The Little Pack

After a day like today at work,  I am even more grateful for my zany little pack and the laughter and love they give so freely and unconditionally. Highlights of my day include:

1. Archie “helping” me make my lunch this morning. He was exasperating me by trying to get in the middle of everything so I gave him a piece of lettuce to occupy him and he began to purr super-loud (we call this purr-cooing) and rub his face on me. He was very excited for this exquisite “treasure.”
2. Dixie stealing my socks as soon as I took them off. The hamper is taller than her and she stood on her hind legs sniffing and circling the hamper trying to reach the exact pair I wore today. Although she could reach the pair I wore yesterday, those were not appealing enough. She began to woof. When I ignored her, she figured out to tug on the clothes that were underneath the socks so the socks fell down, enabling her to carry one around in her mouth and thereby inspiring me to chase her.
3. IO grabbing my wrist with her mouth so gently. So weird and sweet. She does this periodically after really missing you. It is like she is holding your hand in the only way she can.
4. Cheyenne deciding she wanted to play with toys tonight, even though she doesn’t really know how.
5. Seeing Jackson’s face in the window watching for me when I came home tonight.

Is that grammatically correct? Oh well.. to my 8th grade English teacher, wherever you are–I’m sorry! Anyway, tonight when we came home, the dogs were so adorable. They were all excited and wiggles and tail wagging and exuberance. Dixie picked up her toy and looked at me and then took off running, looking over her shoulder at me. She wanted me to chase her, so I did. Never one to be left out of games involving toys, mere moments later, Jackson brought me a toy. So now I am chasing the little dog, pretending to try to take her toy, throwing another toy for Jack at the same, when lo and behold, Cheyenne is play-bowing me with a toy in her mouth. Umm, Cheyenne really doesn’t play with toys. Almost ever. So now I’m trying to throw a toy for her as well, and laughing hysterically because she doesn’t fetch and doesn’t really know what to do with the toy, she just brought it to me because everyone else had one and she wanted to be a part of it. And then I notice IO, also carrying around a toy. It is amazing to me the way they copy and learn from each other and the way their little minds work. It was adorable.

Of course it wasn’t too long after that that Cheyenne was chasing Baby Titten who was crying about being chased, Jack was whining that I wasn’t throwing his toys fast enough and Archie was running around yowling and IO and Dixie were the only ones not causing trouble… Such is my life. A few minutes of peace or joy closely followed by chaos.

Tonight after throwing Jackson’s toy for hours and listening to him whine, I finally had to say, “No more toys, Boy.” No more toys is almost as heartbreaking to him as “That was a bad, bad Boy.” His poor sad face… Meanwhile Archie was feeling neglected and doing what he does when he feels this way, knocking objects off the kitchen counter. Tonight, that object was a water pitcher, and yes, he broke it. Archie wants attention all the time, however, that attention must be received by you coming to him, and definitely not the other way around. The way he’s discovered he can draw attention to himself is by (in order of escalating desperation):

1. Crying.
2. Knocking things over.
3. Knocking things over and then off the counter.
4. And as a last resort–beating up Baby Titten.

We only reached Stage 3 tonight. Then he started mingering around, waiting for me to pick him up. Its possible that this tactic has worked in the past, thereby reinforcing the behavior. And now, Jack is setting toys on the ottoman and giving me the Border collie eye as though by simply staring he can teleport the toy into my hand and make me throw it. If only life were that simple, objects would never be broken, toys would not accumulate on my lap, and Cheyenne would never paw at my face.