Dogs : Pearl
Pearl is a wonderful dog adopted in May 2001 through the St. Louis Boxer Rescue group. In terms of age, she's Maggie's big sister, though you can't tell from looking at them. Can't say exactly, but the guess is that Pearl is somewhere around eight years old.
Pearl is one tiny little Boxer. Her legs are especially short. But she can run pretty fast, corners beautifully and can jump surprisingly high.
One significant feature of Pearl is that she's not afraid of anything. She's tough.
She's unbelievably affectionate, always ready to give a little kiss, or maybe a big one. She's also really happy to plop down in your lap and let you pet her.
I'm known to call her a piglet every now and then:
- She eats as soon as the food hits the bowl. And always wants more.
- If she doesn't want to go somewhere, she just sits. Because she's low to the ground, it's hard to get her to move. Pig-headed.
- She snorts a bit more than Maggie.
- Bless her heart, she's so short and stocky, she just looks like a piglet sometimes.
Snarl
Boxers were originally bred from Bullenbeissers and English Bulldogs. Pearl seems to have a little extra pinch of Bulldog. You can tell from her aforementioned piglet qualities (shorter legs and round chest), but the best way is to check out this outrageous snarl:
Attention Forum Users: You can't link to this image to put it in your crappy myspace profile or whatever. I know it's an awesome picture, but it just won't work. Don't bother trying.
This is a posed shot, but it often happens naturally when she licks her nose. Sometimes only one jowl gets stuck behind a tooth, but every now and then, you get to see the "double snarl." I think it's beautiful.
For a while I had this as my desktop image on my 21" monitor at work, and visitors were often taken aback. Probably because her head was 200% larger than actual size.
Lean
Pearl loves to lean on people. Unfortunately, she has really bony elbows that just sort of dig right into you when she leans. You can usually adjust the elbows so they don't hurt so much. The love makes it worthwhile, of course.
She also likes to lay on top of me. If I'm in the bed or laying on the floor, she'll come over, stand on me, then lay flat on my chest. Most of the time, her nose ends up about six inches from my head, and she lays there staring at me. This can be cute, freakish, and sometimes painful. I'm glad I can serve as useful dog furniture.
