workout started because the doggies want some love. So, they attack my head as I do push ups. Buddy just charges head first and hits me squarely in the middle of my skull. This is how he shows his love. Meanwhile, Cleo starts a lickin'. I turn my face one way, she licks the back of my neck for a little while and then searches for my face again. She must lick my face. There's just no way around it. All while I'm doing push ups. You try that...
After a while, she gets tired of trying to find my face and retires to the bed where she stares at me with a knowing grin. Because she knows that soon enough I'll be doing an exercise where I lie on my back and lift my knees to my chest. At the moment she sees her opening, leaps off the bed, leading with her tongue, and assaults my eyes, ears, nose, and cheeks. Over and over, her wet tongue finds every nook and crevice on and in my face while I try to do my exercise.
Finally, I scratch her tummy. And she stares at me laughingly. Knowing that she has once again ruled the day.
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