Nutty Nunzi Tall Tail Tales
The nutty adventures and thoughts of an odd and overly friendly dog named Nutty Nunzi and the human who hears him
Nutty Nunzi: It’s A Wonderful Life
Our First Day Together | Nutty Nunzi: It’s A Wonderful Life | Nutty Nunzi: A Silent–Yet Annoying Alarm | Fitting Into Fitness Class | Dumb Diggin Contest | Nutty Nunzi Diggin Drive | Me & My Furry Shadow
Our First Day Together
(click link to view Instagram reel)
Here’s Nutty Nunzi on his first day at our beach. “OMG! OMG! OMG!” That’s what my brand new puppy was thinking as I hoisted up his trembling body. He was just 8 weeks old and this was his first time gazing upon the big deep blue sea. OMG!–what the hell is that giant wet crashing bashing monster thing?!” The pup was super duper scared and…
Nutty Nunzi: It’s A Wonderful Life
So Nutty Nunzi has no time to spare this morning. He’s already heard a bout of complaining from his human. Whining about foolishness like needing coffee and breakfast, and it’s time to go and so on.
Now although Nunz already managed to get in about ten minutes of quality time to feed his digging addiction. Sculpting a pretty impressive and deep doggy den—he desires more as we’re heading home. What could that be?
One could guess. Yep, me. I could guess, as he wheels around. And his nose starts doing a bunch of sniffing and snarfling noises. Yep my furry super snuggler desires some snuggling. Now he smiles. Gives me an excited arf!
Ah, hah! He’s picked up the distinct scent of children and hurries off in that direction. He soon reaches his destination. There’s four cute kids and two moms and he gets the usual greeting chorus of.. “oh how cute – awww – c’mere doggy – wanna pet him mom.”
Nunz gently lays down amongst his new adoring friends and enjoys a bunch of little hands happily caressing his soft fur. As I watch, I’m thinking–he has such a life!
And since this overly friendly goodwill ambassadog brightens and lifts spirits most every day—he deserves this life. This wonderful life.
And I feel lucky to be sharing and observing my dear friend, and being part of it all. For as long as it lasts. Hopefully, for a bunch more years. Because it’s been so damn wonderful.
Nutty Nunzi: A Silent–Yet Annoying Alarm
Times up! That’s what my Nutty Nunzi alarm is silently yelling at me. When I’ve been working at my computer too long, this beast slithers under the desk, and proceeds to wedge his head between my legs. Or atop an area of my lap and applies annoying downward pressure. And just stares daggers at me.
In this shot, I was straining to keep my knees locked together while he tried to pry them open with his snout. When I won that skirmish, Nunz’s next tactic was to put his head atop my kneecaps and legs, applying significant downward pressure while also trying to walk forward.
I held onto the desktop. He keeps pushing forward. I hold. He pushes.
But his damn strong leg muscles soon prevail and he was able to bulldoze my roller chair backwards. And as you can see, his head popped out from under the desk to facilitate full stink eye psychological pressure.
I know Nunz is thinking… “And I will remain in this position until you play with me. Or give me another treat. Or more belly rubs. Or take me out.”
Or anything else other than what you’re wasting your time doing right now!!!!
I wasn’t about to give in to this blackmail, this pressure. I got my pride. I am, after all, the superior human. Him, the lowly cur.
I successfully held my ground. He shall not win this time. Nope. I resisted that freckle face. I’m resolute! I’m strong!
For about 43 seconds. Then I grabbed his Wubba toy, tossed it and we proceeded to have the mother of all tugging battles. The silent annoying alarm quietly triumphs once again! Damn that lowly cur. I’ll win next time! Or the time after that. Or…
Fitting Into Fitness Class
We were romping along the shore and playing fetch when all of a sudden Nutty Nunzi stopped dead in his tracks. He spied a vision of delight ahead. OMG! A fitness class!!
And I know exactly what my furry friend is thinking… “A bunch of humans all in one small area! A bunch to exclaim how cute I am. And pet me and snuggle me, and maybe toss my ball, and etc.”
He quickly ran to the unsuspecting class. And, of course, like 96.3% of the time, his new “classmates” couldn’t resist the irresistible canine. As I caught up to him, I heard a chorus of stuff like… “such an adorable dog” – “c’mere, c’mere, I’ll pet you” – “wanna fetch”, and etc, etc. Such a dog’s life.
The funny thing is, as Nunz joined the fitness circle, he seemed to be obeying the instructor’s instructions to the tee! As you can see in this short clip, when the guy gave the order to “hold that plank” and everyone froze in position–the furry fitness student obeyed. Still as a statue.
