Temper
Ross had a temper, and it was hilarious when he let it show. It probably doesn't surprise you
that Ross Allen almost always got his way. The few times that he didn't, however, he let his temper show.
When Ross Allen was angry with you, he would turn his back to you and walk away a few feet, then
plop down and exhale loudly in disgust. He would lie there in the floor with his back to you, and when you would call him,
he would turn his head part way around, but stop short of eye contact. It was his way of saying, "I hear you calling
me, but I am not speaking to you."
I thought I was going to die the first time that I saw him do that. It was one of the funniest things
that I have ever seen.
Sense of Shame
Ross Allen could feel shame, and when he was ashamed, you could see it in the expression on his
face and in the way he acted.
He ate a lot of meat scraps and meat grease out of a pan one time when he was left unattended. The
same night, he had a major bout of diarrhea.
The next morning when I got up and walked into the living room, I found seven "puddles" of doggy
diarrhea on the carpet.
I knew that Ross Allen would never have done that, if he could have helped it, so I didn't even
scold him. He had not once done his business in the house since he was a puppy. He was very easy to house break.
As I was cleaning up the first of the puddles, he walked timidly up to me with a sad look on his
face. I know that he was ashamed and was apologizing to me. I stopped cleaning a minute and put my arm around his neck and
said, "It's OK, Honey, Grandpa knows you couldn't help it." His eyes brightened, and I know that he knew that I understood
and wasn't angry with him. He looked at me, and I know that in that look he was saying, "I love you, Grandpa."
For the record, I did remember that Ross tried to get me up in the middle of the night, but I just
ignored him. That was a bad move.
Ross and Mc Donalds
My Puppy loved Mc Donalds hamburgers more than anything in the world. I knew that they weren't exactly
good for him, so I didn't let him have them very often.
When I was working away from home up in Taylorville, IL, during the week and coming home on weekends,
I would take Ross Allen with me. We stayed in an apartment that was provided for me by my company.
Sometimes on the way up to Taylorville, I would stop in Salem, IL, and get us some Mc Donalds burgers,
and then we would stop at a roadside park on Hwy 51 just north of Sandoval to eat them. When I passed that park on trips when
I couldn't take Ross Allen with me, I would always think of him. Now that he is gone, it will be especially sad to go past
it.
I would come back to the apartment to take Ross out to do his business at lunch time, and we would sometimes then go to Mc Donalds. I would get him a plain hamburger and have them put it in a separate sack. Occasionally,
I would take him to the office, where we would eat our lunch. The ladies in the office thought it was so cool when I
would come up the stairs and walk down the hall to my office carrying my Mc Donalds sack and a Coke, and Ross Allen would
trot right along beside me with his Mc Donalds sack hanging down from his mouth.
Ross certainly knew the word "Mc Donalds." I sometimes had people start naming fast food restaurants
when Ross was in the group. I told them not to mention the place with the golden arches until they had first named a few other
places. Ross paid little attention as the restaurants were named, but when he heard the word "Mc Donalds," he would freeze
and stare at the person who said it. His eyes would be "as big as saucers," as the saying goes. My friends got a real kick
out of that. I hated to do it, though, since he wasn't really going to be getting a hamburger at the time.
