Miss Lucy was an old dog. Small. Part mutt but mostly long haired dachshund. Pampered more than ten years by our Chapel Hill, next door neighbor Margaret Cohan.
Cobalt was a dark German Shepherd puppy that her son kept with his widowed mother.
Captain Jack was our Golden Retriever puppy. Largest in his litter.
Puppies Captain Jack and Cobalt met Miss Lucy in our driveway which was two feet above our front lawn. Puppies wanted to play. Miss Lucy knocked both of the pups down the incline and went about her business.
Both puppies grew as tall as my waistline, and I am six foot three inches tall. They terrorized the newspaper publisher nearby when he came outside for his mail. He called the dogcatcher.
The botanical garden employees, a couple blocks away, called begging us to get the two dogs out of their garden.
But the grown dogs always deferred to Miss Lucy. As she lay dying, both dogs came near her bed, whimpered and nuzzled her.
The gist of this story, you do not need to teach old dogs new tricks. They already know plenty.
Image by birgl from Pixabay
