Gorilla Zoë.

I have two dogs who are like Abbott and Costello. One’s taller and skinner, the other is shorter and chubbier. Both are hilarious.

Cleo, my Doberman, only eats when someone’s around to keep her company. I try to feed her before I start my bathroom routine in the am, because otherwise she’s following me around the house indifferent to the deliciousness that awaits her. If I even walk away while she’s eating, she stops and looks at me like, “where you goin’?”

My Rottweiler, Zoë is the complete opposite. She doesn’t wait for food, she demands it. When you buy her a new bag of food, she plops down next to it like she’s on guard duty. And when I fill her bowl, she eats like it’s her last meal even though she knows she eats every 12 hours. Last night, though, she went too far.

When I come home, I stay busy doing this and that, leading up to the climax of my evening, when dinner is served. In all of that hustle and bustle I sometimes forget that Zoë is always hungry and only patient enough to wait until I arrive home.

Normally, she’ll bark and jump at me when I go too long without feeding her. And don’t let me sit down with a plate of food or she’ll go bananas.

Today Zoë didn’t bark, she didn’t yell. She came up next to me in that false affectionate way that she does, and proceeded to lick my leg. Yep, just licking my leg like a chicken bone. I guess we’re finding inventive ways to communicate now. I said, “Food” and she stopped to head to her bowl, but I’m still perturbed.