Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard,
To fetch her poor dog a bone;
But when she came there
The cupboard was bare,
And so the poor dog had none.

Anonymous
Old Mother Hubbard

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Cricket Redux

Cricket is a terrier mutt of some sort according to the vet. He weighs 8 lbs and is very close to a year old now. He is mostly an outside dog because Tom believes an animal's place is out of doors. (Having recently been in Jason's AKA The Animal's room, I tend to agree).

During the day, when I'm here and Tom isn't, he may go in and out at will. Although he comes inside from time to time to search Jason's room for socks or debris to take out and tear up, he seems to like being outside best. He is, however, required to sit in my lap and receive loving attention during the hour, in the afternoon, that I watch the tube.

Tom and I both spend a good deal of time in Crickets's yard. During that time, Cricket makes us play with him. He will bring his toy of the moment. Each toy has its own game with its own rules.

The hedgehog is a throwing thing. We get points for distance. A good grade for an especially long throw will earn a head shaking thing while he is running back with it. Tom says he is killing it. After he gets it back, he turns and gets into his 'ready to run' pose.

The squeak bone is also a mainly throwing toy, but it has the tug of war twist to it. With the squeak bone, we have to fight him for it, pull him around a little and if we are good enough, he will let us know with his little ferocious growl. If we get custody of the bone before the tug of war part of the game is over, he'll grab it back and start tugging again. When he gives us custody of the bone, he goes into his 'ready to go get it' pose again, tensed with his back to us, making furtive glances over his shoulder if we take too long to throw it.

Then, there is the rope. It is strictly a tug of war toy although if you throw it, he will go get it and do the shaking thing with it. It is one of those fat ropes with the fringe and knots on the end. He doesn't shake it with the abandon he used to since he's hurt himself a couple of times bonking his head with the knots. Poor baby . .

That takes us to the REAL bone he has. It is a huge (in comparison to him) cow knee bone, I guess. He loves that thing and will spend hours chewing and chewing and carrying it all around the yard, just to plop down with it and chew it some more. I don't see how he carries it. He probably has Atlas-doggy neck muscles from it. If you look closely, you can see him chewing on that bone in the Uncle Lewie entry although it is half hidden behind the edge of the sliding door.

I'm sure the birds are his most fun toy. He gets in a kitty crouch, tensed and waiting until there are enough birds around the feeders to satisfy his chase lust, then he dashes toward them -- the bird cloud ascends. The doves aren't as skittish as the rest of them, so often there is one still walking around pecking seed out of the grass when Cricket has removed the others to their perches. Then, he runs right straight at the dove, chasing it full circle around the yard til it lands somewhere to wait him out.

Cricket, AKA Climbin' Dog, likes to climb. There are some redwood chairs that he himself on, usually with part of him hanging down. Also, there is a 'stack' of those woven chairs that he does the rope climb thing up the back of so he can get on the grill. I don't know how he gets himself up on his doghouse; it seems much too high for him to jump. This is his route to the kitchen window. I've never actually seen him do that, but often, when we are eating dinner, he joins us out sitting on the ledge.

He has some girl friends -- couple of little girls who ride their bikes in our alley. Part of their routine is to stop and get off their bikes and play with Cricket. Mostly, they talk to him and scratch his head through the fence, but I have seen them sneak into the backyard once, so I assume they do it on a regular basis. Cricket nearly wags himself to death when they come over to play.

Cute or not, I'm still pissed about the herbs.

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