Dogs are not allowed on sofas and chairs in our farmhouse, and yes,  that is Bud sleeping on my chair as we talk to our friends and visitors, Becca and Michael.

Let me explain.

The small dog experience revolves around the false idea that small dogs are small.

In fact,  small dogs are not really small, that is just marketing ploy, their way of getting inside, of gaining control of people’s  homes.

Small dogs are actually quite large, in their minds and hearts in the eyes of their humans.

Some are seen as “cute” because they are little and occasionally endearing.  I told Bud that he is so ugly he is actually cute.

The “small” thing is a mask, a ploy to get us to want them and feel sorry for them.

Once they are in, they morph into regal and imperious figures, they are creatures of entitlement.

Nature is clever, it made these small to confuse naive humans. Once they get inside the door, they loom large in our lives, sofas and favorite chairs.

I was out in the kitchen making tea, and when I came back into the living room with the tea, Bud, who lived for a year in a metal pen outdoors in the Arkansas woods, and who has been living in our house for a week, was sitting in my chair, his latest throne.

He is King Bud.

In just a few days, poor vulnerable “rescue” Bud has me right where he wants me – sitting in the big chair chair across the room right near our visitors,  while he snores and grunts and goes to sleep. Yes, it is my chair. I am siting across the living room in a different chair, far from the conversation on the other side.

Maria didn’t seem to notice that Bud had taken my chair, not did our visitors mind.

Okay, I couldn’t bear to force him out. And that, I suppose is the point I was making about small dogs.

They aren’t small at all.