Barracuda and the Cuteness Invasion

There is only so much CUTENESS a man can take.

So, I went to bed last night. Boy was that a mistake!

I was planning to sleep the night through. Boy was I wrong!

I knew something was up the moment the Jaws movie sound clip started to play off in the background. I opened my eyes, looking for a shark fin or something to go with the clip. Whatever it was, it was coming for me!

And then, I saw it! TWO large, scruffy ears, making their way in the dark alongside the bed. I wanted to ignore her. I wanted to scold her. I wanted to tell her to “go lay down!” And I did!

But it did no good.

Little Barracuda, her silvery shag-carpet coat, adorning those perpetrating ears, glided toward me. She had detected my movements in the night. I had, like, turned over or something. And she was onto me. She knew that if I stirred, I must be awake. And when a person is awake, it signifies the Tummy Rub Hour.

Even after midnight, those cute, fluffy ears pointed towards me in the dark are too cute to resist. I can make out her eyes, imploring me with that perfect sense of love. I will at least give her a pat on the head.

Then, I’ll tell her to go lay down.

It is now 3 a.m.… The process begins again. The jaws music, the ears over the bed line, the imploring eyes.

I didn’t sleep much that night!

Barracuda (Cookie Monster/Syrenka) has one of the most endearing personalities I have ever seen. She is the epidome of cuteness even though she is no longer a puppy.

This one, will most assuredly be a puppy for life!

She came into the house over the weekend, anticipating the time when Jennifer returns to properly train her for her new life with a family a few hours from here. She had never been in a house before. Not since her first weeks of life.

The three steps up were new to her. So was everything from the front door to the bed covers. And she melted her way right into my heart from day one.

Tomorrow, she will be going into the vet for her spay. She is one of the dogs purchased over the Black Friday event and her new family is in for a treat.

I don’t much like taking a dog to the vet for a spay. But it is part of the process. In Deer Park, the same vet I took Yeti to, I will likely spend much of the day. Yeti will come too. We will have to place a crate in the back of the original Dire Wolf Express van for Barracuda so that Yeti does not disturb her.

Tonight, I plan to sleep out on the sofa so that she doesn’t feel the separation. It is the separation that concerns her. When I am in bed, she cannot see me. She isn’t even sure I am there until the Jaws sound clip starts going and she finds her way through in a sea of darkness,…

…to invade me with her cuteness.

Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.