Fipsie, No Bon Bons!

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Rosco's Sweetheart Soul

Tonight I am playing bal with Fipsie who is as alert as ever. As usual I am lying on the floor, tossing. As we know, he will not play unless I am lying on the floor. The well rehearsed drill is known to us both: As he comes for the ball, I toss and he turns to run after it.

At one point, Fipsie is out in the open patio and I have the ball in front of me between my two outstretched arms. I decide to vary the routine. My devious strategy is to out-wait Fips until he comes running for the ball and then SNATCH it away from him. Ha ha ha! I pretend to sleep.

Fipsie's devious strategy is to wait till I put my head down and then charge fast and snatch it away from me, before... Uh... by the time I lift my head and move my hand, Fipsie is padding away with the ballie in his maw. Ooomans! So hopelessly slow.

Rosco wants in on the play, but he doesn't like balls. Instead he has the ex-squeaky fuzzy donut. The routine here is to do tuggies and then when he releases, toss the fuzzy for him to fetch. This is not a very big fuzzy, and in the wrastle, I yank it away from him and he does a retrieving chomp. Alas he chomps on my finger and I let out an involuntary yelp. OW!

Little Roski, immediately shoves his nose into my face and starts licking furiously. And lick, and lick, and lick.... He is SUCH a sweetheart. I pet him and say I know, it was just an accident and pet him some more.

Twenty minutes later I am drowsing on the floor. Fipsie is off with his possessed bal, and Rosco is near my thigh with his head resting near the now hopelessly chewed up fuzzy donut. There's still enough "corner" to grab and toss, but as I reach for it Rosco looks at the fuzzy and then comes up to my face to give me a "pre-apology" licky poo. I'm sure he's noticed the size differential and I interpret his lick to mean: "I know, and I pwomise not to bite you."

It's really quite amazing... not only does he apologize, he also seeks to pre-assure. Li'l Rosquito.

Dumb dogs. It's all instinct. They don't really feel anything. I'm just anthropomorphizing. Animals don't have a soul.

Beating the Brush at Loopy

It was a bright and sunny day -- good for a late morning walk at Loopy Loops.   We drove down to the reserve, but instead of entering from the parking I decided to walk down Dry Creek Road toward the winery and enter Loopy Loops from the back end.

The pups padded along the side of the road, stopping to sniff here and there.  Once we got into Loopy, Rosco led the way, choosing the trail that seem most sensible to him -- Fips following, then me.

"Gulley Forest Trail"

After beating through the brush on Gulley Forest Trail we turned right and headed down "Cathedral Oak Way"  which is the eastern portion of the Southern Loop

Cathedral Oak Way

After arriving at Lupin Meadow  [*picture] we headed back up the Center Trail to Big Pond

Big Pond

Big Pond is only big until mid May.  After that it dries up and the bed turns into gooey muck.   One of the drawbacks to Middletown is that there are not many places for Fips to swim, so we have to take advantage of the water while it's around.

From Big Pond, we cut through some more tall grass (tall for dachsies, at least) and headed back toward the parking lot where, 

Big No-Tail decided to annoy Rosco.....

P.S.  (from Rosco) Roski-the-Doggie Photographer wants to make very clear that if these fotos are  close to awful it was not his fault   but entirely the misdoings of humans who provided him with a "Dungie" camera and who then washed these fotos in some sort of pig-trough.   Roski has done his fuzzy best to tweak, tint, and unstain them.