Flash update: I have a bone to pick with the family dog

For those of you who may have wondered how our family dog Flash is doing, I have answers. Yes, I stepped back from being a weekly columnist in June of 2011. Two years removed from that and now I'm sticking to facebook and my online blog. Perhaps I will share more about why later. But for now, a few folks have demanded (probably too strong of a word) that I update them about everyone's favorite family dog, our dog Flash.

Quick review: Flash showed up to live with us in the spring of 2010. She is a Treeing Walker Coonhound and Chocolate Lab mix. Life accomplishments to this point include:

1. getting a fish hook stuck in her nose (see picture on my blog at www.rustystroupe.blogspot.com)
2. riding on the top of my truck at 35 mph (against my wishes)
3. chewing up the first 38 chapters of Genesis from our family Bible

One of the requirements for me allowing Flash to join our family back in 2010 was that she be an outside dog. I'm not a fan of animal hair on the furniture nor the smells that people who live in a house with beasts become immune to, but that everyone else who enters therein can sniff out immediately.

It started out well enough with Flash having her own little “home” in the garage but she gradually worked her way into the house from time to time. When we moved houses in early 2012, she was supposed to sleep in the confined laundry room and travel in and out of her doggy door that led to a small lot where she could frolic and do whatever dogs do to entertain themselves these days. I was okay with this arrangement but it was short-lived.

Eventually she worked her way onto the downstairs floor of our home with strict orders never to venture upstairs to the bedroom areas. And a gate at the bottom of the stairs was supposed to ensure her compliance with that arrangement.

But she had her own ideas and found new and creative ways to get around the barrier daily. Herewith, the “arrangement” has evolved to a point where Flash now sleeps nightly at the foot of my bed. And she does so on a padded mattress. So the circle has become complete. In three short years, this doggy child of ours has worked her way from habitating outside in the cold to curling up on a padded mattress in the master bedroom each night. Don't tell me cats are smarter. Flash and I know better.