My daughter and Miss D came for dinner. I made spaghetti and salad, we all stuffed ourselves, and the dogs were crazy happy. Miss D shared her dinner with them. She really makes a ritual of it - part of eating is sharing it with her dogs. The dogs were on board with that immediately.
After dinner was extended playtime. Miss D has learned to give nice hugs, and she hugged Sophie many times, which sent Sophie over the moon with joy!! Gentle hugs, kisses, it was a love fest.
Then as Miss D started getting tired, the grabbing ensued, and that's when the dogs earned their Nice Dog Medals.
Sophie was the first victim, when a tender hug suddenly became a grabbing of an ear. I've had this kid grab the skin at the back of my arm and squeeze, and I know exactly how much force she puts into a grab. When she does it to me, I yelp! Sophie made a pained yelp noise, but didn't snap or respond with any aggression at all, and my daughter intervened instantly to free the ear. We praised Sophie, told Miss D no, and Sophie kissed her and forgave her. More hugs, no more grabbies.
More playtime, happy happy, but by then Miss D was really approaching the fight before crashing into sleep. Next victim: Murphy. This time she got BOTH of Murphy's little old ears in her iron grasp, and twisted, and I was the one who yelped in alarm and grabbed her hands to get her off the poor dog's ears!
And Murphy was just oblivious, blissed out, his baby was ripping his ears off and that was fine, because she can do anything, she's his Beloved. This all took place on my lap in a matter of seconds, and I pried his ears from her tiny iron fists of ouch, but he wasn't even slightly put out by the experience.
She's learning to be gentle with dogs, to pet and give hugs, but there is still constant supervision, and if these dogs weren't the most besotted idiots in love with their baby who ever lived, I would be paranoid about their response. As it is, I am protecting the dogs from the baby. The dogs would let her rip their little ears off and kiss her while she did it. (Sophie might yelp a little, but still let her do it.)
No, I didn't take pictures this time. Next Saturday is her first birthday party. I will take lots.
Eleven or twelve Christmases ago, when Senior Grandson was a toddler, we were all sitting around the dinner table for Christmas Lunch (favoured over dinner because of the age of the junior members).
ReplyDeleteA bit distracted by all the talk, I heard Kurt pipe up beside me:
Look Oma, I've got Vegemite! (he was besotted with her).
He definitely did HAVE Vegemite, in a death grip headlock, clamped against his chest, and her eyes were blazing an urgent SOS, Mayday, Mayday, Do something about this kid !!. She was taking no action herself, but my concern was the trailing plume of tail, just in the right place to be stepped on........, and that might have been a bit too much for a tolerant cat to tolerate. I rescued her, and then demonstrated to Kurt that being picked up by the neck was not pleasant or comfortable.
Gae, in Callala Bay
Oh, we had a sweet kitty when my kids were growing up! Trouble was such a doll, I used to say that every kid in the neighborhood learned anatomy from her. "Kitty EYE!" Little finger pokes at her eye. Trouble shuts the eye and doesn't move. "Kitty EAR!" Little hand grabs her ear. Trouble purrs. Somewhere I have a picture of my son at around 3, with Trouble clasped to his chest. He had her under her front legs so she wasn't actually being strangled. That cat not only didn't try to get away, she'd actually approach the kids! Maybe not the brightest bulb, but the sweetest cat I've ever known, and one of the prettiest, too. I called her the Disney Cat - she looked like an illustration from a Disney movie, all round eyes and gorgeous dark tortie markings.
ReplyDeleteCatherine, please email me. I would love to send you some of our Yorkie grooming products to try and review. :) Sarah Henery, Yorkie Splash and Shine info@yorkieshampoo.com
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