My Dog Period

Sometimes I feel like Picasso in his Blue Period. I'm in my Dog Period, I guess, because I'm endlessly fascinated by the photo ops that Chet provides. It's hard to capture Chet with his Goofy Grin because he's a blur of black, white and pink, and I'm usually laughing too hard to hold the camera. More tranquil moments are much better fodder for this camera, which has a two-second delay between when I press the shutter button and when it actually records that long-gone moment. When I first got the digi-camera it was incredibly frustrating; I'd always prided myself on capturing the moment as it happened with my film SLR camera. Now I take a scatter-shot approach to photography. I click and click and out of a batch of ten there might be a good shot, and the accidents are often more interesting than the setups. I absolutely love digital photography. I set the sucker on Automatic and fire away. I let it worry about lighting and exposure and I just go for the moment. Chet likes to sit on people. He also likes to stick his butt in your face, something we refer to as "butting." Since his all-but-vestigal tail is permanently decurved, being butted by Chet is not nearly as obnoxious as being butted by a cat, for instance. Well, usually not. I've decided to ask Chet's breeder if there is a gene for flatulence, because Chet is expressing that gene in a big, big way. He can hotbox you under the covers until you scream for mercy. From Liam, sitting next to me, coloring: "Hey, Mom. Please don't laugh. I'm trying to concentrate."

Chewing a bone on something, whether it be a pillow, your book, your knee, your head, or anything Liam is trying to play with, is another quirk of Chet's. Try to wrap a package, put together a wooden train track, or read the funnies on the floor, and Chet dashes to get a chew bone, flops down on whatever you're working with, and chews away. As a result, the countertops in our house are festooned with howling monkeys, squeak frogs, eviscerated Teletubbies, and the like, because the kids get tired of being interfered with and retaliate by putting the chew toy up where Chet can't reach it.
Well, it's a beautiful sunny afternoon, and my Loop trail is calling. We're in a brief lull between houseguests and I should be straightening and cleaning and planning meals, but you don't often get 55-degree days in December. There are Men in Orange swarming the woods the last couple of days. I don't know what season just opened--perhaps Kill Antlerless Deer with Butterknives Season--but I'm going to defy them, and hope that Chet and I emerge alive to blog again. Ta!