Abandonment issues

There’s a young dog tied up outside my house who Courtney and I call ‘Meat Cookie’. He has a long chain which allows him to wander into next door’s field, via a hole in the fence, where he sniffs trees and bounces about chasing chickens and peeing on logs. Unfortunately he doesn’t get very much attention from people so is very excitable whenever he sees a human.

I used to open the windows in the spare room when I was cleaning and he would always run madly towards me, waggy and woofy, paws scrabbling on the window ledge, whining and pulling a strange face of worry and desperation. I’ve started opening the window about once a day to pat him and give him a bit of love, but whenever I close it again he always looks at me as if to say, ‘pleeeeeease don’t leave me out here. I’m so lonely!’

He’s called Meat Cookie because that is what he likes to eat. I once bought some mini pastries called pâtés brisées, which are essentially spicy sausage rolls in the shape of tiny pies, and I gave one to Courtney. Having never encountered such a thing, she exclaimed, ‘Ohh a meat cookie!’ and the name stuck. And there were about 20 in the box so we shared them with the then nameless dog, and from that day forward he became ‘Meat Cookie’.

I think Meat Cookie is accustomed to eating anything actually – Lisette gives him rice and tomatoes and pasta and all manner of ‘human feed’, and I’ve given him crisps, salami, crackers and all sorts of stuff too. All food pleases him. And he’s a very skinny dog too so he must burn off all those calories with all his woofing and whining. I feel very sorry for him. He’s so bored and lonely. I once gave him an old shoe that I was going to throw out and he was so excited he raced up and down with it, straining on the length of chain at each end, flipping it up in the air and barking like a freak. And eventually he settled down with it for a good ol’ chew, tongue out, panting and happy, and then came over and gave me a lick as if to say thanks.

Courtney left on Wednesday to go home to Delaware. Now I know how Meat Cookie feels when I close that window. I’m sad and lonely now too. So if anyone wants to pat my head or give me old shoe to play with I’d be most grateful!