Nikki, not Abby, is shown above. They had many similarities but the reason I showed that particular photo was that I never did capture Abby drinking with a photo, so I had to settle for another person’s dog with a beer in hand (so to say). Normally when Abby was having some beer, I was in the pool or the person she snitched the beer from was in the pool, subsequently a camera was not available.
Abby liked Miller Lite as far as drinking is concerned. She never drank inside. When she did drink, the weather was hot and humid. We did not offer her beer nor did we pour the beer in a bowl for her to drink. She would ‘ask’ for the beer which we would then pour a little on the concrete for her to lap up.
Like many of the interests and cravings Abby had, we stumbled across this craving of hers by accident. We can’t pinpoint the exact day she expressed an interest in beer. Most likely my mom was in the pool in her favorite corner which is in the shallow end on the ‘southwest’ side where the most sun would hit the pool over the course of the day. In addition to sunning herself, my mom spent her time in that corner talking on the phone, drinking her Miller Lite from a 12 oz can and smoking her Carlton 100’s. She does have her vices.
On the day the first time Abby most likely drank her first beer, was most likely a hot summer’s day. Abby probably waited until my mom put the beer down and walked over to the unattended beer which was sitting on the pool’s edge and nudged the beer over with her nose. After that, she lapped up the spilt beer.
It took a few knocked down beers until my mom realized that Abby was deliberately knocking over the beer solely for the purpose of drinking them. We had thought Abby was being klutzy. By no means was she a dainty thing and could be quite forceful in her movements, so we thought that Abby had walked passed the beer and accidentally knocked it over.
However, there were days when Abby didn’t feel like waiting for my mom to put down a beer in order for her to have a drink. I’ve noted Abby’s alpha tendencies and how that led to her assertiveness and even aggressiveness. When it came to her quest for beer, Abby would occasionally go to my mom’s hand holding the beer and start pushing my mom’s hand with her nose. All this was an attempt for my mom to pour some beer on the side of the pool where Abby would drink the puddle of beer. Sometimes, Abby would even knock the beer out of my mom’s hand.
Normally, Abby would beg for beer while one of us was drinking in the pool, but often times she would beg for beer while someone was in a chair on the patio or on a lounge chair on the pool deck. For some reason, Abby only liked beer poured in small puddles on the concrete. As noted before, Abby didn’t like beer placed in a bowl and any poured there would go to waste.
On some days, Abby drank up to 2 beers, but that wasn’t often. Normally, she would only have a half a beer whenever she did drink. On the days she did drink a little more, I could tell she had a little too much. Her eyes would get droopy and glassy while she was sluggish and a little tired. Otherwise, she was as happy as she could be. Eventually, she would pass out and sleep it off.
What about the other dogs? Father was a finicky eater and it turns out a teetotaler. Andy, too, did not drink although he was not as finicky a eater as Father was. Andy had no vices. He doesn’t overeat and doesn’t drink. I’ve joked that with his lifestyle, blond hair and green eyes that if he were a person, he would have been a Mormon.
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