When I got up this morning, this was in the dining room.  Nothing has been touched except the green ball at the bottom of the photo.  I bumped it with my foot.

It could have been like that last night, but I doubt it.  That looks intentional.  What are the odds that Sparky would choose six green balls randomly?

Jeff Goldblum would run a regression analysis to see if this corresponds to the Fibonacci sequence.  Spock or Data would search for a match with known star charts.  At least I took a photo.

I’ve had some coffee, so gathered the gumption to do a loose calculation.  There are six colors of balls, so there is a one in six chance of randomly choosing a green ball.  There is a 1 in 46,656 chance of that happening six times in a row.  How do you explain the lack of other balls on the floor?

Yeah, it’s a mystery. 

The solarium is lit with red LEDs, so green and blue balls would be harder to see.  Doing a brief reconnoiter, there is a blue ball on the other side of the door jam on the right side of the photo. 

There are other balls on the floor, but they are under furniture and not accessible to Sparky.

If I throw a ball into the snack pit, Sparky jumps in the pit because he thinks there is food in there.  He does that if he sees or hears the ball.  Due to his response, I don’t clean up balls very often.  There should be many more balls lying around on the floor.

I don’t really clean anything up very often.

Could Sparky be spending the night cleaning up his balls and putting them back in the snack pit?   He likes licking his belly, so before the orphanage cut them off, he probably liked licking his balls, which is probably a cleaning task.  Sparky could see this as a adjacent activity.

I asked Sparky if he was putting his balls back in the snack pit.  He looked skeptical.

Would Sparky clean up after himself? 

I checked his dog toys.  Sparky has a bunch of toys, but they get rotated, so there are a limited number available to him.  He currently has two Mr. Mooses, and three squeaky mouses.

Sparky had all his toys in roughly the same place.  Again, I didn’t touch anything.  Yesterday, we played with both mooses, and the squeaky mouses, but I don’t know which ones.  This is where Sparky put them.

Inside the house, Sparky can go wherever he wants.  He has four beds. 

One crate in the bedroom for sleeping, one crate in the solarium for safe harbor when he is being chased by an RC car, a cushion by the wood stove to bask in warmth, and a cushion in the living room to judge me while I’m on the computer too long. 

Sparky has chosen two other bases of operation.  He lies down under my computer table when he is tired of giving me dirty looks from the cushion.  Sparky’s main base is under the dining room table.  It’s carpeted, and has a roof to protect him from hawks.  He seems to think that I won’t go after him under the table.

I am not ready for a supernatural explanation.  Sparky is sending a message.

My interpretation is that Sparky is putting the balls back in the snack pit to induce me to put more snacks in the snack pit.  I haven’t done that in a while because we’ve been playing Search and Rescue more often, so he gets treats that way.  Also, I have gotten better at leaving the house without Sparky trying to come along.  I haven’t had to distract him with the snack pit.

Sparky’s toys aren’t being kept under the table, because he thinks I can’t get them there.  He wants his toys out and available for me to play with.

To those unfamiliar or skeptical of dog psychology, this may seem like a reach.  I don’t think so.  Sparky is a wily fella who craves attention.

If Sparky were a woman, he’d want me to return texts in a minute or less.  Sparky is a friend who wants more from me.  That’s not unusual.  Guy friends want me to play Ark Survivor more often, or be more enthusiastic about deer hunting, or go on every camping trip.  Sparky is like that.

If Sparky acted randomly, it would be unwise to observe that he hasn’t had an ‘accident’ in the house in six months.  He doesn’t have accidents, and can poop whenever he wants.  Now, Sparky poops every time we go for a long walk.  Usually twice per day.  He knows there is no advantage to leaving me an unwelcome message. 

Sparky wants me to up my game.  Fair enough.  I’ve got the time and he’s my buddy, so why not indulge him?