Happy Saturday!
Have a lovely weekend!
Sometimes bribery works, and other times she just looks like a treat-crazed monster.
But yesterday, yesterday she was in a very mellow mood and I was able to snatch some good pictures of her.
Much to the Collies’ dismay.
something like this pops up in the frame:
A jealous Collie butt belonging to Petal.
She’s not the only one who will demean oneself by stooping to such drastic measures for a little camera time. Oh no.
A few sweet pictures later, and…
this face will appear in the frame…
“That’s enough! We need some pictures of ME!”
While we all love seeing your handsome face, Lassie (and your adorable fox-like butt, Petal), we love seeing pretty Ella, too!
Even when she ends up with debris on her head.
Are you wondering who possibly could’ve made this mess?
Or are you pretty sure it was Petal?
“Who? Me?”
Because Petal is a fair guess. She is the youngest and by far the most rambunctious and mischievous. She also loves to search the kitchen for scraps. So it could’ve been Petal.
Except for one thing…
Our trash can has a lid on it and Petal doesn’t know how to open it.
So scratch Petal off the list.
Is Ella your next guess?
“Innocent little me? In the trash?”
Another fair guess. Ella has a knack for trouble. We’ve seen her digging plenty of times and she causes plenty of trouble around the house. So it could’ve been Ella.
But… did you notice what was on the lid of the trash can pictured above?
Is that… Collie hair?
“But surely it wasn’t Lassie!” You say?
Ignore that innocent looking face! It is really the look of guilt!
Oh, but it was. It was definitely Lassie who dug around in the trash, tossing things he didn’t like onto the floor until he found what his nose had been searching for all along: an empty cat food can.
You don’t believe me? You don’t believe that that well mannered and well behaved boy would make such a mess or risk getting his hair dirty by digging in the trash?
Well, lucky for you, I have further photographic evidence. Because that adorable bad dog had another go at it after I cleaned everything up.
Mischievous little stinker.
But I have to say, it is one of the most hilarious and oddly endearing things that he does. I don’t know if it’s the way he lifts the lid open so effortlessly with his nose or the way the lid rests over his head as he digs for treasures. Or maybe it’s the guilty look combined with the “Oh crap!” look that he gets on his face when you catch him in the act.
P.S. Hours after the trash can incident, I found Petal in the act of something very mischievous, but we’ll save that for another Monday. ;]
Literally.
So he crushed it between his teeth and looped around the couch as he crunched on it. I went for the camera and he ditched the bottle on the floor, of course, so I missed getting any pictures of him with the bottle, but I did get a few of Petal with it. She’s fond of crushing them, too, but mostly she likes to chew the tops.
“What? You and Lassie said it yourselves: it was asking to be crushed!”
Ella thinks they’re both insane, of course, chewing up squeakers pulled from innocent stuffed animals is where it’s at!
So, a week ago, the dogs celebrated like this…
“C’mon, Ella! Let’s play soccer!”
“A storm coming!”
“A storm? Who cares about storms? There’s no thunder or lightning, so… “
“Let’s play!”
“Alright. I guess a game of Collie soccer wouldn’t hurt. I’ll do commentary.”
“Petal takes off after the ball! The ball hits the fence and Petal is forced to make a sharp and rapid turn to avoid smashing into the fence and becoming a Pug.”
“What do you mean becoming a Pug?! That’s not how their faces came to be all smashed, is it?!”
“Of course not, it was only a joke.”
“Oh, well, stop your joking around and—”
“throw my ball!”
“Fine, fine.”
“YES! I GOT IT! I GOT IT!”
“No one cares, Petal, not when I’m looking this handsome in the wind.”
“Look at how it ruffles my fur.”
“Oh! Ow! Rain in my eye! Rain in my eye!!”
“HA HA HA, very handsome!”
“Get over here you little twerp!”
“Aaaahhhhh!”
There’s nothing like starting off a rainy day with a game of soccer out in the yard. :]
For those who might be wondering, while me, Lassie, and Petal spent our morning playing the rain, Ella spent hers curled up in the warm house; she’s not a fan of the cold or the rain.
Like, for example, the way Lassie and Petal wrestle is very different from the way Petal and Ella wrestle or even the way Lassie and Ella wrestle (if you can call it wrestling).
Petal often gets her butt kicked by Ella in the wrestling department. Ella will smack her down to the ground and they’ll wrestle and wrestle and then break off into a run (which Petal starts because Ella gets too intense for her sometimes).
Lassie and Ella don’t wrestle much anymore. Their wrestling matches consist more of Lassie sunbathing and Ella coming up and smacking him until he gets annoyed and then she runs off, hoping he’ll chase her, and sometimes he does.
Though Lassie won’t wrestle Ella anymore, he will wrestle Petal. Why? Ella’s style is too rough. Petal’s style is much more like Lassie’s, so he prefers to wrestle with her. Lassie and Petal don’t pin each other to the ground, ever. But pinning Petal to the ground is Ella’s favorite move. Lassie and Petal’s wrestling matches are also considerably more moderate than Ella’s. And, in a way, they’re more graceful too.
But they’re also louder, because they like to trash talk each other. 😉
These pictures are about a month old, but this is how it’s done. 😉
Petal likes to wrap her front paws around Lassie’s neck and bite at his ears and mane. Then when he bites back, she leaps away and runs a circle as he nips at her. Then they nip at each other’s faces and bonk their long noses together (I call this sword fighting, haha). They bark, they nip at each other’s feet, they duck out of the way, they jump back, they run a circle and come back for more. It usually ends in a high speed chase around the yard and then it’s over and onto the next game. They won’t go at for ages on end like Ella likes to do. With my Collies, they like to play a few different games during their play sessions outside and nearly all of their games involve me in some way. Ella is the opposite. She’ll play one game (wrestle, chase, or fetch) until she’s tired and then she digs (of course) and the only game she needs me for is fetch (unless we’re playing indoors, then she does like to play tug with me).
It’s fun to see how different they each are. Even Lassie and Petal, being the same breed, are much different from each other. And even though Ella’s our resident mutt and mystery dog, she has some things in common with Lassie and Petal.
What about your dogs? How do they like to play with other dogs? What’s their favorite game to play with other dogs?