Very Busy, Very Busy.

Polly had a multitude of toys. Soft toys that she loved, with squeakers in them. Which in turn led to her having a bit of a CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP effect when doing actual retriever work. So when Tripper happened along into our lives, we put all the softy toys up, to avoid repeating the behavior.

Watching him grow up (or not grow up, as the case may be) has been entertaining. He still loves ice cubes, which is that phase they grow out of, eventually, and I secretly love it so. He charges in at the sound of a tray of ice being cracked (yes, we are old-school) and sits on his butt with his ears up and eyes huge, waiting for you to toss him a cube.  He is the most persistently stubborn and into-things-he-shouldn’t-be  dog I’ve had; he is not content to chew on bones, but goes in search of tissues, toilet paper, trash, and has a peculiar penchant for Q-tips. They don’t even have to be used to be appealing to him; the other night he went into James’ duffle bag & ate half a travel-sized container of them. I didn’t know the container was only half-full until the next morning, and at the rate Tripper’d been going, he seemed fine.  All I could say was (shrug) “Good thing they’re made of paper!” Let him outside and you can expect to see any number of things go from their original state to shredded or destroyed. Plastic flower pots. Milk jugs we’ve saved for watering. Large piece of cardboard from a label. A random goose decoy head.

One of the things Polly used to do that cracked me up was her work in  Toy Management and Distribution. She was really trying to get fast-tracked to be promoted in the industry, as she would race up and down the stairs to move various toys to rooms around the house. Every morning this happened. But then Tripper came along, the toy supplies dried up and she had to give up that career path.

James has a door to his workshop that’s by the greenhouse, and since it can be blown open (and won’t return to shut itself), he attached a bungee cord to it so it will stay shut unless you push it open. And this door? Is Tripper’s favorite thing to do. He LOVES to open it with his head and prance through, sometimes at full-tilt speed. When Suzy does it? She just nudges it open and walks on through. But Tripper goes through with a BANG and I’ve taken to saying any number of phrases when I see it happen. “Busy day, people, all sorts of meetings, please, take a message, I’ll be back after lunch, I’ve GOTTA GO.” Somehow in my mind, he’s the head of security at the casino, and he just saw something on the cameras that concerned him and he’s headed out to the tables to investigate before another dollar is lost.

I’ve got to find him a little green visor.

And yes, I’ve been very busy myself. Sorry for the quietude. I have two good-sized projects to get through & then, hopefully, things will mellow out a bit. Which is the same thing I’m hoping for in Tripper. :)