Photo of the Week: "Mom Swatting at Otto with Pot Holders"

This photo cracks me up.

I'll give you a little background on it. We were having a birthday party for Pete and Steve at my mom's house last year, and everyone had gathered around the table to sing happy birthday to them both. As soon as the singing commenced, Otto began his annoying ritual of barking along with the singing at top volume. He was spraying us all with spittle and pawing at the floor like an angry bull. Shouts of "Shut up!" and "Knock it off!" fell on his deaf ears, until my mom got up and attempted to swat him away with pot holders. Which is totally hilarious to me, because if you've ever met Otto, you know that he is a huge beast of a dog, a bull in a china closet, a mutant with his half-blue eye, webbed feet, and Barry White–deep voice. It was funny that my mom attempted to silence him with measly pot holders, but even funnier still was the picture I captured of that exact moment. His eyes are squeezed shut and his head is half turned in an attempt to avoid the slap of the flimsy cotton material. To Otto it would be like being slapped with a feather. Of course, Otto ducked out of the way and avoid the blow, like a matador effortlessly dodging a bull.

And right after this picture was taken he stepped up his efforts to butt in on the birthday song and continued his bellowing and barking. When the song was over, he shouldered his way past the birthday boys and everyone else, and made sure he was first in line for a piece of cake. My mom plopped a hunk of cake on a paper plate and tossed it in the corner, where Otto proceded to wolf down the sugary goodness, which gave us a few minutes of peace and quiet. But he was soon back for more, and shortly after that he was sent to his cage by my dad, because my mom insisted that Otto take a time out.