Say hello to Scout. This is what I call Scout’s ‘Hyper Look.’ Her eyes narrow a bit and her tongue gets very pink. Ditto for her ears and the skin around her eyes. She’s a border collie, therefore she’s very, very smart and very, very high energy. At the grand old age of 13 1/2, she still has more energy than most puppies do. She’s slowed down a bit, but given the right circumstances, she will cavort as if she’s 6 months old rather than the matronly 13 that she is.

An interesting change has occurred in the last couple of years. Well, there are a couple of them. First of all, Scout has become that elderly lady who nags and speaks her mind and doesn’t give a hoot what you think. Where she used to quietly wait by the door to be let back into the house, now she starts barking immediately and doesn’t stop until I let her in. If she wants something, she is relentless in her nagging, She’s always been sassy, but now? Oh my. She’s become an elderly brat.

She’s my role model. That’s how I’m going to be when I get older. I will say what I want to say when I want to say it. I will demand my due, knowing I’ve earned it, for heaven’s sake. I’ll speak my mind.

Here’s the other thing about Scout nowadays. She wants to eat. All the time. I’m feeding her the same amount of food as I always have. She used to have to be coaxed to eat. Not any more. That girl can put it away. She knows exactly when we are within an hour of her time to eat and bugs me non-stop until I make the move toward her food.

Remember when she was so sick recently and we couldn’t get her to eat? We talked to the doctor about it and he said he would write a prescription for something to stimulate her appetite. After giving it to her for a day or two, she became ravenous. She wolfed down all her food and then proceeded to stand over Riley as he ate, waiting to swoop in there and grab anything left in his bowl. I once came out of the bathroom to find her with her head in his bowl as he was calming eating his food. She had a maniacal look on her face as she gobbled up every morsel she could. The nerve!

She got in trouble for that.

What had come over her? Suspicious, I looked at the label on the prescription bottle. “Dex.” Uh…would that be Dexadrine? A stimulant?

My girl was ‘hopped up’ on drugs.

Her already healthy appetite tripled….quadrupled. As we weaned her off the Dex (according to the directions on the label) she became a bit more sane. A wee bit more lady-like.

She still waits for Riley to finish his meal, so she can eat anything he’s left or, at the very least, lick his bowl. She still gives me that unblinking border collie stare until I get her dinner. And the other day? Don had a tuna sandwich and left the paper napkin he had been using wadded up on the coffee table. In the meantime, both of us were out of the room for a short period of time. We came back to find shredded paper everywhere. What?? Scout never does that! This girl has never been the kind of dog who gets into things. And it certainly wasn’t Riley, who can’t even get up on his own.

It wasn’t until I sniffed the paper that I detected the scent of tuna and put two and two together.

She got in trouble for that, too.

Oh, that girl! She has never, not for a single second, been boring. She is so fascinating and interesting and funny and smart and obsessive and nuts. She’s high maintenance but oh, so worth it.

Love you, my girl. And no, it’s not time to eat yet.