Then when they were told to “pedal”–Nunzi starts doing a pedal digging thing too. Too funny. Yeah there were giggles and guffaws all around the circle as his antics transpired.
And indeed my nutty guy was fitting into fitness class just fine and doggy dandy. Like he belonged. Which I guess he kinda did.
Nutty Nunzi Tall Tail Tales – https://GregoryMancuso.com/NuttyNunzi/
Dumb Diggin Contest
So me and Nutty Nunzi were just strolling along the shore yesterday, minding our own business, when we spied this boy merrily playing and digging in the sand. Since Nunzi loves kids, he couldn’t resist making a new friend, and he pranced over, laid down beside the boy and dropped his ball in front of him.
Hoping to engage him to do a toss or two. As is pretty much always the case, Nunzi succeeded in charming the child. And the guy smiled at my eager, adorable dog and gladly tossed the ball. Nunz ran and returned the ball, and they had a few fun fetches together.
Then I told this fine youngster that I had noticed he was quite a skilled sand sculptor and digger. He proudly exclaimed he comes to the beach a lot was and expert at making sand castles and such. I mentioned that although Nunzi couldn’t sculpt anything, people often gather and marvel at his this dog’s digging abilities. They watch and laugh as Nunzi’s paws become a blur while he quickly excavates impressive large deep holes in the blink of an eye and a wag of the tail.
I claimed that this fine canine was probably the best digging dog in the whole wide world. The human looked the beast over. Assessing his supposed abilities. Then the kid scoffed and let out a sarcastic “hah”! Said he could dig way better than any dog. Especially this small dumb dog! OMG. The gauntlet was thrown. I looked at Nunz. He looked at me. I swear I could hear my mutt mutter a snicker. And I do believe I even spied a smirk.
What could I do? I couldn’t let “dumb dog” stand. Such an insult. And quite inaccurate to boot. I told the braggart that we should have a little contest to see who is indeed the bestest digger of sand. Lets just see who can dig the biggest hole after all. I said l would set my timer and then these two opponents would start churning away, and whoever had the biggest hole after one minute would be declared the true digging champion.
Ok, admittedly, I can get quite silly when I’m around little kids. Or dogs. But if you put them together–well I can reach new heights of silly–as you can see and hear in this clip. So both parties agreed and the contest commenced. After about 18 seconds of dig dig digging, the young lad glanced over at his opponent and his jaw dropped. Nunzi’s mighty paws were a blur. Clouds of sand were fiercely flying behind the pooch.
It was obvious what the outcome would be. But the lad bravely gave it his best throughout the tournament. When the minute was up, looking at the hole size comparison–it was obvious which hole was biggest.
But I didn’t have the heart to officially declare Nunzi the winner. Saying they both achieved great excavations and it was really too close to call. Though I did sneak a wink at my fine canine. And he nodded—knowing he emphatically won. And he winked back. Dogs rule!!!!!
Nutty Nunzi Diggin Drive
My dog Nunzi always digs a drive but this little jaunt was especially special because he got to act like a human and sit up front with me. Normally he’s in back, nestled in one of those hammock-like dog seat things which is a safer spot for him. But we had to put the back seat down and stuff it with stuff so he had the treat of riding shotgun for the five minute ride back home.
I especially like his classic Nunzi gleeful smile in this clip. The one that always can’t help but make me smile too. Roll on down the road little doggie, roll on!
Me & My Furry Shadow
“He’s like your constant shadow.” … “Never see you around without him”. Those are the type of things that people sometimes say when I walk by with my Nutty Nunzi. My thinking is, that when you get blessed with having the friendliest and most outgoing dog in the world–it feels like a sin to ever leave him behind.
Nunzi basically wants everyone he sees, when he’s out and about, to be his instant friend. And usually leaves a trail of smiles, and ooing and awwing in his wake. Every day he routinely goes up to complete strangers, and sits or lies down next to them and smiles and wags his stubby tail. As if to say, “hey wanna snuggle? – wanna pet me? – wanna be best friends?”
And the love fest invariably commences. And he’s so wonderfully well behaved and fun, how could I not want him as my shadow pal whenever and wherever possible? Now when I noticed the cool shadow images dancing on the ground as we strolled along the pier, I immediately got out my cam and started shooting.
Nunzi didn’t really know what the heck I was trying to do with this shadow play concept thing. But he did his best to interpret my hand gestures and odd movements. And since we were together, outside and having fun—he was happy to try to do his best to oblige his odd human, and attempt to figure out yet another one of my crazy creative notions I was trying to conjure up for us to do together.
This dog’s always game. And will always be my favorite furry shadow.