TURNING CORNERS

Last Thursday evening (Day 6) I could hear the dogs rumbling out in the pen as I got ready for my shower.

“Yap yap yap,” said Bess.

“Grrrrrrrr,” came a low rumble from Nellie. “Grrrrrrr.” "Yap yap yap."

“Mike,” I called, “the dogs are having a disagreement. Can you see to them?”

Then I heard him out in the pen negotiating with them. “Bess, stop barking at Nellie. Nellie, come on . . . can’t Bess come in there?”

They settled down and the night was quiet, but the next night I suggested it might work better if we put Nellie to bed before Bess. That’s why Nellie was already tucked away in the dogloo when I took little Bess outside. I thought perhaps we would play for a few minutes, but she ran right over to the pen, squeezed her small self in between the post and the gate, and disappeared into the dogloo. If she can squeeze in, she can squeeze out, but that hasn’t happened.

Saturday morning (Day 8) Mike ran errands while I sat on the patio watching Bess. She was in the pen with the gate open when I left my post for a few minutes. When next I checked – not five minutes later -- she was not in the pen and not in the dogloo. She has learned to run up the hill to the field, but I decided not to search in the tall grass until I was certain she was nowhere else. Just then I saw her. She had again squeezed her small self between the gate and the fence post but this time at the neighbors’ where Roland the Great Dane lives. Roland was nowhere to be seen and Bess was cautiously exploring along the walkway, her demeanor suggesting that she knew she had strayed into unfamiliar territory. (Roland is a house dog / couch potato and seldom out. He’s probably a gentle giant.) I retrieved our little pup and life went on.

Watching her again that afternoon, Bess ran up the hill to the field where Nellie keeps her stash of special items. Somehow Bess managed to roll a golf ball down the hill, and in a split second the chase was on. Near the bottom she tumbled, righted herself and continued after the golf ball. She caught up with it halfway across the driveway and brought it to me. When I rolled it, she chased it again before losing interest. Mike said he had watched her do the same thing in the morning.

 

Next thing I knew, she was on Nellie’s big cushion playing with a piece of bungi cord she found outside. Three minutes later she was asleep. It seems like she sleeps at least an hour for every half hour of vigorous play.

 

 Customarily I / we take Nellie for a late afternoon walk. It was hot on Saturday, so Mike sprayed Nellie with water and gently sprayed Bess, too. Evidently she was put off by that and refused to come, showing us her disapproval by several dogly means. She went to the dogloo and stayed there through the supper hour, but as we settled down to watch tv in the evening, she scratched at the door. “Look at her wag her tail,” said Mike as I let her in; “she’s glad to see you!” She sat on my lap and played for a while. KW