Downs With Ups

“It’s an interesting sensation, isn’t it?”  asks Tom Hanks as ‘Turner’, in a detective role he’s playing in the 1989 movie, Turner and Hooch.  Hooch is his co-star and is a large and particularly ugly dog.

Turner’s words come to mind as I’m lying on the floor in the hall at home.  I have Poppet at my throat pretending to be Hooch; her mouth is opened wide as she tries to fit around my neck.  I’m giggling hysterically, trying to push her away.  “Just pretend, Poppet.  Just pretend,” I implore my daughter.  It really was a strange sensation.

As I lie on the floor, I’m indulging my daughter’s love of acting as she pretends to be this dog.  In the movie, Hooch pounces on Turner, knocking him to the ground, and then takes Turner’s neck in his mouth.  The dog’s owner hurries up, pulling Hooch off.  “This dog didn’t even break the skin!”  he says, inspecting Turner’s neck.  “Why, this dog loves you boy.”  Hooch has become one of Poppet’s idols.

Poppet’s introduction to this film came about when we were out with friends.  I mentioned something about ‘slobber’ in conversation.  “What’s slobber?” asked Poppet.  As much as I could, I tried to explain to her what slobber is.  I recalled Hooch’s problem with slobber in the movie that had been such a hit way back in the eighties.

Even though I did my best to describe Hooch, I left her more confused.  I realised it would be better if she could see it.  Using my ‘phone, I searched YouTube and wasn’t disappointed when several clips from the movie came up.  Watching these snippets reminded me that it was such a good film.  Our friends remembered the movie, so we decided to make a date to watch the film the following Saturday night.

I was relieved when I was able to locate the DVD at our local video store and hired it for a week.  We all enjoyed eating our take away whilst watching the movie and Poppet was enthralled.  She watched the film several times that first week.  Since then, I’ve paid seven weeks worth of rent.

Poppet lives movies.  She will sit very close to the television, almost becoming a part of it as she watches the scenes unfold before her.  I once heard a paediatrician answering the question, “Can sitting too close to the television hurt children’s eyes?”  He went on to say that, it’s usually not an indication of poor eyesight if children do this; it’s more that children are so engrossed in what they’re watching, they naturally gravitate towards it.  And no, it doesn’t necessarily hurt their eyes.

Poppet will watch a movie over and over again, rewinding special parts so she can imitate it perfectly.  She’ll often call out, “Watch me.  I’m just like her,” or, “Listen to me.  I sound just like him.”  And often she does.  She loves acting and will take any opportunity to do so.

Weeks later, when she knew the whole film, word for word, some special friends of Poppet’s joined us.  They had come for dinner and a screening of Turner and Hooch.  Just before we sat down to watch it, I gently reminded Poppet that our friends hadn’t seen the film before and that she was to sit still and be quiet.  I could see her practically bursting as she sat next to her friends on the couch.  She was aching to act out her favourite parts.

Acting ‘Hooch’ has been somewhat difficult for her, as she only has two legs with which to pounce.  However, she has spent a great deal of time now, perfecting her ‘slobber’ as best she can.  She fills her mouth with spittle then shakes her head trying to send it flying, à la Hooch.  “Poppet,” I say sternly.  “Just pretend.  Slobber is revolting.”  She looks at me trying to understand why she gets growled at whilst Hooch gets away with it, even laughed at.  Poppet’s slobber will never match Hooch’s plentiful, stringy, stretchy drool though, (thank goodness).

The photograph belongs to Touchstone Pictures.