Sometimes doggie-messages are pretty easy to understand. Here’s an example of some dog-talk that was not hard to interpret.
Callie, as you know, is a soccer dog. She just loves to play soccer with me. And the thing I love most about it is that it’s Callie’s “invention.” When she was still a puppy, she would invite me to play soccer by standing behind the ball, as if to say, “OK, Fred, show me what you’ve got!”
Here’s an update on Callie’s soccer skills, photographed recently by Barbara:
[youtube]httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2g1WBcnpx4[/youtube]
That’s all by way of background so you can understand what happened yesterday, when Callie went for a walk with Lauren and Amelia, our two grandchildren.
As we walked along, we could hear a brother and his sister practicing soccer in their driveway. They were kicking the ball to each other, and, occasionally, kicking it into a “goal” on their garage door.
When we got to the driveway so we could see the two soccer players, Callie froze in place. She sat down and watched the two kids with so much intensity that she started to quiver. At that moment, there was nothing in the world she wanted more than to join in the soccer practice. It showed in every bone in her body.
My heart really ached for her, because I knew exactly what she was thinking and how much it meant to her. For a minute, I truly wished I could just take off her leash and let her run & join the soccer game. She would have chased the ball down and trapped it under her tummy. Or, she might have done a few “nosers,” doggie versions of the “header.”
But then, of course, reality set in. Dog off the leash. Scared kids, who don’t know that Callie is a good soccer player. And so forth.
It just made me vow to make sure Callie gets to play soccer more often and to honor her very polite requests for a soccer game in our back yard.
