Category: Sparky (Page 20 of 26)
Sparky has to solve a puzzle.
As we left Maumee Bay State Park this morning, Sparky was in a mood.
Sparky is too low in the seat to be looking out the window. He doesn’t look out the window very often, but when he does, his front paws are up on the arm rest.
When Sparky heard the click from my phone, he looked my way. There is no joy in that mug. If he was a girlfriend, he’d be ‘fine’ in that bad way.
The body language was enough for me to know he didn’t want to talk about it. I can only speculate.
Sparky really liked Maumee. There were quite a few rabbits, some deer and plenty of brush for him to burrow into. We left at 8 am, so that’s kind of early in the day to be pessimistic about never coming back.
Around 5 am, a big storm blew in. Sparky says he’s not afraid of storms, but does go on high alert. It was enough to wake me up, and since I wasn’t going to go back to sleep, I made some breakfast and started packing up. Maybe he was just grumpy from not getting enough sleep.
Sparky didn’t sleep in the car, so maybe he’s like me. When we’re up, we’re up. I gave him some space, and by the time we got to the turnpike, he was feeling better.
Old dogs can learn new tricks, but are cunning enough to play dumb. Sometimes, they slip up.
For once, Sparky listened to me when I told him that I see a rabbit. I let him off the leash to chase it. He ran into the woods, and barked occasionally to let me know it was going well. Sparky was never in any danger of catching it.
This was an experiment because, in the past, Sparky has gotten out of the house and gone on a walkabout. For the last few months, he’s been good about coming when called, and I’ve been testing him off the leash. When I do yard work, he comes out on his brush anchor. If he wanders too far away, I call him, and he comes back. It doesn’t take him long to figure how far he can go. Sparky likes being outside and is good about chasing the quad when I go to the next tree or wood pile.
Sparky can get oblivious when he’s huffing an interesting scent trail. When he was chasing the rabbit, he came back when called. We aren’t going to repeat this experiment very often, but we’ve got rabbits so Sparky may as well run them down.
I don’t know, maybe it’s because Sparky’s cousin Ozzie just passed away, but I want Sparky to live his best life. When a storm is coming and Sparky isn’t feeling very confident, we reminisce about the time he almost caught a rabbit, and that always raises his spirits.
Sparky is proud of his tracking and stalking skills, even though all he’s caught so far is a baby chipmunk and a raccoon tail. When he started leading me along our woodland path, he was promoted to Master Scout in the KISS Army.
Sparky takes me for a walk.
Sparky took a dump, and for that, I am thankful. He thought that completed his objectives for the day
My nephew’s dog, Ozzie, just passed away after a long and happy life. If Ozzie is like his cousin Sparky, what he wants most is to hang out with his smart human. Ozzie got to do that every day, so he lived his best life.
Oh, I’m not missing anything. Sparky and I talk all the time. For example, the photo above, Sparky is saying, “Are we going for a walk, or what? We aren’t going to prom, just put some pants on and let’s go.”
Recreation of actual event.
Sparky is a courteous dog. He can wander anywhere he wants, but he acts as if the bathroom doesn’t exist. Even if he’s dying to tell me something, if I’m in the bathroom, he goes somewhere else and tries to look busy.
Storms make Sparky active and agitated, but he says he’s not afraid. He just wants to be near me in case I need his help. It started to rain, so I was done moving firewood into the wood shed. When I came in, I took a shower.
Sparky came by to hang out. He tried to be casual about it. “So, you think I can drive the quad tomorrow? Were there any mice in the wood pile? Why are you standing in house rain when there is outside rain? Are you sure this is safe? I’ll just wait here.”