Catch, Fetch, Lunch

This post is doing TRIPLE DUTY!  Wow!  It's a Slice of Life (click the button above), a Poetry Friday contribution hosted by Robyn Campbell and a -CH poem challenge for My Juicy Little Universe hosted by Heidi Mordhorst.

Keep your eyes on the snowball! Wait for it...wait for it...

Catch, Fetch, Lunch

I'm going to snatch this snowball

And bring it back to you!

I love to play fetch all the time;

I know just what to do!

I'm catching it - it's coming!

I've got it in my sights!

But it's so cold and tasty;

It's in such nice sized bites!

I'm sorry I can't fetch it;

I feel the need to crunch

Next time just throw a real ball

So I won't think it's...

CRUNCH...

lunch!

Our pup, Ginger, that I bought for my husband for Christmas, has a heart of gold - or I guess more like yellow, being a Yellow Lab.  However, she's destroyed all the stuffed animals that our twelve year old Golden Retriever, Pippi, has had most of her life.  Pippi chews nothing - not even dog chew toys with enticing squeakers, or flavored with tasty beef and chicken.  She will carry them around until her saliva gets them all soft and disgusting.  Pippi, like many Golden's, has a very soft mouth and gently carries toys around and cuddles them.  Her toys have always been actual stuffed animal toys for kids.  Winnie the Pooh, a swan, a Cabela's Golden Retriever puppy, a lion, an elephant and a fish.  As of today, we have the elephant left.*  Winnie's nose went last night.  The fish's snout was gone this morning.  I feel sorry for Pippi.  Toys she's had for 7 years or more have been destroyed in less than three months.

Except for "don't chew up stuffed animals", Ginger has learned quite a few commands.  She's known "sit" and "stay" for a long time now.  She also knows "down", "crate", "come" and "go potty".  She does "fetch" unless it is one of my socks, a receipt or a tissue, though she is getting better at coming to me when she has some contraband.  She has her very-good-dog moments and her not-so-cute-gotta love-her-she's-a-puppy times which seem longer than the other moments some days!

Meanwhile, I have learned quite a few things, too.  I'm learning not to keep my socks on the floor, to keep tissues up high or just throw them away, and hang the dishtowels higher than the oven door handle.  And receipts go in recycling unless we need them, and then they get files somewhere besides on the kitchen table where they get knocked to the floor.

Ginger loves the snow.  Most of the area where the dogs run has been packed down well so she can stay on top of it.  I shoveled a bathroom for her the first few times it snowed, and it has stayed packed down low enough to use through most of the storms without doing more shoveling. Her other option would have to be tunneling.

Her favorite outdoor winter games are playing "Dig to the Center of the Earth" (the tunneling option), "Grab a Twig Off a Tree",  "Hold the Leash in Your Mouth and Act Like an Idiot", and "Run Up the Snowbank and Pretend You See Something Important on the Other Side".  All of them involve running a lot.  Some of them involve getting scolded at some point.

She IS a great dog, and no matter what I've just scolded her for, she looks at me with soulful eyes and drops down to lie at my feet.  She may simply be checking for more socks, but I think she likes me.  I called her last night from the kitchen into the livingroom where I was sitting watching TV.  She came tearing into the room and leaped with all four feet off the floor - like you see dogs jumping into water - and landed smack in the ...I'd say smack in the middle of my lap, but she's getting so big.  I survived her flying lap dog impression.

Sometimes I think she's studying to be a human.

* Update:  Unfortunately, just before posting, the elephant was trunk-ate-d by the adorable puppy you see above.  I know, it's hard to believe.