SHOULD I BE ENVIOUS?

Several weeks ago there was an article in our local paper about Suzanna, an almost two year old yellow labrador retriever, who has royal lineage and comes from Britain.  She was a gift to the RCMP from the Queen of England and was born on one of her estates, at the Sandringham Kennels.

The picture in the paper has Suzanna seated quietly beside the acting commander of the RCMP Academy Depot Division.  She has a light leash attached to her collar and is sitting very regal and looks very pretty.  Well, I have never had the opportunity to have my 4 1/2 year old yellow lab sit quietly beside me with only a light leash holding him.  To walk Shane, I use a haltie and a strong leather leash with two knots in the leash that provide more traction in my hands in case he starts to go and I have to hang on to him.  He is my 70 pound linebacker.  To have him sit quietly beside me would require constant dog treats being waved in front of his nose and commands being given or a clicker being used to make sure he was listening to me.   Furthermore, the picture of Suzanna was taken at a school where she was being introduced to the children and the media.  If Shane was there, I would be dragged across the room so he could check out the children, see if they had cookies, he would sniff the media and then see if there was any post that required him to leave his calling card.

Suzanna serves as the mascot at the RCMP training academy.  She lives with the commanding officer and during the day she goes to work!  At work, she interacts with employees and troops and participates in events on the base.  The commander noted in the article that she is well trained and won't go far from his side.  Furthermore, she works out with the cadets.  I think she is in dog heaven.   Where I work we don't bring our pets for a number of good reasons.  I did bring Shane to the office on several occasions when I had to pop into the office on a weekend to pick up or leave some paperwork.  When let loose in our office, he would check out what he could find under people's desk or if there was anything interesting on top.  Several things stand out for me.  Some women have a collection of shoes under their desk.  He would retrieve some of them, prance around and begin showing off what he had in his mouth and then drop them somewhere in the office.  I would be searching for these shoes and making sure that the right shoes were put back under the right desk.  One person in my office had a small collection of little stuffed animals on her desk.  Well, he would put his paws on the top of the desk and grab these toys.  He would run around and I would being trying to retrieve these toys out of his mouth before he destroyed them.  I did have one memorable event where I had to do about 15 minutes work at my desk.  I closed the door in my office so that he had to remain with me.  He was bored and agitated and I did not have any of his chew toys with me.  For the sake of world peace, I gave him one of my old running shoes that I had in the office for these infrequent lunch time walks.   He laid on the carpet floor and literally destroyed one of my shoes.  I now know what goes into making a running shoe.  I had to clean up ripped canvas, foam and other unnamed parts of a shoe from the floor.   I still keep the other half of the shoe in my office in case an emergency arises and I need one running shoe.   It is actually a conversation piece as I have it displayed on top of my bookcase.  I can't image Suzanna, the RCMP dog, ever behaving like this in an office.  I imagine she has her spot in the office, lies peacefully there and watches and waits for her master to get up from his desk and then see if he asks her to walk with him by his side. Only in my dreams!!  Actually Shane is not that bad, but he is not in the same league as this Suzanna.  Should I be envious?  Maybe a smidgen.