…to do than walk the dogs!
FOR CHERYL: one of those who you have YET to meet……
Once again, we’ve not had to do anything other than pander to our own pleasure. We’ve been fed and watered, as well as having our washing done, by DMs folks and after I posted my pic for Friday night this morning, I found myself being asked if I fancied walking the dogs.
How could I resist? A beautiful sunny morning, good company, DM and my two precious babies? Food waiting when we got back? I’d have been a complete mug to decline such an offer so off we went to the park, tennis ball and poo bags in hand.
Rosie chased that ball as though she’d never chased a ball before (well, since yesterday anyway when she lost two similar balls in the woods while we were out walking). She is so spoiled that she thinks that there is a never-ending supply of balls that just happily land in her little world every time she wants one….and mostly, thanks to Chris (my tennis playing colleague and friend), that’s true.
Archie, on the other hand, never chases the ball, though he can be relied on to get it out of the water when it lands in water too deep for my little princess to want to go in after it. BUT he does love to chase a stick…..I don’t know why it is that each one of them loves games that are so different but it’s a fact.
Today Maurice found a short, stout stick and Arch was in his element. He chased and whittled it with glee while Rosie cantered around stopping her ball by pouncing on it happily.
It reminded me of a day, many years ago now, when David and Archie had their ‘altercation’ and strangely we spoke about it earlier today at the breakfast table. David came to pick me up to take me out for the evening and Archie was very disturbed by this strange man appearing in his world and taking away his ‘Mum’.
We were running a bit late and I let David in, turned around and went to the kitchen to shut doors and lock up. The next thing I heard was a plaintive cry from the hall. DM was in the hall and he’d shut the door between him and a fang-bearing, snarling Border Collie who was very jealous of his relationship with Archie’s Mum. So, we decided that if our relationship was going to work we needed to sort this out and quickly.
David needed to be seen as ahead of Arch in the pack, as well as his visits needing to be viewed as fun not a misery for Arch. We duly hatched a plan. David would come to the house and instead of us going off out without the dogs or us ignoring them to spend time at home together, we’d go to the woods and make Arch realise David could be a fun person to have around.
We played stick. It was intended to make Arch realise it was good to be with David. I think he got the picture but instead of David coming out as ‘top dog’ that day, he was frustrated to realise that Arch believed himself to be top dog because every time David threw the stick, Arch retrieved it just fine. What happened next was hilarious. Archie brought the stick back to around ten feet or so away from David, then stood with it in his mouth, wagging his tail. When he was sure we were watching, he took the stick ten yards or so into the undergrowth, dropped it and pissed on it. He was saying ‘you may think you’re the boss, but I know different’. He then stood there and smiled sweetly waiting for the next stick to be thrown. It was a little act of defiance or irreverence or whatever. He just wanted to thumb his nose to David.
We did, of course, establish pack order eventually and now Archie is deferential and subservient to David. But we still remember that day and chuckle at the aloof, independent (but equally insecure and frightened) Archie getting one over on us. I still tell him every day he’s part of the family and I won’t ever let any harm come to him but he’s still not sure I mean it. Poor chap.
Last year, weird science gave me a fat rainbow and the year before, poison ivy was on my mind.
