by Catherine Dilts
Those of you who know me may have wondered at my pet-less condition, considering how many animals I include in my mysteries. It had been 15 years since we had an animal companion in our home, a cat named Tyger who died of old age.
Enter Strider, a five-month-old English Springer Spaniel. I haven't had a dog since I was a teenager. My husband used to train dogs. He picked the puppy. I'm glad he did. This little guy is full of energy and affection. He's eager to please, but also a bit of a scamp.
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| Strider in full sploot |
I have a learning curve to tackle, including the terminology unique to pets in general, and dogs in particular.
Keeping up with slang words and phrases is a never-ending
task. Writers who like to sprinkle their work with the latest lingo need to use
words correctly. Here's one I thought everyone had heard of, but I was
wrong: splooting.
The puppy we adopted is the King of Splooting. I've seen photos of cats, bears,
dogs, squirrels, and other creatures splooting, and now I have my own
entertaining splooter.
According to our veterinarian's website, splooting is a real thing. Full description here.
In the "full sploot," the animal lies on their belly and spreads
their hind legs out behind and the front legs in front of them. A flying
Superman pose.
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| A sploot displaying toe beans |
Puppies and kittens are more flexible and more likely to sploot than adults.
Strider is just five months old. He's a big boy at over twenty-five pounds, but
has puppy attitude.
He was born in Montana, so I suspect his motivation for ridiculous amounts of
splooting is to cool off. He prefers to lie on the hardwood floor, although he
has a bed, a blanket, and a towel.
How do writers learn new slang? I follow social media pages for national parks
and particular animals. The rangers and the fans of bears and eagles spice
their posts with humorous observations, often containing slang terminology.
Bison (American buffalo) are NOT fluffy cows, despite tourists
thinking of them as such. Zoomies describes when a cat or dog
runs around wildly, full of energy. Toe beans are the pads of
the animal's feet, particularly felines and canines.
I rely on my co-author daughter and my granddaughters to correct my attempts at modern slang in my fiction. Because you can’t always trust the internet definitions!
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| He looks sad, but Strider is a happy puppy. |
