The Difficulties of Possessing

I wish I had taken a camera. Down at the river turn out, today, I noticed a large white polar bear doll lying on its back in the creek. It was at least three times the mass of Fips, maybe four including the paws. It was water logged and heavy. I called Fips' attention to it. He came over and stared intently.

"Fipsie! Look at the Big Doggie," I said.

grrrrrAUF, grrrrAUF! Fips gave a couple of barks and kept on staring.

Rosco trotted on over and started looking at it too. But neither dog would get close.

I decided to stimulate matters and gave a short tug on one of the soggy bear's paws. At that, Fips got spunk and decided to drag it away. He began to tug at the bear -- first on its nose and then on its ear with all the strength of his whole convulsing little body. Fips might almost have moved it except a large rock held it back.

At that point, Rosco came and stood on top of the big fuzzy, as Fips continued tugging off the ear. After a short while, Rosco lost interest and waded upstream a bit, as Fips mounted the bear's belly and started tugging at its nose and one of its paws. I stood there watching him tug and climb all over this thing. He was pretty determined and, to me, both amusing and adorable. After a while, Rosco returned and then the two of them were all over it-- two little brown dachshunds standing on this white bear belly tugging and humping away, with all the beastliness they could muster.

One thing I've noticed about the dogs is that neither has figured out that standing on something (be it a polar bear or stick) makes it more difficult (in fact virtually impossible) to move. Fips will often tug at a large stick with his maw while making it heavier by placing his paw on it. Today I am sure Rosco wanted to help out at tugging the bear, but just didn't see that standing on it made it heavier for Fips.

In Rosco's case I think he's just so impulsive he thinks only of tugging any which how. With Fips, it may be a tad more complicated. He definitely associates paw placement with "possession". He also manifestly associates tugging with having or gaining possession. Thus, in Fips' case I think he draws the erroneous conclusion that doing both makes for "more possession" when in fact the two acts counter one another.

Quien sabe. Maybe the one who draws the erroneous conclusion is mister Tailess Wonder - maybe pushing down and pulling up is simply some flesh-tearing instinct rather than an attempt at displacement. After all, who cares about moving food?

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