Read Our Story

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Introduction
 
 
 
 

Chapter 11 – Always Three Times

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One interesting thing about Gabby’s personality was whenever she wanted attention of some kind, she always used her paw three times.  Never one or two, or four or five.  It was always in groups of three.
If I was on the other side of a closed door and she wanted to follow, she would hit the door three times with her paw.  BAM BAM BAM!  The door would shake on its hinges, you never would think a small dog could hit it so hard!
Sometimes when we were playing together I would “play dead” myself and fall over and lie still, just to see what she would do.  I would watch out of the corner of my slightly opened eye and invariably she would trot over to me with a concerned look on her face and scratch my arm three times to make sure I was all right.  
If she wanted a toy and it was under a piece of furniture like the sofa, I would ask her, “Gabby… where’s the toy?  Show me where it is!” and she would go and scratch the piece of furniture three times, close to where the toy actually was underneath.
If it was the middle of the night and she had to go outside, she would scratch my pillow three times.  If I did not respond immediately, she would repeat the three scratches on the pillow once or twice. If I did not wake up or acknowledge her by then, I would get three scratches on the face!  
I will never forget one time the poor little thing had a bad bout of diarrhea.  I felt the three scratches on my pillow and opened my eyes to a wide eyed, desperate dog looking at me. Message received.  I scooped her up, took her to the back yard and put her down.  She immediately took position and nasty, dark blackish brown fluid the consistency and uniformity of used motor oil came pouring out. It was pure nastiness and if that had happened on the carpet or bed I don’t know if it would have ever come out!  As soon as she was done, she tuned around and looked at me.  She now had a calm look on her face as she ran up the three steps to the basement and stopped at my feet, ready to be picked up and taken back to bed. She was just like a human in that way… she relieved herself and was back to normal right away, relaxed and ready to go back to bed.  That is, until I got the three scratches and the desperate look again an hour later!