This is Bear. He is our giant, lazy, funny, dopey Pyrenees mix. He’s not much of a barker; he’s usually horizontal. He’s smarter than he looks and he never misses an opportunity to run away.

The other night, Bear was in his customary horizontal position as in the photo above. He had his eyes slightly open and his tongue out and was evidently dead to the world. Unfortunately, Ed thought he was just dead, so he went over to check. I was in the back of the house and I heard Bear make a sound like Scooby Doo if he’d been branded by a hot poker. I ran into the kitchen and cried, “Did Bear just die?!”

What I found was a trembling Bear being stroked by Ed. Ironically, when Ed checked to see if Bear was still alive, he nearly gave the poor lug a heart attack! The strangled, branded-Scooby sound was Bear’s version of shrieking in fright, and it in turn scared the life out of Ed.

I pressed my head to Bear’s and asked if he was ok and stroked his fuzzy head. He seemed no worse for the wear, but I hope I never hear him make that sound again!