I’m watching an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie called The 6th Day (2000). In the not too distant future, a company can illegally clone people. With a live person or fresh body, they can turn out a duplicate in a day or two. The clone is the same age, looks the same and has the memories of the original. The clone wakes up a little discombobulated, but doesn’t know he’s a clone.
A half-hour ago, Sparky and I were sitting on the couch having our morning chat. When I left him, he was warming his bones in front of the fire. I just went to get him for breakfast, and this is the situation. I was forty feet away, and hadn’t heard anything.
Sparky is a romantic. Last summer, we went up in the tree fort. Sparky got all giggly when he found this heart carved in the tree.
I shouldn’t have been surprised to run into Sparky’s drama on Valentine’s Day.
When Sparky decided to hike up the icy hill, my new crampons allowed me to follow. To show the treacherous conditions, I videoed Sparky. As expected, he had trouble with the ice, but what happened on the hill surprised both of us.
Sparky was getting too comfortable, so I threw him a balloon party. While Sparky watched from his crate, I salted the snack pit with the tasty treats. The video is at triple speed.
Sparky and I had an interesting conversation when he was in the snack pit. He has some strange ideas.
For a guy who never had his own dog, it was very good luck that Sparky was the dog I ended up with. It is amazing how similar we are:
The ball pit is a partial success. Sparky likes scrounging for treats, but when he gets in or out, he climbs over the side. The side is foam, so the wall collapses with his weight. If a ball is knocked out, he chases the ball and chews it up.
I’ve been trying to talk him into using the footstool to get in and out, but he keeps forgetting.
There are about two inches of air between that lacy ice and the water. I have to trust that Sparky’s husky senses would be tingling if the ice were too thin. He’d resent not being allowed to try his luck.
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