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Tag Archives: dogs

In which Yaris executes a plan of her own devising

Yaris is a punk.  We’ve already established this.  But recently, she did something so outrageous that it begs to be documented.

Yaris and Horse recently spent some time at a doggy camp.  They were housed in the same cabin but I knew the cabins only had one large cot in the back, which would be big enough for both dogs to sleep on, but I knew it wouldn’t work because Yaris doesn’t like to share a bed with another dog.  So when I dropped them off at camp, I left her car bed with them so she would have some place familiar to sleep (as I was also pretty sure she would be whiny at night in unfamiliar surroundings).

When I picked them up from camp, I decided that I would have to wash everything they had with them at camp before bringing it back into the house, and I hadn’t had the time or energy to wrestle a dog bed through a wash cycle, so it’s just been sitting the garage.  Yaris still has her blanketed cot in my room, so it’s not like she didn’t have any place to sleep at all.

But sometimes Yaris wants to sleep some place soft, or at least softer than a bunch of blankets on a cot.  Her spare bed is outside in her apartment and I haven’t bothered to bring it into my room.  The only other soft surface to sleep on in my room is Horse’s bed.  So…she hatched a plan to steal Horse’s bed.

The other day, Horse was napping in his bed and I was in bed reading a book, when Yaris came in and enacted her plan.  She started acting really excited.  Horse and I both wanted to know what was so exciting.  I asked Yaris why she was so excited, but she ignored me and continued acting really excited, dancing around the room.  Horse finally got caught up in this; he wanted to be excited about something too.  So he started prancing around my room also being very excited, although I knew he had no idea what was so exciting.  Yaris kept up her whole excited dance routine for another moment or so, and when she judged Horse to be adequately distracted by his prancing about my room being all excited, she dropped the act and made a beeline for his bed and plopped down to take a nap.

…what.

Horse did not notice right away and was still prancing around saying that he was really excited.  But then after a few moments, he realized that Yaris was no longer excited and was in fact taking a nap on his bed.  And then he looked around and he didn’t know what was supposed to be exciting.  And then he was sad and didn’t know what to do.  He looked around my room for a little bit longer and then at Yaris who was napping away and then decided to just lie on the floor, confused.

Seriously, what a punk.

And no, I don’t intervene when she steals his bed in the middle of the day for a nap.  I only intervene at night when we all turn in for the day.  Horse is just going to have to learn to be less gullible.

In which Horse and Yaris go to their interview

Horse and Yaris recently had an entrance interview to be enrolled in the local doggy camp.  While I do understand why the process is completely necessary, I still find it entirely ridiculous.  Maybe because of how they call it an “interview.”  It’s not an interview.  It’s just an observation day to make sure your dogs play nice with the other dogs.  There are no questions being asked.  You can’t prep your dogs for it.  They don’t have to dress up.  It’s not an interview.  But it does feel like what I imagine enrolling children into camp is like with the immunization requirement and whatnot.

Anyway, Horse and Yaris went in for their interview.  The camp staff got a kick out of Horse’s name.  He’s the only Horse in their system.

There actually ended up being an even bigger lab (yellow) that day.  That lab was big.  And fat.  I saw him on the webcam (there are live webcams in the yard so you can check in on your dog from time to time).  Horse stood next to that other lab and there was a very distinct size difference.  The staff said even Horse seemed taken aback when he saw how big that lab was.  Haha.  I caught them next to each other a few times during the day.  I imagine they were discussing the trials of being so big and how finally there was another lab who could understand.

There are always a bunch of GSDs around and on interview day, it was no different.  Yaris made some friends with other GSDs and also a pair of greyhounds for some reason.  Maybe she was comparing notes on running fast.  I was pretty impressed with Yaris in that she didn’t really freak out and seemed relatively calm.  She would make her rounds and then go back to lie down in close proximity to Horse.  Horse would not make rounds and basically spent the entire day lounging and dog watching the other yards.  The giant yellow did the same, but he staked out a different corner.

Anyway, they both did well and passed their interview and are welcome back at the doggy camp.  They also took the most ridiculous looking ID photos ever after having passed their interviews.

They caught Horse mid-lick. He looks like he has a mustache or lips.

They caught Horse mid-lick. He looks like he has a mustache or lips.

What is that face?!

What is that face?!

I guess dogs don’t take good ID photos either.  ID photos are just destined to look bad for everyone.