Monica Knits

Shaq and I went out to pick up the mail. My route is more direct than his, as he waters plants and trees on the way to the mailbox. On his first stop, he flushed out a garter snake; both the dog and the snake were momentarily surprised and froze. Read more ....

We are definitely in the dog days of summer (a few days early), fortunately moderated by wind. Shaq enjoyed the breeze, which was at times gentle and at times strong enough to cause his ears to flap as if he were in a car travelling with its windows down. The breeze also made it easy for him to catch scents, just by pointing his nose in the direction of the wind. He even opened his mouth to catch more air, as if sipping a fine wine. In this photo he is taking a break in the prairie among the daisies.

The past two days Shaq has come up with a new way of telling me he wants to play. We have this thick branch that we place on a wide shelf about 3 feet off the ground and it is not visible to a dog standing on the floor. Shaq however, knows where the stick is. At first he looked at me and then at the shelf--I knew what he meant, but it was pouring rain yesterday and we were just going out for a quick bathroom break, not play. I wasn't keen on playing fetch in the rain! He must have thought I didn't understand the message. Shaq stood up on his hind legs, put his paws on the shelf and grabbed the stick--it was smooth and effortless for him and it surprised me. So we played fetch in the rain, but when we came in I moved the stick to a less accessible location -- or so I thought!
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My husband and I were just talking about how polite Shaq is and, how different his style of communication is from Heidi's or Abby's. If you were working at the computer and Abby had to go out, she just kept nose butting your mouse hand--pretty difficult to ignore. Trust me, it's time to take a break when the dog starts pushing the mouse around.