I Entertain a Border Collie

Yet another Border Collie Post?  Yes, because people seem to like to read about them.  The last two days were brought up because a friend here lost his Chihuahua Gordita.  Something about this big gruff man's feelings about his little bitty dog that I had never met brought forth a bunch of memories.

Bunch, yes, it is a technical term.  Like Gobs, or oodles. 

But you see, I am being watched.  Every hour while I am home I have two brown eyes peering at me when they're not closed in sleep.   They are closed in sleep frequently, and sometimes I can even get up out of the chair if I am quiet enough when she's snoring, and leave the room.   If that happens, a Perimeter search results and every room is checked to see who is where, if anyone escaped, and whether they're out back or in the front yard.  The windows in the house are just high enough that she can see out if she stretches to look, so there are few places on the property anyone can be without being noticed.

Today having awoken at 430 AM for some insane reason and not being able to get to sleep, I finally got up and went about my business.   By the time we had left for the dog walk, I had roasted a batch of coffee, cleaned the sink, started a laundry and got dressed for the morning chill.  Yes, in Florida 65F is chilly.  Deal.

Coming home I went into the kitchen, ground the first batch and roasted more, made a small breakfast, and nibbled a few cookies that were out in the kitchen.  The entire time I had brown eyes staring at me.  Every time I left the room, I was followed by a mostly black dog.  I'd stop for more than a few seconds and she'd curl up and stare at me from the ground.  If I move out of sight for more than a few seconds, she stretches out and moves to follow, repeating the process.   With a moan.   Mooooo.

Working from home provides her with a lot of entertainment.   I move around in a regular fashion and at set times.   She knows the schedule very well.   The blog is written on a laptop and if I sit down and immediately grab the machine she will curl up and stare until she goes to sleep.   If I don't grab the laptop she comes over for some petting and comforting.  The key is leaving the laptop on the coffee table until she's gotten her petting and finds it weird.

If you didn't know that a dog could find petting weird, you don't know my dog.   She has a certain amount of attention she likes to get.  Once she's reached that point she would rather go back on security watch and curl up.  More like a Cat at times, she is highly independent.  It is as if she's saying, Fine I Get It Ok Now Let Me Do My Job!

When she's at that particular wall, I start to get a low grumble that turns into full bore growling and sneering.  Usually I merely touch her nose and tell her "Put that nose down you grumpy mutt".   No change with that, I grab the laptop and be on with my normal routine until the next time I get up and have to repeat.

They do like their routines.

So wonderfully predictable, we just did the same dance.  Since today is Saturday when I wrote this, I'm doing laundry.  The washer was done, on the wrong cycle, and that got me into the laundry and the kitchen.   She eventually followed me out of the laundry into the kitchen to finish off the last coffee roasting.  The usual comment is "Why is everybody in the kitchen?".  The Parrot was squawking at the coffee roaster slash popcorn popper, Kevin followed me in there for breakfast and the dog plopped herself at Her Spot in front of the refrigerator staring at me.

Routines can be a wonderful thing for people as well.  Now that she's back on her mat with a "Mooooo" and I'm finishing this posting...

Lather, Rinse, Repeat?