Possessing the Ball

Shortly before I went to bed, I thought to myself that, since September last, Fips had given up on the Bedtime Ball Game and seemed to have lost interest in it. Well, I guess that's that, I said to myself as I got into bed next to an already snuggled mass of warm fur.

Fips lay there for a while and then suddenly got up, jumped off the bed and started to do his play hopping around the floor.

"Are you serious...?"

Hop....skip...hop/hop... circle hop....skip... wag, wag, wag, wag.

So I got up, fetched a bal and tossed it.

Scamper, scamper, scamper.....

But after two tosses, Fips was no longer interested in scampering. Instead he climbed back into bed where he propped himself up on a pillow with the tennis ball in his mouth.

I reached for the ball with my hand, and Fips strongly jerked his head away. I reached again. Grrrr-Grrrrr and yank away. Again. He pushed my hand down with his paw and jerked his head away.

Domi Paw -- I tried lifting my hand up. His paw pressed down. Up? Down!

I pulled my hand out from under and reached for the ball. Grrrr-GrrRRR!

I whispered into Fips' ear: "Fipsie possess the bal"

Fips raised his head up, lifting the ball high in his mouth.

Fips knows what "possess"means. This knowledge goes way back to a stupid thing the tail-less wonder once did. But the sound means that I am "re-giving" and "not-taking" whatever it is that it is in his mouth or under his chin. "Not taking" means "having continues" which is what possession is all about.

Fips' paw is on my forearm. "Yesss... Fipsie possess the bal," I say as I gently pat the ball with the flat of my fingers. Fips raises his head, and pressess down on my forearm. He is clearly enjoying this Affrimation of Dominion. In fact, he is so into it that just to prove the point he drops the ball into the palm of my hand and then immediately snatches it away again as he presses down with his paw.

"Oh yesss," I coo, "Fipsie's a good doggie. Fipsie possess the bal."

This continues for quite some time, with me taping the ball, him dropping it, me making feeble attempts to pull it from his mouth, he jerking away and pressing down with his paw. Validating his possession. This is the entire purpose of the game.

After about 15 minutes, he tires of the game, drops the ball, goes for a slurp of water and then crawls back into bed, curls up and goes to sleep.

.