Alter ego

Everybody has one. What’s your alter ego? Are you shy but flirtatious in the right atmosphere? Reserved but out spoken when something strikes a chord with you? When does it come out? When you’ve been drinking? Or when you’re in the company of people you are comfortable with? Perhaps it has to do with sugar or caffeine. Maybe it comes out when you’re angry or sad or elated. Whatever the circumstances, everybody has an alter ego.

I discovered Sienna’s alter ego early on. It’s why her show name is what it is.
When naming a dog that will be shown, you have their regular everyday name and then a special show name. Sienna’s show name is Cle Elum’s Miss Sassfire Star. Sassfire comes from her lineage and when I saw that name I knew I had to use it because it suits her alter ego to a “T”. When she is in her alter ego state, she is about as sassy and fiery as can be. This is the time of her day when EVERYTHING becomes a toy, for example; shoes, feet, fingers, pant legs, long sleeves, towels, pee pads, the other dogs, the cat, the chairs, the couch, wires, shoe rack, papers, sticks, garbage, and the list goes on and on. She can be relentless when she is in this mood and it doesn’t matter how many taps on the nose followed by a stern NO she receives, she’s very much like the Energizer Bunny, she just keeps going and going.

When she is in one of these moods, there is really only one thing to do….. put away all things that could be dangerous and wait out the storm. I know that this is very typical puppy behavior but there are times when I think she has thought out her devious little plans and sits giggling just around the corner. Like the other day for example. We had just come in from the dog run and I took off my special dog run shoes and was ready to enter the house. She decided to take one of my shoes and with lightning quick speed run back out to the dog run. Well I can’t exactly chase her with only one shoe and I wasn’t really willing to go out in the run in my socks since this is the main pooping and peeing area. So one footed, I hopped outside to retrieve my shoe (whose the retriever here?) I found her, sitting there with my one shoe and a smile on her devious little puppy face that told me, she knew just what she was doing.

If you’ve watched much TV in the last 20 years you would have to be familiar with “Seinfeild”. A TV show about nothing. Jerry, the main character in the show, had a nemesis named Newman. The name Newman became a way of swearing for Jerry that would clear the FCC and allow him to vent his frustration towards some wrong this character had done him. Sassfire has become somewhat of the same thing for me but in an endearing way. I know that she is a puppy and they do 4 things, sleep (yea!), eat (a lot), poop (a lot), and PLAY! I also know that as fun and frustrating as this time can be it won’t last forever so I had better enjoy it while she is young. But don’t be surprised if you happen to be driving down my street and you hear a slightly loud and frustrated “SASSFIRE!” emanate from my mouth!



A friend emailed me this bit of trivia. Thanks Dave, your sense of humor is always welcomed and refreshing.

"You probably didn't know that "Sassfire" is an old world contraction referring to a condition of heinous flagellants. An example of usage would be . . . "What's wrong with your boy?" "Oh, it's the Assfire." OR "Oh, Sassfire." "