Chris and Bill immediately inform guests of the “Cody Rules” because their 85 pound, yellow Labrador-able Retriever, Cody, retrieves all year long!
Shoes remain either outside or locked safely in a room. Bathroom doors remain closed preventing toilet paper from mysteriously
“walking off”. He can stealthily sneak under the dinner table and steal the "napkin on your lapkin”.
“Bill and I keep our bedroom closet closed because Cody has an affinity for bras! His worst offense was parading with my bra into the room where our male guest was seated.
Since Cody loves food, we ask him, 'Do you want a job?' He licks his lips meaning, 'Yes'. For his paycheck of a piece of cheese, he has to bring us the "baby" we ask
for.
You might think that Cody has his own Toyland account, because he has 40 plus purr-sonally named stuffed ‘babies’: Allie, Crock, Crow, Ducky, Ellie, Frog, Gator, Hershey, Octo, Pink Piggy, Purple, Racer, Santa Baby, Socky, Squirrel, etc. (Bill and I hope to prevent Alzheimer’s since we, too, must remember all these names.)
The room with his basket of babies is down a long hallway, so Cody has to leave us and search for the right toy, then
return with it for his paycheck. One evening while watching the news, something purr-posterous was reported and I involuntarily shouted out, ‘That’s a CROCK of (. . .) !!!!’ The next thing we knew, Cody was standing before us with his “CROC”odile baby patiently waiting for his piece of cheese.”
Cody’s sock fetish leads him to s-t-r-e-t-c-h socks off a person’s foot. So last Christmas, their granddaughter lovingly wrapped two freshly laundered socks for
him.
His unusual multi-colored lined oversized handbag was Chris’ friend’s, who let Cody carry it when she arrived and left. He’d proudly hold the purse’s handles in his mouth, as he walked her to or from her vehicle, the purse would drag between his feet, and all the while he would grin and happily wag his tail. The friend knew how much he loved it, so she gave it to him for Christmas.
Chris purr-oudly hangs Bill’s, Cody’s, and her
Christmas stockings on the mantel. Last year she found a cuter one for Cody, (Note: her husband gets to keep his old one!), so she hung up the new one “with care”.
A few days later, Bill and Chris were chatting when she saw an empty spot where Cody’s stocking “was supposed to be”. “The crazy part,” said Chris, “is that the hanger was still in place — and our two stockings hadn’t been disturbed." I asked Bill if he’d moved the stocking. “No." He asked if I had. "Of course
not!" So, we started a room to room search for it, with Cody.
Then I had an ‘Aha moment’ and went to the bedroom. The missing colorful, now wrinkled stocking, all nestled in for its long winter’s nap, at the foot of our bed, on our comforter.
Cody had ‘retrieved’ his new stocking, brought it back to bed, and slept with it! It doesn’t look new anymore but it’s obviously loved.”
Whether Cody was checking his stocking
early for presents from Santa or mad at it for not being his traditional one, we’ll never know, but it is back hanging on their mantel - for now. How he extricated his stocking without that heavy hook tumbling down still astonishes us.”
Not only is their home and Christmas tree decorated for Christmas, but so is Cody. Chris places a Christmas collar adorned with a bell on it around his neck. Obviously, the jingles were not loud enough to wake the sleeping couple
during their dog’s recently planned theft!
