Smitten and Simone on Saturday

Sunny Saturday afternoon, too late to go downtown but too early for dinner so we go into the backyard because every moment of these precious few fine weather days can't be allowed to go to waste.

Smitten has been with us for a year and a half now and she has grown into one big hairy furball of a dog and typical of big hairy dogs, she looks like she weighs a hundred pounds but only weighs seventy and all my darker clothes are decorated with sporadic grey and white trim and there are about a dozen or so free roaming hair puff ball tenants rolling around the house at all times. When one hair ball is captured, another spontaneously bursts into existence in another part of the house and laughs at me with an evil cackle.

The rolling hair balls aren't as bad as the regurgitated hair balls from Simone who, whenever she wrestles with Smitten - which is often and protracted and entertaining and many bets are placed - manages to pull out mouthfuls of Smitten's hair and Simone ends up swallowing the hair only to bring it back up later on the doggie bed or the rug or the couch. Good thing all our furniture is covered in layers of dog proofing sheets. It's a lovely design aesthetic and I don't know why more interior designers don't adopt it.

Simone, who is now more often called Monie because sometimes distinguishing between Simone and Smitten is just too phonetically challenging for my brain, has established her place in the household as Smitten's equal in all areas except bravery where Monie still sometimes jumps at her own shadow's shadow. Who can ever be sure of these things but I suspect this behaviour of hers is not from previous mistreatment but is just the way she's built.

Simone is also built for dancing and she's become quite good at tap dancing especially when she's waiting for treats or meals. Her little feet get so excited they turn into a blur of hop skippity hop. Also, on walks, when she is on leash and sees another dog, she starts doing whirling dervishes. This is not a good thing but it's funny to watch her spazzing out. I know it's not nice to laugh at my dog's anxieties but sometimes the entertainment value exceeds the desire to modify behaviour.



Simone's also really good at looking directly into the camera for her beauty shots.