A Juicy Tale

Mandarins pop up during the winter. The whole tree is covered with beautiful, vibrant balls of fruit. Well, it hasn't been so much for me in the more recent years due to the fact that winter isn't as cold as it used to be.

Anyway...

I have a Labrador. A purebred, black, Lab. She is seven years old and she's shiny, glossy if you will, due to her weekly Monday and Friday routine of sardines mixed with veggies, rice and dog nuts for dinner. Due to her age, she's turning brown in some places with some random patches of white sprouting from under her feet, on her stomach, around her mouth and on her chest.

Her name is Nahla.

My parents had found four month old Nahla on a Facebook ad where the owners were moving across state. I live on the South-East coast of New South Wales in Australia and they were moving to Carins, Queensland. We decided that we wanted another dog (and couldn't resist her face) and so messaged the owners saying that we we're gonna pick her up asap.

When we got to the residence, we met a family of four. The kids were no older than four and six. Nahla was like a hyper child on sugar. She was running around and although not meaning any harm, it became clear to us that Nahla was probably too much for the kids to be around because of how oblivious she was to her surroundings. I think she probably knocked the kids over a few times and that's why they were getting rid of her. That's definitely happen a couple of times throughout having her. You're down like a bowling pin. We ended up changing the spelling from 'Nala' to 'Nahla' which means "the first drink of water" in Arabic because she just loves water and I think the lady showed us but I can't remember. After a quick cash transaction and final goodbyes, we had Nahla in the car on the way to her new home. At home, she thinks she's the boss (especially because she's one of the first pet arrivals at that time) of the house but usually just ends up butting heads with the other 'boss of the house', my tabby, Bilby. I also, have a Medium Haired Tortie (Tammy), a Mini Floppy (Montie) and a Lorikeet (Cheeky, but I just call her Birdy) so you can only imagine the chaos that goes on. They all get along for the most part.

Like I said, Nahla is a Labrador. Labs are are highly intelligent, friendly, gentle and just an overall great family dog. One day, I was playing with her in the back yard when her ball go stuck in the orange tree that was previously there. The orange tree wasn't serving its purpose of producing oranges so we removed it to build a deck. We also removed a lemonade tree too but I can't actually remember why. It wasn't in the way or anything. Maybe because weren't using the lemons? I don't know. Anyway, when the ball got stuck in the orange tree, I decided to test Nahla's learning ability because she was going to puppy school and learned pretty quickly. Instead of getting the ball myself, I tapped on certain branches to create a path for Nahla to see if she'd get the ball herself. She watched. Then she followed. Then she did it. And as she did I had to stop her, because I couldn't even imagine one day looking out my kitchen window, to see, my Lab...sitting...in...a...tree. That and I had this irrational fear that she would escape over the fence from the trees. This fear was irrational because out of all the commands that she knows, entering and leaving the house on command is really the only one she has always complied with unless there was food or walks involved so I really had nothing to worry about but that fear did cross my mind so I never did encouraged it again.

So now to the main point of this story. As it says in the title, "A Juicy Tale". That's the whole point of this story but I had to work my way up to this part you understand. Also, this memory just wouldn't even make it to 600 words you know. Its such a small memory but rules are rules.

When the mandarin tree was overflowing with mandarins during those cold winter months, I would sit under the tree and Nahla would lay next to me, waiting for me to give her some. I would pick the mandarins off the tree and eat them and I'd give her some. We'd share them under this tree. After knowing how easily trainable Nahla was, I showed her how to open and peel a mandarin. Nahla loves opening presents. She loves being involved around Christmas and birthdays. She even gets her own prezzies. We ask her to help but then would quickly lose interest when the prezzies weren't for her. I showed her how to peel the mandarin and left it at that.

Days, maybe even weeks went by and nothing was out of the ordinary. There was this one day though. Before the deck was built. A day when the orange tree was still standing and the mandarins were still covering the tree. I looked out the back screen door and saw...Nahla...laying underneath the mandarin tree. Her front paws gripping a mandarin (that probably fell on the ground because I've never seen her pick on off the tree). Her teeth ripping the skin off the mandarin and eating it. She was eating a mandarin on her own. No one else was there with her. I filmed it. That video is on one of my older phones. I couldn't believe it but I also kinda could. I mean Labs are smart. Nahla knows directions, colours, the names of her toys and maybe a couple of other things too.

Neither myself or Nahla have sat under that mandarin tree for what feels like years now. Recently, mostly because of the fact that it's covered in spiders but also we just haven't done partaken in it. All in all, people love hearing this story and I love telling it.