TheBanyanTree: Wonder dog?

[Laura]

When my two beloved Papillons had to be euthanized, we decided to get
slightly larger dogs.  We'd had Shelties before, and loved them.  They are
the perfect size, small enough to keep in a house or even an apartment, but
big enough to take to the park and run or throw the ball with.  So we got
Shelties.  Kona the mahogany sable Sheltie came first, in July 2008, just
six weeks after Ziggy died.  Maya, the blue-eyed blue merle Sheltie came to
live with us in May of 2009, more than two months after Pucky left us.

Both of these beautiful girls are such a joy to have around!  Maya is still
very much a puppy at only 6 months old, and a hefty 18 or so pounds, but
Kona, at a petite 14 pounds, is a big grown-up girl at 17 months.  She knows
all the house rules, knows all the important obedience stuff, plus a few
cute tricks, and has been 100% trustworthy in the house since she was 3 1/2
months old.  When we leave the house, Maya usually has to be in her kennel
because we don't really trust her self-control at such a young age, but Kona
is left loose in the house with her much older sister, Angel.  (Angel is
somewhere around 9 years old and spends most of her time sleeping or begging
for pats, so doesn't figure into this story.)

Today, my husband has to work.  Normally he doesn't work on Saturday,  but
they've scheduled several for the rest of the year.  He works in a factory,
and it's HARD work.  I always feel sorry for him on Saturday weeks, because
he gets so tired when he misses out on that extra day of rest and recovery
time.  Last night I decided to do something a little special for him to sort
of make up for having to work, so I offered to fix him whatever he wanted
for today's dinner.  After a couple hours of thinking about it, he decided
he wanted a country dinner of pan-fried pork chops, sauteed squash, and
yeast rolls.  This is a special dinner because I don't fry stuff.  It's too
messy.  When I have to spend longer cleaning up after a dinner than it took
to cook it, I usually won't do it anymore.  However, since he requested it
special, I took the time to slice the pork loin, bread it, and fry it up in
a combination of butter and oil.  Along with the yellow summer squash and
yeast rolls (from the store, I'm not SuperWoman!) and the gravy I made from
the drippings, it was a delicious country dinner.  Even the boys "yum"ed
their way through dinner.  It was a big success.  It was also a big mess.

I couldn't face the mess right after eating; I thought I'd wait a little
while before I cleaned up.  I left the pans on the stove, and the dishes on
the table, and flopped on the couch in the living room.  Larry and I got to
visit some.  He works night shift, we eat at 1:00 in the afternoon, and then
we usually have some together time before he has to leave for work.  While
we were watching Kentucky's quarterback get his knee blown out, I heard a
weird noise coming from the kitchen.  I looked around, and was able to see
two dogs and two cats, that left one dog unaccounted for - Kona.  I heard
the weird noise again, and it sounded suspiciously like cutlery hitting a
plate.  I got up, and quickly but quietly, moved over to the kitchen door.
Much to my surprise, there was Kona, all 14" and 14 pounds of her, standing
on the top of the kitchen table - all four feet on the table! - licking the
plates clean for me!

Using the Pack Leader Voice, I said, "KONA!"  Her head snapped around so
fast I'm surprised she didn't break her neck.  She instantly jumped down
from the table all the way to the floor, miraculously without hurting
herself.  I made her get in her kennel and 'down-stay', then I glared at her
until she turned away, reinforcing my pack leader status.  After that I just
ignored her as I cleaned up the dinner mess.

I really wasn't mad.  I'm still not mad.  I'm actually quite impressed.  How
smart is that, for a tiny Sheltie like her to figure out how to get up on
the big tall table?  I know how she did it, I left my chair out slightly,
and she hopped up there first, then onto the table.  The remarkable thing is
that she did it completely silently.  I didn't hear anything until she
bumped the fork on the plate and it clinked.

I guess Shelties like pan-fried pork chops with gravy, too.

-- 
Laura
wolfljsh at gmail.com
http://wolfsinger.wordpress.com