Keep Smiling!

I was driving in to work this morning, and caught myself chuckling at a memory of my recent trip to St.Louis.

I had given Bailey an 'Extra Special Rawhide Bone' as a distraction, hoping he'd settle down somewhere to chew on it instead of bouncing off the walls, jumping on people, giving kisses, and just generally getting on everyone's nerves. My dogs dont get rawhide because Willow, my white shepherd, cant have it (health problems)... so out of fairness, I dont keep any in the house.

So Bailey had a large (too large, for his size) bone, and he was thrilled. He carried it around, but refused to sit down and chew on it. His first concern was to "bury" it. Being inside, this meant finding a really good hiding spot. We spent the next several days playing hide-and-go-seek with his bone ... he hid it under my piano, I found it. He hid it under the dining room table, I found it. He tried to hide it in the couch, but he caught my Dad watching him ... so he moved it. The only time I didnt catch him in the act, was the last afternoon in town ... he trotted off down the hallway, and came back... pleased as punch with himself.

Now, I know his methods of "burying", it could have been anywhere ... in a pile of dirty laundry, underneath a bed, up against the wall, sitting out in plain sight, I was worried that we'd leave it behind and that my parents would unexpectedly find it in some most inconvenient way several weeks down the road.

I spent HOURS looking for that damned bone!! My Aunt had come up from Texas to surprise my mother, for her 70th birthday ... she told me "Carol, try as you may ... you will never be able to think like a dog!" (Oh, how little she knows me ...)

Watching Bailey carefully, we played the 'hot and cold' game. I could tell by his reactions when I was getting closer to his 'hiding spot'. Well, I FOUND that damned bone ... it was buried IN a slipper, IN my mom's closet, UNDER a pile of shoes!!

Clever little Aussie .... that's my boy!! d:)