CH.3.HAVE MANNERS WHEN EATING

One of the most special times I remember is from when I was a tiny puppy, was feeding time. Mum would lie quietly in our nest. We would all snuggle side by side so our mouths could suck the milk from Mum’s teats on her tummy. If you were listening you would have heard SLURP, squish, SLURP,SLURP. All nestled together, it felt very cozy to me. Mum’s tail wagged and she murmured softly to us ---

“You are beautiful puppies, I love you all so much,” and so on it would go. It was a precious, comfortable, time.

As we got older, things changed. The others got a lot, lot bigger. I got a little bit bigger. They began pushing and bumbling me about. I was able to take it for a while, but I shall tell you more in another story.

A funny change that happened was when I began to talk. You may say that was good, but I will tell you, Mum was not always pleased with me. I was doing a very silly thing when I was feeding. I would suck my milk and talk at the very same time saying things like;

“Oh Mum, this is good, mmmmmm, so good”

One evening Mum gently kicked me away with her back leg. Of course, I wondered what I had done. I sat shaking my head and frowning at her as she said;

“Please listen to me little one.”

She told me my eating manners could be a lot better. Each time I talked while sucking my milk from her, my sharp little teeth bit her. That hurt! It was bad enough, but when I was talking and eating, eating and talking, milk dribbled out of my mouth all over my chin whiskers so I was a mess. I tried to learn these new manners, but when it came time for me to have “good for your teeth” crumbles I really showed I had not quite learned about talking and eating. I finally did when I was munching away and talking and out of the corner of my eye, I saw crumbles flying out of my mouth into my clean cozy nest. Best not to eat and talk.

When I left my dog family and moved to my island family, I thought it was fun to watch the other house pets, Haggis and MacTavish so I could be like them. They were older than me. What manners did they have? I was curious.

I soon found out, I couldn’t stop watching Haggis, the boy Scottie. He ate very fast. He gobbled in a big mouthful, put his head back, and chewed with his mouth wide open. He really did. It was not pretty to watch. As he ate food dribbled down his chin whiskers. (Remember how milk used to dribble down mine.) After a meal he often should have had a real scrub down, but he didn’t. He cleaned his chin whiskers with his paws, then licked them, and I guess sometimes he almost got a second meal. Do you know MacTavish even helped him sometimes. It was funny to watch. Can you see them in your imagination?

As Haggis got older, he would lie on the couch after his evening meal. You could hear his tummy rumbling. Mum used to tell me that some tummy upsets came when you had air or gas in the tummy. Anyway, Haggis would lie stretched out and rumbling on the couch. There would be a funny noise, and then do you know, there would be a horrid smell. Mum had a funny Scottish name for when this happened. She called it “blowing a raspberry”. You probably have your own name for this because almost every creature in the world does it once in a while. Poor Haggis did this almost every night and I used to wonder if it was because he gobbled so much with his mouth wide open. And do you know his manners were never too good about this; he could have whispered “oops, sorry, or excuse me.” MacTavish and I never made fun of Haggis, because he was such a kind fellow. I thought to myself, these were just some manners his Mom forgot to teach him.

MacTavish ate so s-l-o-w-l-y, he must have chewed every mouthful at least 50 times. His mouth was always closed unless he stopped part way through his meal to say something about how much he liked the carrots, or whatever. He always kept us waiting because we all wanted to leave our eating place at the same time. Can you guess why? I will tell you. After we ate, we checked each other’s bowls and placemats to make sure nothing was left behind. We cleared up after our meals.

What do you think about manners and eating? Do you chew and talk at the same time so food flies out of your mouth or dribbles down your chin? Are you curious like me and watch how other people eat? Do you sometimes have a HUGE meal, then get a tummy upset, and “blow a raspberry?” I hope you remember some Charlie Rose manners. I think when we have manners, whether they are dog ones or people ones we are thinking kindly about others. Do you?

Most of all, I hope all your meal times are FUN.

Love, Charlie Rose.

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My next chapter is about a character I hope you NEVER, EVER meet, who does something I hope you NEVER EVER do because it can be very, very mean.