Sunday night musings

Well, as you can see, that guest blogging thing that the other pups in my pack insisted on has not been a huge success (yet). One post from Rafe, the oaf-puppy (who my people have recently decided is very cute--I'll have to work on changing that--although truth be told, I kind of like him too), and one from my brother, Hamish (who demands to be called H.B. Moy as if he's a "professional")

There is far too much communing between kitties and pups at our house.


Up there, that's Tansy posterior to posterior with our new kitty, Fox








And there's Renzo actually sharing a bed with our fat kitty, Fritz

I think it might be time for some missions for both of them to get their minds back on the tasks involved in being a D.O.G. and not some mealy mouthed cat-lover.

The people remain too stupid to remember to keep tasty things out of their coat pockets and so I am still having to try and remind them through negative reinforcement, which involves clearing out the coat closet of all coats so that they have to put them all back up again. Whenever possible, I also chew a hole in the pockets so that they can really think about their mistakes. When they don't leave treats in their pockets, I give them kisses--positive reinforcement works, too. Of course, if I had opposable thumbs, I'd use a clicker.

As you can see, I brought several coats to our bedroom (but first I rolled around on the people's bed so that it looks a little more lived in and not so Martha. And it also helps reinforce the dominance hierarchy just in case they are confused.)

The real treasures I brought to my crate to carefully extract from the pockets (There's Hamish in his crate trying to look like a good boy--he's still in deep undercover)

We had herding practice yesterday. H.B. Moy (a.k.a. my goofy little brother Hamish) did really well as usual. He's so good at pretending to be a good boy and a suck-up that I forget sometimes that it was MY plan for him to go undercover like this so that he could be our secret weapon when we need him. At herding he outdid himself and ALL the people watching went on and on about how handsome he is, how good he is on the sheep, what a good team he and MY person are, how he's confident but not pushy, on and on and on. They didn't mention the fact that he melted down like a baby when he was supposed to move the sheep past the instructor and to my person. Something, I might add, I did with aplomb without melting down and crying for my mommy.

Tansy and the oaf-puppy also did very well--though the oaf-let is still slow as molassas and the people can't figure out why.

Today, Hamish and I went to flyball practice. Once I get the ball, I kind of mosey on back--double-stepping on some of the jumps. My person tends to think it's because I'm worried about where my feet are, but another person pointed out that it's probably because I have my ball, so what's the hurry to get back. I am truly coming to fear that my act as an unconfident pup may soon have to end as the people are getting wise....

The people watch way too much football (American-style) on TV and were kind of sad yesterday when the Michigan Wolverines lost to the Ohio State Buckeyes. All I know is that football often means frozen Kongs for us--except when it doesn't and that's when I hit the switch as I described in the Nov. 14 edition of my blog.

Finally, there is some big secret that my people have cooked up. I'm not sure what it is, but will let you know as I discover more.

Lesson for today
Some days are for pondering life's grand absurdities not for learning lessons