Callie is now over 16 months old, and she’ calming down noticeably – in nice ways.

She’s always used her “Stinky” (small stuffed doggie), which is down, now (because of Callie’s chewing), to two front legs, and a head – no ears, no tail and no hind legs. But the remainder of “Stinky” seems to be pretty solid, after some serious repair work by the local dry cleaning people. Since the last repair job, Callie has been extremely gentle with “Stinky.” She seems to understand that “Stinky” can’t take any more hard chewing.

“Stinky” is still Callie’s preferred security object. Almost every evening, she tracks “Stinky” down and uses it to unwind from her busy doggie day. Here’s a recent photo of Callie with “Stinky.” Notice how totally relaxed Callie is.

But, in general, Callie is spending more time relaxing and less time bouncing off walls, chewing on rugs, or getting into trash. Check this out. Does this look like an up-tight dog?

I’ve noticed, down through the years, that dogs are about as good as people at using soft fluffy things, including pillows, like pillows. Callie seems to be especially good at it. Sometimes she uses her puppy pad as a pillow for her head, instead of as a bed. Other times, she uses a toy like a pillow. And sometimes at night I wake up to discover that I’m sharing my fluffy, down-stuffed pillow with Callie.

Here’s another photo.

I think Callie is more pillow-conscious than Jamie was. After all, Jamie invented “tired puppy paws,” which was her way of using her own paw like a pillow – much like you would if you lay down on the floor and used your arm like a pillow. Except Jamie turned her paw backwards to make a comfy little joint for her nose to rest. Here, from “My Doggie Says… Messages from Jamie” is Jamie doing “tired puppy paws.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Books, Callie, Dog Communication, Dog Talk, Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.