[ Post a Response | Ripley's Retreat ]
Posted by ednaz
on 1/17/2009, 6:54 pm
Just a few shots to bring you up to date on the boyz. They're loving the new place, while the fenced back yard area is smaller than where we were before, it's more interesting - flock of geese in the pasture of the one neighbor nearby, woods with bubbling brook noises and various hawks and animals to bark at indignantly. And best of all, one of the biggest, wide open Big Red Ball yards.
First, Sam. He's a complete BRB artist. How much does he love it? When we were playing today, after about 20 minutes of herding the ball around at high speeds, he was staggering exhausted. But when I reached for the ball and said "OK Sam..." he'd dig in and race off with the ball again. Add 10 more minutes of "no, please, not done yet!" to the 20 minutes. Sam has been laying on his side or back all evening, exhausted. He loves playing big red ball on ice - the ball slides faster than it goes when it's rolling, makes a sizzling sound. His footing gets all crazy on the ice, and he almost always ends up leaving bloody footprints in the snow and ice (doesn't bother him - just bothers me) but he gets crazier in snow and ice than any other conditions.
Here's Sam doing the one thing in his life that makes him complete. 
We are still stunned by the precision of his technique, the focus in his eyes. Today I put two pieces of wood in the yard (on the white icy surface) a few feet apart. Didn't say anything. Sam threaded the ball through that gap a half dozen times in the first few minutes of play. Control freak, and proud of it!
Look at the face. Frozen saliva on his chest fur, on his neck, and look, there's even frozen saliva on his tongue. But the exhaustion of herding a 30 pound ball around the yard at full speed is for Sam a complete feeling of fulfillment. (For me, it's a complete feeling that I'm going to have to have my elbows and shoulders replaced from damage throwing a 30 pound ball...)
Then there's Foster. He now loves the big red ball, but for Foster it is more like the Youtube vidoes I've seen - for Foster it's a Barky Ball. He gets so excited when he's moving it across the yard! But then he realizes he's several hundred yards off into a tree. Foster is thrilled to move the ball at great speed, but he still hasn't a clue as to how to make it go where he wants it to go, or where he's asked to take it.
Who cares!?! Foster's having a blast! For several years he's watched Sam herd the ball around, and it's only in the last six months or so that Foster has lost his fear of the ball and began pushing it around. If everything with the big red ball plays out like the rest of the things in Fozzie's life, in two or three more years, he'll have ball control.
Meantime, he's having a blast.
And given where we started with Foster - I'm just completely thrilled to see him herd his ball in circles barking and butt-wiggling up a storm, making huge happy faces. Foster loves being Foster, and that's an incredible reward for us.
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