Our front porch resembles a playpen these days, with toys scattered from one end to another - a big puppy playpen. Belle has been busy, recovering from the woods stuffed creatures long buried and forgotten ... along with some of Tom's leather gloves and tools he left lying around, forgetting there's a scavenging puppy on the premises.
Earlier this week a toy appeared that didn't even look familiar - a stuffed carrot that still squeaked! Loud! I suspect Charly "lost" that one pretty quickly ...
Max loved squeaky toys and we bought him a lot to keep him from biting our arms. He would SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK! until Charly would trot over and yank the toy away. I could imagine him saying "Enough with the squeaks, already!" By the next day, the guilty squeaky toy would be gone. Vanished.
So anyway, this carrot reappeared, and it was just the right size for Belle's mouth. She loved it! SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK! Then, what do you know, over trotted Max. He yanked it away. Or at least tried to - there was a little tug-a-war going for a minute or two, but Belle finally gave up. We headed off for our walk, Max still carrying it in his mouth.
At the pond, he waded out into the water as he always does, but then he was stumped; I could see it in his eyes. You see, he usually takes some big gulps, like he's eating the water, but that was impossible with a stuffed carrot in his mouth, so he let the toy go. It drifted slowly away from him, but he was unconcerned; he just turned his back on it and climbed out of the pond, ignoring my shouts ... "Max! Get the carrot! Get the carrot!" I watched it float farther and farther out into the pond, too far for Belle to retrieve it.
Do you think maybe a bit of Charly stuck around inside of Max?
Tug-a-War!
Belle says, "Dang it! Max got it." She's scheming how she might get it back ...
Max! The carrot! Get the carrot!
Good boy!
Uh-oh. He changed his mind and it floats farther away.
Belle can't believe he lost it already!
I spotted it today, up against the erosion fence that now runs along one end of the pond near the Damn Dam, still out of reach. Maybe one day .
