Friday, October 19, 2007

The Agony of Defeat

Two nights ago we got the kids together (aka the dogs, Quique and her brother Charlie – they are the kids in my world) for a few hours. The two of them together are a site to be seen. One of these days I will have to upload a video and put it on the blog, but my technical skills have yet to reach that level (so don’t hold your breath). Except for the fact that Charlie has about 10 – 15 lbs. on Quique, they are twins. The looks the same and their mannerisms are identical. The way they beg, the cute little way they cock their head at me when I’m talking to them, the way they wag their bums (not just the tail, the whole rear end)… it’s adorable!

The two of them love to play together. When I talk with Connie (Charlie’s mom) on the phone, I have to refer to Charlie as “Chuck”, We also have to spell things like p-a-r-k and w-a-l-k if our meeting is not going to be immediate when hanging up the phone. Otherwise, I have a dog who is whining at me and following me around everywhere. It’s cute at first, but that wears off quickly. One of these days she is going to understand what I'm spelling- isn't that just like having a child?

Anyway, back to last night. When they play, their favorite game is to play with 1 item together and chase each other. It can be a ball, a stick, rope, anything. (I’m talking plastic bag anything). If it’s a stick or a rope, they usually play tug of war or just run around the yard together while both are holding onto the object. But the favorite game is when they are playing with an object that only one of them can have so that a game of “chase and try to gain possession of the object” can begin. "Chase" is Quique’s absolute favorite game. When we go to the dog park, her goal is always to get the other dog’s to chase her. Surprisingly, she’s actually quite good at it. It doesn’t matter the shape or size of the dog, she’s had Terriers to Great Danes chasing her around the park. So last night, Dustin gave them one Gatorade (plastic) bottle and the entertainment began. It soon became apparent the Charlie's "time of possession" outweighed Quique's. As I just mentioned, Quique likes to be chased, she doesn't like to chase. So Quique pretends like she’s not playing any more and just “sulks” in a corner. Charlie will then drop the bottle and come over to her which is then her chance to steal the bottle and gain control of the game again. I think that Charlie has finally caught on because he doesn’t give in nearly as much as he used to. And the other night was no exception to that. Quique needed a new tactic so now she takes off his collar. Dustin would put his collar back on and when she felt too much time had passed where she didn’t have the bottle, off went his collar again.

I try not to humanize my dog, but it is so hard. Especially at times like these when I see this sweet puppy that is so cute and nice to everybody and every dog work so hard to manipulate her brother and be such a sore loser! I know that competition lies in all aspects of life, even for animals, but it just cracks me up to see my dog so upset when she feels that she is losing. Apparently she needs some help in the sportsmanship category. But whatever the case, she is a true joy in my life. Who thought that a dog could do so much, but I know that both Dustin and I can’t imagine our lives without her. She is and will always be a member of our family. Here are two shots, one in the evening and one in the morning - both times after a nice hard play with Charlie.



Quique with her favorite duck (it used to make duck noises)




(Quique in one of her "normal" sleeping positions)

2 comments:

Jennifer Stofiel said...

P.S This is the world's longest post. I like the pictures though =)

JT said...

You know that I have a hard time keeping things short. I always over explain everything!