Hey, @willymac! Nice to hear Coco is getting the hang of things. It is definitely sad to hear about the abuse some of these pets take, considering that most of the time, the owner made a choice to get the pet in the first place, only to inflict some kind of harm. Doesn't make much sense to me, and I'm not a pet owner.
Hopefully, she will be happy and healthy for a long time.
That about Mike in your comment is pretty amazing. One bark in 12 years. Sounds like it was important, though, whatever the reason he did it.
Coco and her sister, Bella, love women and run to them; men, not so much and Coco cowers when a male approaches. My guess is that their female owner had a friend who did not like small dogs. Whatever the cause, it was real and painful, especially for Coco.
Yeah, strange about Mike. I was home alone, wife out of town, and getting ready for bed. I sat down to take my shoes off and Mike stood up, turned around and faced the sliding door to the deck and without preamble issued one very manly
WOOF!
That was it. I was covered with goose bumps and wide awake after that. We had always joked that he would show a burglar where the family jewels were hidden and hold the door for him just to be nice. The bark was so out of character for him. I went out, adequately armed, but nothing at all was amiss. Of course I wondered all night what I had missed.
Yeah. Scared whatever it was right off with that manly woof! Now, that's a bark. Of course, giving you goosebumps probably wasn't the best of things, unless they were positive goosebumps. As in, Mike, you're the man. Or, the manly dog. Something like that. :)
There's a Marvel character this is reminding me of called Black Bolt. His super powers are sonic, so if he speaks, depending on how loud and how long, he devastate cities. Even a whisper can do major damage to things and people around him. Needless to say, he keeps quiet a lot.
Also, it's reminding of a man I know whose family said he didn't say much. But when he did, they listened, because it must be important.
One of those would seem to apply here. :)
The goosebumps came from the weirdness of Mike finally saying something for the first time and doing it in such an authoritative voice. As in the man who seldom spoke, it got my full, adrenaline attention and that's what had me out in the dark, armed to the teeth and in full defense mode.
I found nothing but was convinced it was an alien who beamed up as soon as it was detected. There's no point in letting a decent warning bark go to waste!