Rose-hips and Foie gras

So I sometimes get in trouble for my “I want to MEET you!” bark, but Rolydog gets in just as much trouble for stopping suddenly to eat.  He’ll lunge for a French-fry in the gutter, or a fallen persimmon (all slimy and soft – gross!) and just about anything else that looks tasty to him. And believe me, just about everything looks tasty to a Labrador.  He’s forever saying, “yum, you should try this!” and after a while it wears a guy down, so I figured, since we’re stopping anyway…

The first thing I’ve come to enjoy is rosehips.  On one of our walks we go past a yard full of rose bushes, and even Curlmom lets us stop there.  It’s a great place to read the news from other dogs, and the ground has lots of what Roly calls rosehips: small hard crinkly shapes, sort of like his dog food (which I’m also rather fond of), that taste like Springtime.  It’s easy to crunch them and they’re good for the digestion.

You do have to be careful, though! Some days when it’s been raining there are things that are rosehip size and rosehip shape, but when I started to bite one it had a hard shell and was persimmon-slimy inside! Then I noticed another, and it was moving slowly across the sidewalk! I sniffed it – it didn’t smell like rosehip. I learned my lesson: always sniff before you bite.  Roly said I’m catching on.

The other treat I tried was the foie gras.  You can find it on the grass at the kidplay place, after the geese (Roly says that’s the short name for fatflyingsquirrel) have been there. It’s hidden in the long grass, so having a sensitive nose like mine is great for searching them out.  They’re little tidbits, but oh! so delicious!  Curlmom tried to put it on our list of “not your job” foods, cause evidently there are parts of the world where foie gras is frowned upon, but then she gave up, saying something like “chacun a son gout!”

Translation Trouble

One day when I leapt after the brown-van driving past, and a duck flying low, and a dog on the other side of the street, all in one walk, Rolydog asked me what I was trying to say, cause I guess my leaping and barking sort of makes Curlmom grumpy, and she’s less likely to let us stop at interesting bushes.

I explained that I was barking, “I want to MEET you!”  I met a nice man driving a brown-van long ago (he used to throw me treats) and I was surprised to see exactly the same brown-van driving down the street, so I was hoping for treats.  As for the dogs, they all look like they’d enjoy a good circlerun and romp, and birds, well I’ve never even gotten close to one before.  Besides, I’m just a friendly guy, so “I want to MEET you!” is a nice thing to say, isn’t it?

Roly says it sounds to the humans like I’m saying, “I want to EAT you!”

Guess it’s my Eastcoast accent.

How to get a Human's attention

I've come up with several ways to get a human's attention - mostly to get them away from those tapboxes they stare at all day... if the human (usually Curldad working on his art website) is sitting in a chair using the big tapbox Roly is big enough to bump his elbow.  Roly gets lots of attention this way especially if a cup of hotstuff is nearby. I prefer the cuteness gambit, where i sneak up and put my head on the lap of the person (or right on the tapbox if it's Curlmom sitting on the nodogsonthecouch); then i look up under my wonderful eyebrows with an incongruously serious look on my face.  Gets 'em every time!

Another attention-getter i've only tried for the first time today goes like this:
Usually in the morning Roly goes out to help get the paper, you know, and i wait at the door til he gets back and gives it to me so i can deliver it to the kitchen (or the dogbed, or under the table).  Well today Curldad told us BOTH to sit at the door, and then when he said "OK" i thought he meant both of us, so i followed Roly out the door.  We both checked out the front lawn, with Curldad very interested in our activities.  When Roly ran back inside i followed, of course, and Curldad was very delighted to see me come so quickly.
Easily amused, and so amusing, these humans!
Finn, on patrol