And Lassie, who isn’t one to over exert himself, trotted along the trail, being careful never to leave it (he wouldn’t want to lead his silly sheep (me and Mom) astray and he most certainly wouldn’t want to risk getting burrs and poky things stuck in his fur (I was grateful for that, Petal had to stand outside the car and get all these horribly poky (more like stab-y) things plucked out of her fur while Lassie only had a few twigs in his tail)) and peed wherever he pleased.

Petal also took upon herself the task of keeping Ella in line. Lassie and I have drawn this invisible boundary line for how far ahead they’re allowed to get before it’s time to either turn around and go back to the humans or stand and wait for them to catch up. Petal very quickly caught on to Lassie’s line and she obeys it and very rarely does she ever push it. Ella, however, rarely does she not push it. She gets too far ahead if she’s sniffed out something interesting, her recall is pretty good, but it could be better (something to work on this summer). But thankfully Petal and Lassie are always there to tell on her. Yes, my Collies are huge tattletales, it’s great. Petal will look to me and then to Ella and she’ll bark like she’s saying, “Mom! Ella got too far! Mom! Look! She’s being bad! Mom! Do something!” I’ll call Ella back and sometimes Petal will go and get her. She’ll go out and start pestering her until she—Ella—gets annoyed and comes back. So while Lassie is keeping an eye over his sheep, Petal is watching out for our little black sheep. ;]

With all of the fun (and all of the work, Petal would like to add) they had on the trail, I had three very sleepy dogs on Wednesday and that evening the girls in my family gathered in the kitchen to chit-chat while Mom grouted a table top we’re making for outside.
Guess who popped in actually looking sleepy?

Petal! For once she looked beat at the end of the day. She came in looking all sleepy and looking around at us like “Why is everyone still up?!”
I told her she could go to bed, but she isn’t one to be left out, so she jumped up onto the bench at the kitchen table (as she often does) and laid down on it (she’s never done this).
Then my sister had some fun with her ears and Petal just laid there like “Whatever.”

“Momma, it’s past bed time. Why are you still up?”

“Seriously, it must be late if I’M tired.”
(My sister held her ears down in the picture. She looks so silly and small without her big bat ears, doesn’t she? 😉

“I don’t understand why this is funny.”

“Great! Now everyone will think I’m a demon!”

“I just wanna sleep.”